Garden update

Everything is looking quite green out there now including the weeds, although H has been working hard on that. The lawn, which we laid in May last year, has greened up nicely after the brown winter months and the lines between the squares of turf are becoming less and less noticeable.

In this photo you can see some planters along the edge of the patio. They contain morning glory seedlings which are under orders to grow up and across that net to provide some shade. There is a second row below the patio, planted directly into the ground, so hopefully enough of them will thrive to create a comfortable environment to sit outside in.


Looking back from the other side you can see that The Tree has grown a lot this spring. (I just looked it up and discovered that it's a Sawtooth Oak in English (kunugi in Japanese) and that it's described as one of the fastest-growing trees that you can find!). It's a bit hard to tell in this picture but the rice fields behind our garden have been planted now too.

From the bottom corner of the garden you can see lots of nice green camellia leaves, and a couple of roses flowering. They were rescued from Tim's garden when his house was due to be demolished, and seem to have taken to their new home quite well.

The Japanese garden at the front of the house is quite green and shady now. All I need now is the time to sit in the engawa, look out of those big windows on the right of the photo and enjoy it!

Just out of shot on the right there is some bamboo, next to the front door. New shoots which were just pushing through a few weeks ago are now up to the roof! I really like it but there is the concern that it'll pop up where we don't want it, like in the middle of the path or even through the house foundations!

As well as weeding and planting morning glories, H has been busy with the little vegetable patch too. He pulled up the old broccoli plants, but left the canola/rape/na-no-hana. It's all gone to seed now and it's making a nice little snack for all the little birds around here. We've got 2 cherry tomato plants, a couple more broccoli plants and a cucumber which appeared to have died but now seems to have popped up again a bit further along the row. H also planted some corn which has just come up so hopefully we'll have our own supply this year!