That worked out perfectly 
That’s a very good point. 
From what she told me, they need to lay eggs in the soil, so the d earth may get them when doing that, or as they crawl out of the soil when hatched.
I’m definitely going to mention that! ありがとう！
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You can dust the diatomaceous earth onto the leaves, where the buggies are.
Just don’t get any into your delicate mechanical parts. 
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Indoor is always tough, I battle every winter with scales and white flies and spider mites.
If you don’t plan on eating from those plants you can try with a systemic agent that is fed with the water and then spreads inside the plant so it basically gets poisonous for the bugs. To be honest, I’ve never had much luck with that either, but it sounds good in theory.
Mechanically removing the bugs helps somewhat, but you have to keep up else they come back very quickly.
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She recently mentioned she put a plant in quarantine because she may have spotted a spider mite. They sound like a real hassle.
She really enjoys eating the kumquats, so this might not be a good solution for this particular plant (tree, I guess? It’s just so wee, how can I call it that?) But I will pass it on to her for potential future use. Most of what she keeps is decorative, so being poisonous wouldn’t be a problem there.
It really seems to be! The owner of the building is going to be fixing some things, so a balcony may become available.Though she’d probably have to buy new stuff, since not all plants she has would be happy in a shady outside spot.
Thanks for you sharing your two cents, banira!
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@omun, there is probably an answer to your insect woes within this video. And it is in the Netherlands, which I believe may be your stomping ground. And the video is entertaining and worth watching, and you will learn some things about bugs from people who know a whole bunch about things I have never ever even dreamed of, like beneficial insect predators indoors. Maybe it gets you pointed in a direction that you didn’t even know exists.
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Sorry if I’m missing something, but: which video? 
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clearly, the one that I posted right here:
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ガーデンハックルべりージャム
Garden Huckleberry Jam
(much apologies for mixing メトリック and US units)
The plant discovery of the year for me is Solanum melanocerasum.
This is known as the Garden Huckleberry. There are lots of plants known as Huckleberries, but this one is an annual in the nightshade, tomato, eggplant family.
- Best Attribute Plant it from seeds in the spring, and you can get tons of jam and pie filling without waiting years for berry bushes to mature.
- The instructions all say to start the seedlings in winter, when starting tomatoes. But I have been harvesting ripe berries since mid-July. So I think I could have just started them later, and get a later harvest. I am in PA, USA. Unless you are way further North, I don’t think you need to start them very very early.
- The plants get a couple of meters tall, and get droopy, so make sure that you give them space. I planted a one meter by two meter patch with 12 plants right as you enter my garden. It was a bad spot, and we have been fighting to get around them.
- I would estimate that each plant will yield two liters of jam. I put jam up in 1/2 pint jars, which is maybe 1/4 liter? So 96 jars from my little patch? That is probably underestimating. These things are way productive.
- Negative: Once the berries get ripe, they smell bad. Not so bad that your neighbors will smell them, but enough that you will say “Yuk, What’s that smell?” when you stand near them.
- In their uncooked state, the berries are tasteless, and a little bitter. The unripe berries are poisonous, it would appear. The plant is too, uncooked, but the leaves are eaten cooked in many places.
- Another good attribute: the berries stay ripe on the vine for weeks without going bad. When picked, they will stay nice in the fridge for weeks too.
My ガーデンハックルべりージャム recipe (presumes that you have canning experience 
):
Tools:
A very large cooking pot
A very large colander
12 1/2 pint jars and lids
Water bath canner
jar lifter
funnel
Ingredients:
12+ cups of berries.
8 cups of sugar or one four pound bag
baking soda
1 cup lemon juice
*Recipes online are divided half and half about the step with the baking soda. I tried a full batch both ways, and I think that it improves the taste.
- Before you start, throw canning jars into dishwasher to sanitize. Formerly, I used the sink, with hot water and blue sanitization tablets. But the dishwasher uses less water and keeps them nice and clean while you are working in the kitchen. The dishwasher was a good investment for us for just this one thing. I used to boil the lids. But the instructions on the lids says to just wash them with hot soapy water, which is now what I do. I leave them off to the side in a bowl of hot water until I need them.
- Cover the berries with water in the large pot and get them boiling.
- Dump in about 1/4 cup baking soda. A tablespoon is too little, a half cup will not work any better.
- The berries will froth up and turn green and smell bad.
- Cook them for a few minutes.
- Arrange colander carefully in sink, and pour hot berries in.
- Rinse a few times with cold water.
- Return berries to pot. Add one cup of lemon juice and 8 cups of sugar. Berries will turn purple again, and will smell good.
- Get berries up to a good boil. So far, I have not found them to burn particularly easily.
