Autumn is without doubt, my favorite season of the year…
The temperature is cool, the air… dry and comfortable…
Plus, it is a wonderful time for gardening…
On top of all these, it is also the season of my favorite fruit in Japan…
The persimmons, known as ‘kaki’ in Japanese…
When we acquired this property, I foolishly chopped off a large chunk of the persimmon tree that was growing on the slopes…
Reason was, it was the ‘astringent’ type, as opposed to the ‘sweet’ type…
Since then, I had learned that there are a few ways to treat the astringent fruit, so as to sweeten them for eating…
I regretted the chopping act, and the tree punished me by making me wait for about 8 years before it decided to fruit again…
This season, we were rewarded with more than 30 fruits…
I hugged the tree and said ‘please forgive me for my sin’…
There is this thing with red, red peppers that attract me…
Somehow, I just enjoy photographing them very much…
The peppers have adapted well to our potager, and they self-seed the following season…
Which is a wonderful thing…
I am really not so sure what gourd this is…
I got the seeds from a seed company in Chiang Mai…
The name and instructions were all in Thai language…
Asked a few Thai friends, but they didn’t know either…
Anyway, the flesh tasted like winter pumpkin…
The Japanese folks call this ‘higanbana’…
In English, ‘cluster amaryllis’? Hmmm…
In any case, isn’t this flower adorable?
To me, it is one of the representative flowers of the autumn season…
A neighbor had given to me the ‘rhizome’ (?) of this plant ages ago…
It must have been about 10 years ago, I think…
Finally, the plants decided to bestow us with this lovely specimen… woohoo…
Potager Y @ Japan 
I just bought a persimmon tree Lrong and am looking forward to having my own persimmons in about 10 years time 😉 The flower at the bottom of this post is called a bird of paradise flower. We have one in our garden as well and they are lovely things indeed. I, too, love red peppers to photograph and to eat. Another lovely autumn post. We are in the throes of spring here in Tasmania Australia and everything is being planted out and potted up ready for our growing season. Have a lovely winter and enjoy those beautiful persimmons. I love that you hugged your tree and asked forgiveness. I thought I was the only one that did things like that. Blessings to you and your lovely wife 🙂
Dear narf7
Greetings from Japan! Thank you very much for your kind comments! Good luck with your persimmon tree. I am sure you will be very happy when it fruits. Maybe you need to watch out for the wildlife there, as I believe they will enjoy tasting the fruits as well…
Good to hear that you are all ready for the spring planting… and, now I know at least I am not the only crazy person who go around hugging the trees… 🙂
🙂
Lrong you are not crazy, I hug my trees too! I talk to the plants too!!!!
You had me grinning here… I should try to talk to my plants too!
I read some place that people play music to plants and the seem to benefit:-)
I have heard about dairy farmers playing classic music to their cows… perhaps I should start thinking about playing the flute for my plants someday… 🙂
Fran you are such a dear person! You, me and Lrong hug trees:-)
❤ I have been following Lrong ever since you mentioned him to me back when we first started talking. His blog is lovely, informative and he and his lovely wife are beautiful human beings. Thank you for introducing me to Lrong Robbie. You are a dear person too ❤ 🙂
awww. He is so sweet and I love his macro photography. He gets up close to details! He sent me some Egyptian Spinach seeds, I hope to save some next year. YOu may know it as Molokheiya, I love the way he talks about his wife, he calls her his sweet-oh:-) I bet his place would be beautiful to visit and I have no doubt they would be the kindest people….like you too!!!!
A thousand thanks, Robbie! As for the photos, I just enjoy shooting up close… with regards to my ‘sweeto-haato’, she is indeed quite a ‘super-woman’, and I am just so lucky to be her husband…
I know what you mean, I married my best friend and we celebrated 37 yrs in august:-)
37 years? Salute! We just celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary last April…
If I ever win the lottery we can all meet up in Japan and get to say hi and we can all hug one of those lovely trees together 🙂
Hi Fran… you are too kind with your words… 🙂 Anyway, I am so happy to hear about your following my humble little blog… thanks to Robbie for that…
Your blog is wonderful and I learn something every time from coming here Lrong. Robbie and I both appreciate a fellow tree hugging gardener although we are scattered all over the world (I am in Tasmania Australia) hugs to all of your trees from us both 🙂
Dear Fran, thank you for your very encouraging comments… that is really so sweet of you… 🙂
🙂
Hi Robbie… am so happy to hear from a fellow-tree-hugger!
You captured beautiful photos, Lrong Lim! I just saw some persimmons from my friend’s album yesterday. She just came back from Busan, Korea and the persimmons there look as gorgeous as yours. Wish I can have some. Enjoy!
Hi Stephanie… thank you for your kind comments… yeap, I am enjoying the persimmons tremendously…
Delightful fruit and flowers! I recently tasted a persimmon for the first time, it was lovely. 🙂
Thank you! Glad to know that you liked the taste of the persimmon…
It’s called “pisang kaki” here if not mistaken!
The tree has forgive you Lrong!
Nice harvest! 😉
Am happy to hear your thoughts on the Pisang kaki’ tree forgiving me… 🙂
Good Afternoon Lrong from Midwest USA-
As always your photos are stunning! I feel you, Fran and I should start the worldwide hug your tree day:-) LOL. No, we are not crazy.
I am green with envy:-) You have persimmons and I wanted to squeeze one in my small city lot. I could not find a place to put one-UGH-I was soooo sad. I tasted one at the grocery store a year ago and loved the flavor. It is unique and I really wanted to have fresh ones in my garden because I know “fresh” they would taste even better. Well, maybe someday I will know someone locally that has one to taste. I keep telling my husband that as soon as we can, I want to buy a lot and fill it with all kinds of fruit trees + bushes. Fruit is such a gift from nature…..
I got some of my own peppers this year from seed I have been keeping every year. I am so excited to grow it out next year. Red peppers are my favorite treat.
I had to chuckle that your tree waited yrs to give you fruit. I have pulled things out and t hought the same thing! Happy GArdneing-robbie
Actually, there are several persimmon trees in our property… but so far, only one tree is fruiting… the others should be starting to fruit in two to three years time… the trees actually take up quite a bit of space, but if you can squeeze one plant into your garden, it would be joy for you, I think… the fresh fruits are really lovely… and the crows don’t bother them too much either like they do on other produce… and yes, seriously, I believe the tree made a decision to punish me for my rash behavior… 🙂
Lrong,
I responded to Fran’s comment about you not knowing it was on your site:-)…oh well, now you know that we think how much we admire your blog and family:-)I enjoy when you tell us stories about your wife when she cooks you good food:-)
Aw Robbie… I am blushing… rather profusely… 🙂
what we think I meant, My cat was sitting on my computer and I was unable to see my keys!
Two South African flowers there.
The red lily is Nerine sarniensis.
The last flower is Strelitzia regina.