Garden Appreciation Thread

菜園さいえんの中にたくさん植物しょくぶつは一年生だけど、多年生たねんせい野菜やさいがあります。
アスパラガスが多年生です!

一年生 can mean both first year student, and annual plant. An annual is a plant that sprouts from seed, grows to maturity, sets seed, and dies, all within a year.
多年生 means perennial. A perennial plant can live for many years before dying, although some die back in winter and come back from the roots (I think. I’m not sure of the exact definitions and details!)

Most vegetables that are traditionally cultivated in Europe and European colonised nations are annuals, but we do have a few perennial vegetables, including artichokes アーティチョーク and asparagus アスパラガス.

Please enjoy this video of my mulching and planting process for asparagus with “help” from my chickens!

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A warm spell, 20 degrees C all week.
So I am popping lots of early spring seedlings in. The row covers will give them a little break from cold nights and wind until they are established.
High hopes for these little guys!

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hola!
tomcat’s new books and some extra seeds we got this year just arrived.
@rumade hope you don’t mind being tagged, i thought you’d like those!

we try to get seeds from the real seed company most years
they changed to paper packets this year with some instructions on keeping things dry.
love the minimalistic look though!

they deliver in 0 plastic, minimal packaging with just one or 2 sheets of instructions and encourage people to save and spread/share their seeds. they’re super nice when you call them too.

tomcat was so impressed by one of the permaculture design webinar presenters when he attended last WE, he got 4 of her books. i had a browse and they do look nice and really accessible as well. he’s well on his way to get the diploma. am proud of him. i’ve only gone as far as the intro course lol.

they also look extremely good on my duvet cover i have to say

2 little ones

and two chunky ones

we really love permaculture in this house and i’ve really been impressed by how the whole philosophy of life it is continued to develop into the well being area.

although of course the principles for growing things are great but the amount of people creating designs around life, improving small things around their homes and their relationships as well as wider reaching designs that help others is amazing.

this is gonna sound super cheesy but i actually believe permaculture can save us all!

in other news, tomcat has got seedlings all over the house. he’s gone totally potless this year with the cube makers (thanks for introducing them @RoseWagsBlue) he got for xmas.

little sprouts are shooting up from all the mini cubes and the tomatoes moved to the larger cubes today.

so far so good.

i’ll try to take some pics.

weather warnings all night here. our poor greenhouse is gonna lose another few scales i’m pretty sure :frowning:

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I have heard of that seed company. I seem to remember some videos by them.

The book sound very nice.

I am glad that the soil blocks connected with you. I must go into assembly line mode on blocks soon. In my bedroom window, I have 15 cups with dozens of little seedlings coming up in each. They need to be pricked out and into individual blocks very very soon. I have a few made, but I will need lots more! Overwhelm!

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Looking fantastic! So many seedlings ready to go!

Everything I over wintered ended up bolting :sweat_smile: So that was a lesson.

My mum gets Gardening Which? magazine, a really good resource because they run large scale trials on everything from techniques to tools to plug plant suppliers. In this month’s issue they were looking at seed companies and Real Seeds came out on top! Followed by King’s Seeds, and Chiltern.
The only thing I’m not big on with Real Seeds and Chiltern is that there’s no photos of the produce/seedling; so King’s Seeds are probably better for beginners and people who like to be able to see things at a glance.

A lot of the more established brands like Fothergills and Thompson&Morgan were rated low, which I find really validating. Their seeds seed so overpriced to me considering they’re not from organic stock and are often very common varieties that you could get even from somewhere like Wilko. I’m not paying £2.70 for a bog standard carrot variety! And whenever I see a seed rack at a garden centre there isn’t any temperature control so you’re paying through the nose for seeds that have been roasting in a building that’s almost a greenhouse…

Anyway that’s my 2 cents about seeds. My favourite way to get seeds is from friends. I like seeing how y’all fold little envelopes. I just buy the “dinner money” envelopes from the pound shop and use them ^___^

One last thing, I think I’ve probably mentioned before. At the hardware store in Japan, by the seed rack they have a magnifying glass on a stretchy line so the obaasans can read the back easily!

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Growing edible flowers!

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Pricking out Seedlings

Just so you all know, I am merely an aspiring farmer who has finally decided to scale up quite a lot. I have been digging in the dirt most of my life, but I know very little.
This is the first time that I have ever used this method of starting seedlings. I started a half a packet of seeds in each of the little cups on March the 1st. It is now the 11th, and the seedlings are just starting to get their first true leaves.
So I cut the cups apart, and carefully separated plants with a chopstick. Each of the soil blocks had a deep hole going to the bottom. I dangled the roots of each seedling into a block, then filled with wet compost.
It seems that they will all survive.
Essentially, this is a way of starting a whole bunch of seedlings in a small area. All of these seedlings needed warmth to germinate, but I was able to use one heater vent to keep them all warm.

