Since I love herbs I have a ton of that as well. Most kinds: parsley (2 kinds), basil (4 kinds), cilantro, dill, thyme, mint, oregano, sage, turmeric, and lemon balm.
What a balcony! A real jungle! Is there an apartment connected to that?
also @skymaiden. I too have had whitefly issues. Strawberries are famous for them. My problems have been with tropical plants indoors in the winter. Simply spraying the plant with a little water has eliminated them, except for the times that they were indicating another sickness in the plant. A tree oil, as @rumade indicated, works well also, without risking fungus from the water. Make sure that your place is not humid if you use water on the plant.
Well, there’re plants in there as well, but it’s where I sleep at least!
Several years ago I grew tomatoes in the black pots where I now have salad and other low-growing stuff. I didn’t know much about gardening at the time and didn’t do much to them beyond watering. So, they grew and grew and grew. Half-way through July they were 2 meters high, no kidding. They became taller than me! It was a mess. A true jungle of leaves. But I did get lots of tomatoes. (I’ll see if I can post some photos of the mess, but I’m not sure I have anything beyond my 3D-images (with my 3DS) ) .
トマト come in 2 types, determinate, and indeterminate. Indeterminate will keep growing and growing and growing. Most heirloom varieties are indeterminate. They are less mess, and much less prone to virus if you prune back lower stems regularly. I go very harshly on mine. By the end of the season, they are several meters tall, with fruit and leaves only at the far end.
This represents my intention to return to 京都大原.
Also, maybe some day a person driving down the road who has been there and can read will see it and it will give them good thoughts.
Right now, the letters are bright because I just carved them. When they start to fade, I will wash the face of the stone and fill them in with black.
Also, I planted it up against shrubbery, which I will let grow over the stone when we sell the house, so that someone years hence can find it. I for sure am not digging it out.
6848 miles as the crow flies, almost due North. (Eleven thousand and some km, but that is 5 digits, and would have been harder to carve legibly)
I will carve these for anyone who wants one, to whatever location in Japan you prefer. Just send me airfare once the virus is over, and have a stone waiting for me.
Also, this is the distance between my front lawn and the 阿弥陀仏 at 三千院. It is intended to honor the energy of that place.
We finally had rain last night. Several good downpours, at least a few cm. The last few years have been remarkable here in that it has been constantly rainy all summer. But this summer has been more the norm. Most of our summer rain is hot weather thunderstorms, that are hit or miss.
All words listed as common:
雨 rain, level 5
雨天 rainy weather
雨具 rain gear
雨季 rainy season
雨水 rain water
雨降り rainy weather
雨宿り taking shelter from the rain
雨漏り roof leak
雨量 amount of rainfall
雨垂れ raindrops
梅雨 rainy season
雷雨 thunderstorm
大雨 heavy rain
豪雨 torrential rain
小雨 light rain, drizzle
長雨 long spell of rain
暴風雨 rainstorm
にわか雨 rain shower
集中豪雨 local downpour
霧雨 drizzle, light rain
I am especially grateful for the rain this year. Our water is very expensive here. I collect some from the roof, but if I use too much from the tap it would quickly be more costly than the value of the vegetables I grow.
The ブルーベリーstill need another couple of years to mature, but I will harvest a few cups. The 黒苺 is very prolific, and I will harvest several liters.
Yesterday, I just stood outside and stuffed my face, then brought some in for this morning’s yogurt.
Also the 桑苺 has been exceptionally bountiful for several weeks. Many species of birds devour them — and drop them on my head while I work outside!
aside: it’s raining loads today which is nice cos it’s been chou hot
We put the トレリス up! The struts serve a dual purpose of holding it out from the 垣 a bit for better climbing / airflow, and also providing a little more support because my partner was paranoid about the stability of the 垣
Spoiler alert: covid has prevented me from buying any of the つる植物 (climbing plants) I’d planned for actually, you know, climbing on the トレリス. Hopefully some will be available in the autumn… It’s especially annoying because now there are loads of other 植物 in the 花壇, which will make it harder to manoeuvre to plant (植える) the つる植物.
Then I installed the edging (エッジング) you can see lined up, which is this rubber material made from recycled tyres, so you can bend it to follow the lines you need. I had to cut a few of the stakes short near the little wall because there was concrete or something stopping them going all the way down.
The creeping plants are woolly 立麝香草 (たちじゃこうそう, thyme), which I’m hoping will kind of spread over the edges of the little wall. And then there’s some えぞねぎ, chives, with a few buds already coming through
I love your トレリス!
Maybe you will be stuck getting climbers by mail order. I don’t usually buy mail-order plants, but when I have I have been very satisfied.
Just make sure that you don’t plant anything invasive in such a small garden.
That’s what I’ve been doing, but everywhere is simply out of stock the place I’ve been buying from has been super behind on delivering orders (like, 5 weeks), so I think they just didn’t have enough manpower to prepare all the plants they normally would for the summer season. I checked all over the place when they pushed their estimate back to the autumn, but to no avail…
I’m planning on a つるバラ, some small クレマチス and our native honeysuckle; the latter is the only one which might get a little too vigorous, but at least it’s not invasive
Some of my herbs have started seeding. I’ll be gathering the basil and cilantro seeds in the coming weeks. Of course, the cilantro seeds can be dried and ground into spice as well. I already have a new batch of cilantro going for fresh leaves, so perhaps I’ll dry these for spice. The basil seeds need to turn black before I can gather them.
Can’t tell from Jisho whether they are 麝香連理草 (じゃこうれんりそう) or 麝香豌豆 (じゃこうえんどう)… but スイートピー is also listed as an option and it gets 5 times as many hits from Google
I wish I could grow a herb garden like yours, but alas, I am a serial plant killer
Fresh italian herbs are my favourite but they wilt so easily if you don’t take proper care of them.
Thanks. I also think they did a nice job with that wall. Much better than grey concrete wall, that’s for sure.
I find growing basil to be the easiest. You can actually just buy them and replant (they grow much too close together so they strangle each other unless replanted). Basil can handle a bit of drought, not much, but thyme is quite sensitive. Easier herbs are stuff like parsley and cilantro -they can handle the most you through at them. ^^;
It was a mess. A true jungle of leaves. But I did get lots of tomatoes. 
(I’ll see if I can post some photos of the mess, but I’m not sure I have anything beyond my 3D-images (with my 3DS) 
) .
)
the place I’ve been buying from has been super behind on delivering orders (like, 5 weeks), so I think they just didn’t have enough manpower to prepare all the plants they normally would for the summer season. I checked all over the place when they pushed their estimate back to the autumn, but to no avail…
I’ll be gathering the basil and cilantro seeds in the coming weeks. Of course, the cilantro seeds can be dried and ground into spice as well. I already have a new batch of cilantro going for fresh leaves, so perhaps I’ll dry these for spice. The basil seeds need to turn black before I can gather them.
