How really effective?

 I mentioned about the new organic methods for warding off aphids in my previous blog and it took about a month since the installation. Today I visited my garden to see how the methods were effective.

 I would like you to compare those 2 photos, the left one showing a tomato tree of other gardener, who has his garden next to mine, with no aluminium foil and silver mulching sheets and the right one my tomato tree with the organic anti-aphid methods.

 I was able to see clear difference between the trees in my garden and I hope you could see that through these photos,,,. The left tree is Tainted with more aphids while my tree have less aphid.

 I make sure that my organic anti-aphid methods are almost effective through the comparison. I'm very happy to ward off aphids but I have a new problem,,,,,,less rain in this rainy season!

This week's harvest

 I'm very happy to see the bumper harvest of summer vegetables but I and my wife are wondering how we can consume them? 

 Anyway, I sliced a cucumber harvested just now and enjoyed the sliced cucumbers with mayonnaise.

Harvesting onions and potatoes

 I mentioned about less rain this rainy season and it may affect the growth of my summer vegetables but sunny days brought me the precious opportunity for harvesting onions and potatoes. It's good to harvest them in a sunny and dry day since rain can perish harvested potatoes and onions. Today I harvested all of purple onions and potatoes.

 The onions leaves falling down to the ground show it's the time to harvest and they are not bolted. They are healthy and in a good shape with shiny purple color. I'll sliced a new purple onion to cook salad with cabbages.

 I'm not satisfied with potatoes since they were smaller than I expected. I think the planting ridge was not wider than the last season so it didn't much space for growing them.

The growth of my summer vegetables

 Now in Japan it's in the mid of "Tsuyu/梅雨", a early-summer rainy season and I and other gardeners were expecting a lot of rain but according to the latest weather report, this rainy season might bring less rain due to rain systems which are pushed down to the south away from Japan. Actually, we have seen no rainy day since the Japan meteorological agency had announced officially the start of the rainy season.

 Due to the less rain than average, I have to visit my garden everyday to water my summer vegetables before going to my office. That kind of routine sounds boring but the fruits of labor like flowers and growing fruits animate me.

 1. Eggplant

2 Cucumbers

3 Green eggplant's flower           4 Tomatoes

5 Basil

Planting summer vegetables

 I was looking forward to planting summer vegetables because I installed some organic methods to ward off aphids as I mentioned in my previous blog. And I and my kids planted the sprouts on the gardening ridges covered with silver mulching sheets.

 List of my summer vegetables:

2 eggplants
1 green eggplant
3 tomatoes (Momotaro)
2 cucumbers

A green eggplant, my first try.

3 tomatoes (Momotaro)

 I invented a new organic method to repel aphids! It's "a silver pole". It's very simple to make it! Just taping plastic poles with aluminium adhesive tape.
 I hope those methods will be "silver bullets" for protecting my vegetables against bugs.

My organic challenge vol.2

I don't want to use chemical pesticide but how can I ward off bugs organically especially aphids, which damage my vegetables every year?
I studied aphids don't like reflected sunlight so I've tried aluminum tape to repel them. I found more effective thing on the Internet than the tape, I believe. I bought a roll of silver-colored mulch sheet, which is 1 meter-wide and 100-meter-long.
The sheet is effective not only for repel bugs but for cooling down soil by reflecting sunlight. Today I covered my gardening ridges with the sheet.
I'll plant tomatoes, eggplants and cucumbers there next week. Aphids love those summer vegetables so I strongly hope the sheet will work effectively.

-- iPhone

My Organic Challenge

 I sometimes think how organically I can grow my vegetables when I plant new seed and sprouts.
I believe I still have many things to be organic since I sometimes use chemical things like fertilizer and pesticide. What will happen if I switch those chemical things into organic ways? I decided I install some organic methods to grow my vegetables more Organically!

1. Installing companion plants

I believe companion plant method is so familiar among many gardeners and I tried to install the method to ward off beetles, aphids and namatodes. I studied that marigolds are effective to ward off them so I and my kids bought 2 potted marigolds and planted then my gardening beds.

My daughter is choosing good ones.

My kids are planting a marigold

The companion plant method is not only for warding off bugs but for help vegetable's healthy growth. Planting sweet basil beside tomato trees is effective to make the tomatoes more delicious so I bought a pack of basil seeds and planted them at the edge of my gardening bed for tomato trees. I can enjoy the great combination for cooking Italian dishes when they will have grown!                                             


2. Using leftover as fertilizer

My family loves miso-soup with clams and the shells were thrown away into a garbage can.
I studied the shells contain a lot calcium, which is effective to neutralize soil. I hammered them to powder after I washed them to remove salt and dried them.