And concerning Styrofoam, I am against it. But we have a case of one thousand Styrofoam cups in our basement, and it seems smart to get some use out of them.

Incidentally, @rumade, the only seed that hasn’t germinated yet for me is my シソ! I have half a pack left, but I am going to do some research and ask Kyoto people before I try again. I know you had trouble with yours last year.

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I haven’t sown mine yet this year, guess I should get on it! Have got that packet from you plus one from Chiltern. Might experiment with germination in greenhouse, in house, and out.

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I only have a small balcony but I was planning to start some plants this year as well, and Shiso would definitely be among them! My seeds pack says that they should be kept cold for a week or so for them to be able to germinate, did you do that? (It said to either sow them outside while it is still cold, or to put the seeds in the fridge for a week before sowing.) Mine are currently in the fridge and I will get to them soon!

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They are very slow to grow at first, so an early start is probably best.
My home will soon be overrun with tomatoes and peppers. Also, I had great luck with my asparagus germinating from seed earlier this year. I have maybe 20 plants to put in the ground in a month or so.
The asparagus that I planted from root took several years to produce enough to harvest. I am told that if plated by seed, it can be as soon as one year until harvest, because the whole digging roots up and packaging them stunts the roots quite a lot.
I am really curious how these will do.
Happy gardening! You are still my inspiration and friendly competition. :slight_smile:

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duh.
I should know all about seeds that need cold, and I forgot that entirely with mine.
I really will ask my friend in Japan who’s father is a farmer. It is funny when you read advice for this sort of thing on-line, you mostly find 50 websites who have each copied what each other say, and who yet have probably not even grown the plant themselves or experimented to find what really works.
My シソ thrived last year, and we still use it for season every week. I look forward to having it in my garden again.

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Please let us know what your friend said! I got my information from the seeds pack which I bought at an amazing German plant nursery that specializes in herbs and fragrant plants, and I totally believe in them being knowledgeable, but you never know :woman_shrugging:

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oh, cold stratification! The Lake Valley seeds that Rose sent me don’t say to cold stratify, but they do suggest soaking in warm water first (an article I read this morning also suggested this).
The instructions on my Chiltern packet says to “sow into compost with a 1:9 ratio of sand, press seeds lightly into soil and cover with a little soil. Cover seed tray with newspaper (this is the first time I’ve ever seen this instruction???). Keep in shade. Ideal temp 22c, germination takes 15-30 days”

Speaking of cold stratification, I sowed some echinacea/coneflower seeds back in October to overwinter in the greenhouse and only 1 germinated back then. Looked yesterday and another couple have germinated. The seed packet suggests cold stratification, so I guess that worked.

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大黄 rhubarb
I don’t know why it’s big yellow :thinking:

I watched a show about cooking in Sweden recently and there was a person doing brine pickled rhubarb! I really want to try making it.

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I only have a small balcony with a few pots and stuff, but I usually grow some herbs and flowers there. This year I decided to sow lots of new stuff, and here are the first little ones :tada:

They are 金盞花 - きんせんか - Calendula.

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東部(とうぶ)アメリカハナズオウ

チョコレートアイスクリーム!

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Last week, I went for a walk in the local park and ended up posting about it in the Nature Appreciation thread https://community.wanikani.com/t/自然-nature-appreciation-thread/30485/600?u=ekg. This time, I thought I’d post my photo update here, showing how far along spring has gotten in Gothenburg. ^>^


Just outside of my building, something to brighten up the space! :yellow_heart:

There’s been plenty of sunshine and it shows. Just 5 days later since the previous post and the several of the magnolia trees and cherry trees have gone into full bloom. The smell is amazing. :relaxed:


The pink magnolia hasn’t gotten as far yet


These dwarf cherries have a warm and secluded spot and bloom early.


I’m unsure of what these are called in either English or Japanese. They bloom before the leaves develop. This park has a large variety of them, from yellow, to red, cerise, pink, orange, and apricot. They roughly bloom across a couple of weeks, depending on variety.


This is a fancy multistem variety of Wood anemone (vitsippa)


More tulips in a varm spot.

The ones elsewhere have still not bloomed.

The same with the rest of the cherry trees. Just a couple of flowers.

I’ll give these a couple of more sunny days and they should go into full bloom as well! :cherry_blossom: :cherry_blossom: :cherry_blossom:

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I am surprised that we are only a little bit ahead of you in blooms. :slight_smile: I thought you would still be buried in snow!

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It depends on where you live in Sweden, but basically, yeah, spring is definitely here, though it was really windy outside so not very warm. I hope the weather keeps up. :slight_smile: I’ll come back with more photos of this lovely garden. :camera:

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Don’t underestimate the power of the Gulf Stream! :ocean:

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