Insect screen's been set up.

 I've set up an insect screen on the ridge where Chinese cabbages were planted for protection against bugs like young-worms of moth and birds which could feed leaves.

 I've learned a lot from the last bug's attack which made my sweet-corns dead and I decided to carry out some radical measures.

 Our "F.P.K (Finding,Picking up,and Killing) method" is well organic but some of them are time-consuming, not efficient.

 The screen which I bought at a home-depo for about $15 is easily set up and can ward off bugs and birds without any chemical pesticide.

 Raising autumn-winter vegetables like lettuce, cabbage,white radish requires protection against bugs and I hope the screen can be a big help.

Golden rice ears

 Golden rice ears swung by autumn wind.....

Bug's attacking again!

 I and my wife were shocked to find many bugs (young-worms of corn-borer ) , which had attacked my sweet corns and made them dead, have been found again in corn's leaves and trunks.

 We determined to stop the recurrence!!!

 The measure we took is "F.P.K",which I call and stands for "Finding, Picking up, and Killing all of them". It's a very painstaking job but we found only 6 bugs.

 We finally realized we are required to use pesticide to some extent for warding off bugs more effectively and bought a kind of organic pesticide in a home-depo near my house.

 We have been pursuing 100% organic farming but facing the fact we'd encountered, some extent of dependence on chemical substance like pesticide may be acceptable, I think.

Soil improvement

A cause of less productive summer vegetables and their standing dead is not only Heat wave in this summer but less nutritious and fertile soil, I guess.

After the end of summer vegetables like green-pepper,tomatoes and cucumbers, I pulled all them out and refilled 4 packs of organic fertilizers (mixed with fermented cow manure,wood chips an so on) into the ridge.

I'll seed winter vegetables like Chinese lettuce,white radish which are very popular in Japan for Japanese pot dishes (Nabe) in winter.

Okura,most productive vege in my garden

I've kept harvesting Okura for about 2months since the first harvest.

Averagely 3～7 okuras are harvested a day and sometimes we share them among our neighbors.

Big hornworm on a leaf of aroid potetoes

A big (about 3inch) hornworm (a larva of hawk moth) were found on a leaf of aroid.
The appearance is so weird that it remind us of a larva form of "Alien".

It's not only the appearance that I'm scared by but the appetite is so high.

I got rid out of it,buried it into a soil and finally stomp on it to kill.

It's very lucky for my wife and daughter who were not there and didn't see that worm.

Can you guess what if they had been there? I believe they would scream out!!

paddy field filled with water

 In Nara, an ancient capital city and my wife's home town, there are many rice paddy fields as well as old temples.

 I love to watch green rice plants swung by wind. We are gonna harvest them in nearly the middle of October.

 (above) Yakushiji temple and rice paddy fields.

 (below) A paddy fields near my wife's house.

Bug's attack against my sweet-corn

It's so shocking that I found my sweet corns have stood dead with trunks,leaves and fruits turning yellow.


While I was looking at corns to find the cause of the phenomenon, I found some holes on their trunks as the photos shown below.


Finally, I found the cause of the death of my corns.
It's a kind of bugs that had intruded into them and made the trunks hollow.


What I saw in the hole on trunks is a pupa of European cornborer.


I had to determined to cut out all of the corns to prevent expansion of the bug's attack.

This is my first try to raise corns and I've learned how serious bug's attack is....

I would like viewers to share this situation and give me your ideas to prevent that.