My cabbages

 My 8 Chinese cabbages and 4 cabbages including a purple cabbage have grown with less damage by bugs thanks to insect screen, companion plants, and yellow buckets than in last year and they'll be harvested around Christmas.

 I found less damage in my Chinese cabbages ,which used to be an easy target for young worms and aphids. I believe the romaine lettuces, which were planted as companion plants, are effective to ward off young worm. The yellow buckets are also effective, too I believe. Aphids hibernate inside of Chinese cabbages which is comfortable for them to keep warm and they suck cabbage extract  there. That can cause poor growth. The yellow buckets can allure many aphids into the buckets and the insect screen physically shut them out.
 It's fortunate that there are less damage by bugs but I'm not satisfied with the growth of my cabbages. They have beautifully shaped hearts but the size are smaller than I expect. I don't think they can grow any more so I'll harvest them in a few days.


-- iPhoneから送信

Autumn seeding

 As the temperature in Osaka goes down, many gardeners around me start sowing and planting autumn and winter vegetables. I was thinking when I should start autumn seeding this year while I was too busy even to write my blog. But I realized it is in the mid of October and I had to be hurry in seeding the vegetables. Today I and my daughter went to my gardening plot and sowed seeds of daikon radishes and planted 4 Chinese cabbages and 1 cabbage.

 My daughter, who is my reliable helper, seems to be well-experienced enough to create a seeding grid in order to sow the seeds in right places without my help.

My daughter's artwork

I usually sow 3 daikon seeds in a hole and will thin out to leave only the most prospective one.

I'm looking forward to harvesting them in this December. 

Along with the daikon radishes, I planted 4 Chinese cabbages and 1 cabbage on my last planting ridge. My garden is now full of kinds of autumn-winter vegetables such as Chinese cabbages, cabbages, daikon radishes, pak-chois and gingers.

Launching the Cabbage Project in 2012

The temperature in Osaka is slowly but steadily going down after September began while it is still hot recording up to 32degrees C (90degrees F). In a morning and evening, the temperature become so cool that even young sprouts can bear with the hot daytime. It's the best time to launch my Cabbage Project of this autumn and winter season.

Today I went to a local sprout shop, bought sprouts of 5 cabbages, 5 Chinese cabbages(Hakusai-cabbages), and turnip seeds and planted all of them in my gardening plots.

My daughter rushed into a vinyl green house where sprouts are growing to pick up healthy ones as soon as we arrived the shop. My rule for picking up healthy sprouts is "No hole and No discoloration on leaves". Holes on the leaves means some small bugs might live in a planting pod and the discoloration shows the sprouts might be not healthy. My daughter knows the rules and the first-come-first-sold basis in the shop. So as the photo shows, she was checking healthy ones following the rules.

Of course, I had to verify her picks and there was no hole and no discoloration on the leaves. Great job, my daughter!

I planted all of the sprouts on my planting ridges, covered the ridges with rice husks, and set up insect screens.

I suffered from many aphids on cabbages last year so I tried a new measure for warding off aphids. A yellow plastic bucket is useful for capturing aphids which have a habit of preferring yellow color according to some gardening magazines.
They say that aphids can be allured by the yellow color, dive into the water of the bucket and drawn.

In a few minutes after installing the bucket, 3 aphids were found dead in the water! I can rely on the measure for repelling aphids!

Harvesting and cooking spinach, pak-chois and a cabbage

 It's a fine day with a clear sky and warm temperature in Osaka. How would I spend today doing nothing outside! Yes, I should go out, do gardening chores, seeding and harvesting in my garden and I did them today.

 As you can see the photos, my pak-chois and spinach have grown bigger enough to be harvested thanks to recent warm weather and proper amount of rain shower. But other keys to the successful growth are sowing less seeds in more spacious gardening ridge and proper thinning-out. I would like to refer to my old post about the keys.

Pak-chois

 I found many holes on my pak-chois! It's so shocking since I set up insect screens over the gardening ridge for my spinach and pak-chois!



 Judging from the shape of the damage on the leaves, I believed that some kinds of bugs had fed the leaves.



 After about 30min investigation, I found some slugs inside my pak-choi. My insect screen seems to be useless to protect my vegetables against bugs which can crawl through tiny space between the screen and soil.



 Fortunately, my spinach is intact and healthy with no holes by bugs although they've grown in the same gardening ridge with the bug-tainted pak-chois. Slugs might prefer pak-chois to spinach?

My spinach

 My cabbages are smaller than I expected but totally healthy with a good-shape heart. I wondered if I should glow them for another week but the outer leave have become hard, which shows it's the time to harvest so I decided to harvest them today.   

My cabbage

 Today's harvest:

1. 30 spinach
2. 25 pak-chois
3. 1 cabbage

Today's harvest

 I believe all vegetable gardeners, including me, feel it happy to cook their harvest just after we've harvest them and to eat them. My wife cooked stir-fried pak-choi with scrambled egg and grilled sausages. It's a simple recipe but the simpleness can make the best use of the pak-choi's flavor.






--from iPad

Seeking flowers in my garden

 Many people in Japan are enjoying viewing cherry-blossom in April but other beautiful flowers can be seen in my garden.

Flowers of brassica

Flowers of

Flowers of wild chrysanthemums, dandelion

and brassica in water, collected by my daughter.

