In the garden

All this rain and hot weather has got things growing like crazy in the garden. I feel as if someone sold their cow for some magic beans and planted them outside my window.

I took these photos a few days ago and already they are out of date. In the picture below, the gourd in the centre of the photo, with the biggest leaves, is now well past the horizontal green stick at the top of the shot. The morning glories are growing well too so we may just get some shade after all...



H's vegetable patch is growing well too. There is corn planted here and there all around the garden but some plants are doing much better than others. Yesterday we had our first three mini tomatoes, but the broccoli is not looking so good; it seems to have gone directly from 'not ready to harvest' to 'starting to flower', without forming a proper head at all. We also have a mystery 'possibly a cucumber' plant which is threatening to take over the whole plot...

Of course the problem with things growing like weeds is that the weeds are also growing like weeds. H is the main weeder here and it's keeping him very busy. At least the daily downpours mean that he doesn't have to water the garden! The roses are still flowering and now the oleander is coming into bloom too.

Typical symbols for the rainy season in Japan are frogs and hydrangeas. You can see pictures of them on various posters and leaflets at this time of year. So here's an obligatory 'hydrangea in the rain' photo, complete with rain-speckled spider's web and green rice field in the background.