- Since we are not using any pectin, it is probably better to boil off a bit of water. I used pectin on one batch, and it turned out fine. But the non-pectin batches worked too.
- Put on you water bath, and lay out your workflow for filling jars.
- Fill jars to 1/4 inch headspace.
- Process for 10 minutes.
- Let sit in bath for another 5 to 10 minutes, then remove from bath and allow to sit overnight.
Unripe berries, June 30:
more photos to follow …
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It somehow feels like these two bits of information were mentioned here in the same order that you learned about them.
Can’t make up their minds, these berries.
That’s a very interesting write-up. Thank you for sharing, Wose.
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If you want something unusual for making jam, try Cornus mas (wikipedia says it’s known as Cornelian cherry, European cornel, Cornelian cherry dogwood; no idea). It’s a very nice shrub that gets loads of those red berries. You have to wait for them to be totally ripe (I put a cloth under the plant and wait for them to fall off, lazy gardening ).
The berries are very tart, and you can’t really eat them raw. You need to cook them with sugar (aka. make a jam), which also is the only way to get rid of the pips (otherwise the flesh just sticks very stubbornly to the pip).
The jam is on the sour side, and I think it’s totally delicious, especially on pancakes!
I have one female bush (cornus mas var. Jolico) (produces berries) and one male (no berries but needed around, typical male) which we use as border greenery, and we get about six jars of jam from them, which is more than enough for us. I’ll try and get cuttings, for more jammy deliciousness along our border 
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Now how do I get that tea out of my nose again…
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I went traveling for a bit and took some pics of my relatives’ gardens. There was an abundance of berries and fruit! 
Olvon or guelder rose or カンボク. This tiny “tree” is quite beautiful with its deep red berries. Has cute flowers as well earlier in the year.
Ljung or Calluna vulgaris/common heather/ling or カルーナ
This is a very common forest shrub here in Sweden that blossom at the end of summer. It’s beautiful in large numbers.
Rose hips maturing. Once they’re orange-red they’re ready to be picked.
Red currant 赤酸塊 - あかすぐり
Black currant ブラックカラント or cassis カシス
Red gooseberries/European gooseberry 西洋すぐり - せいようすぐり
Green gooseberries グーズベリー
Lots and lots of blackberries ブラックベリー
Freshly picked and eaten with ice cream made for a delicious dessert!
Apples of the variety “Katja”. I have no idea where you can get these, unless you grow them yourself. This is defo my favorite apple. They’re pretty tart so perfect for baking. But, I like to eat them just as they are as well.
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Blackberry berries:
Blackberry brambles:
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ひまわりを見てください。綺麗ですね？赤色や黄色が大好き。あなたはガーデニングが好きですか？ガーデニングは私の趣味のひとつです。
ひまわり = Sunflower
“Check out my sunflowers. They’re pretty, right? I like the red and and yellow colors (among others). Do you like gardening? It’s one of my hobbies ^.^”
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I am so embarrassed when I make a grammatical typo. 
It is a really weird chemistry thing. I did not want to say in my recipe that I think that the baking soda may be neutralizing some of the toxins. Because “toxins” is not a word we use in recipes. 
But I have given much of this away, and everyone has loved it, and no-one has suffered any ill effects. You may ask Pahko, because he tried it a bit gingerly when he was over last Sunday, and then nummed up a bunch of it.
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My number-one no-fail crop is ビーツ.
Root borers don’t get the roots. The leafs stay nice. They can get through dry spells.
This is about 4kg. Some of the bigger ビーツ are 0.5 kg each.
I plant plain red ones, plus a fun mix of other ones for surprises.
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The NL loves their red beets, but I always forget there are different varieties. Any particular flavour differences?
And I’m terrible at using beets, because the way I use them, they just end up tasting like dirt. And that doesn’t have to be the case. …I think. Any tips?
Edit:
I once had a beetroot “carpaccio” years, and years ago at some fancy restaurant in Haarlem. So thin, and with a great, tangy drizzle. I still think about it. Delicious.
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Beets have a kind of “earthy” taste, so if you equate that to dirt, yes, that’s perfectly normal
But generally, they go really well with horse radish (if you preserve them, be sure to add some!). I guess if you roast them, you could try to concoct some sauce with horseradish on the side. Or if you’re japanese inclined, with wasabi?
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There was a period of several years where I didn’t really eat them. When I used them again, I didn’t remember the flavour being so pronounced and off-putting to me. Maybe my tastes changed over time?
It does seem to pair well with some acidity. I think I should lean into that more, instead of wanting it to be another vegetable in a soup.
Oh, sure. I’m great with spicy food. Just great. はい嘘で～す
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