 No matter how beautiful and attractive those flowers are, we never forget harvesting our vegetables. My spinach shown below are much bigger than last ones since I seeded them with keeping 10cm space between each other and thinned them out properly, I believe.

Today's harvest: spinach and a spring cabbage

--from iPad

Spring has come after a storm.

 We in Japan call a spring storm "春一番/ Haru-Ichiban", which shows spring is brought to Japan by a seasonal storm generated by warm sea water in the Eastern China sea. But the storm of yesterday was so strong that many people were injured and serious damages to all traffic schedules have been reported. One of those damages I could see today in our gardening plots are here. Other gardener's insect screens were blown by strong wind.

 Fortunately, no damage was found in my plot and what I and my daughter found there is my potato's germination! I've been waiting for their germination for 2 months after planting them! The colder temperature could delay their growth, I believe.

 After I found their germination, my gardening ridges for the potatoes should be expanded for securing more space for the growing potatoes. I bought some packs of gardening soil and added to the ridges.

Before adding soil.

After

 The storm has brought not only damage to us but spring with warm temperature and vegetables know it. They are growing faster as the temperature is getting warm.

spinach

cabbages

pak-chois

 My daughter is also waiting for a warm spring and she gets so enthusiastic for going to my garden  and watching the growth of vegetables in a warm day. She is also excited with the potato's germination.

Harvesting at the end of 2011

Today is the last day of 2011. It's a good day to reflect what happened in this year and to plan what I should do in coming next year, 2012.

The big earthquakes, disaster caused by nuclear power plants, my father's death,,,,,well, many sad things happened this year but gardening can heal and reanimate my spirit and seeing growth of vegetables give me a hope for next year. Today I harvested three daikon radishes and two cabbages with hoping for having a happy new year.









--from iPad

Cabbage Festival

 Today I and my daughter harvested all of my ripen cabbages and Chinese cabbages.
My cabbages are so healthy that no holes by bugs have been found on their leaves while my Chinese cabbages were affected by young worms and aphids, but edible.

My cabbage with big heart.

My purple cabbage, smaller than green one.

 My daughter were curious about how to use a sickle so it was a good opportunity for her to learn it. She tried to cut a trunk of a cabbage but it was too thick and hard for her to cut it out.


 After about 5-minute struggle, she eventually cut out the heart of the cabbage.

Today's harvets

2 cabbages / 2 Chinese cabbages

1 purple cabbage

 What is the inside of a purple cabbage like? To see it, I cut it into a half after I went back with today's harvests. It was very beautiful! The combination of purple leaves and white flesh was so impressive to me!


 I made " a green and purple salad ". I wish I had red tomatoes which would had made it more colorful.

Harvesting with my kids

 I and my kids went to my garden and enjoyed working and harvesting.

 We were so excited since we knew my cabbages have grown well and it's the best time to harvest them. My kids were going to rush to the cabbages but I always tell them to do their assignments like weeding, finding bugs and watering vegetables before enjoying their most exciting time.

 In Osaka, warm days have continued even in the beginning of November, when temperature usually starts going down. So weeds also have grown as well as my vegetables. I told my son how to use a sickle. My daughter doesn't love to do chores but love to harvest vegetables and fruits and she tried to avoid her assignments spending a while watching fruits in other gardener's plots.







 As you see the photos shown below, my cabbages are almost intact with much less damage by bugs and have beautifully round-shaped hearts. A gardening friends who has his garden beside mine envied me when he saw my cabbages.


My well-grown cabbages have so thick and hard trunks that my son had trouble in cutting one of them but eventually he managed to cut it out.


 "What is today's dinner, dad?" Well, I'll show you it later in my blog.

BUG'S FECES ON MY CABBAGES

 It's my most unpleasant moment when I've found bug's feces in my vegetables.

 One of my cabbages had a beautiful and intact heart inside till last Friday when I had saw no bugs there. But today many poos of young worms of a moss were found on the heart and inside of the cabbage with big holes on its leaves. Those many poos and big holes show big grown bugs might live inside the cabbage or in the soil around it.


I believed and decided to seek and hunt the bugs, searching for them turning over its leaves one by one. And at last, I found it! A middle-sized young worm was found between the heart and a leaf!


Eventually, 3 more bugs were hunted today.

After I "said good-bye" to the poor worm, I rinsed the poos off the cabbage not only because I want to keep my vegetables clean but because I can see other bugs might live if new poos are found.

-- from iPod touch

My cabbages start making "balls".

 My 4 cabbages ,which were planted in the beginning of September, start rolling their leaves and making "balls" inside. It shows they've grown faster than my previous cabbages last year. I think the fast growth is due to adding more fermented manure and compost to soil in my garden.
 Insect screens are also effective that no holes by bugs have not been found and no chemical pesticide has not been used.


 My Chinese cabbages (白菜/Hakusai） are also healthy and have become big. They can be harvested in the mid of December, if no problem. A Chinese cabbage is one of my favorite vegetables and my family members are looking forward to harvesting big ones and enjoying dishes of them like hot-pot (Nabe) dishes.


 I can't forget my kid's contribution to the healthy growth of my cabbages.
They have worked harder and helped me in my garden. They also love hot-pot dishes of Chinese cabbages and sliced pork. Letting them know how delicious vegetables is a good way to inspire them to work in my garden, I believe.


-- from iPod touch