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.

My kids spend the last day of their spring vacation in my garden.

 I'm very happy that I and my kids could spend the last day of their spring vacation working in my garden. I'm happy not only for their help but for their positive attitude toward working in my garden.

 I did't asked them or invited them to come to my garden but they said "Take us to your garden, Dad!" when I left my house with my hoe. You can see their great jobs in my garden in the photos shown below.

Mission 1 : Weeding

Mission 2 : Cultivating soil

Mission 3 : Covering ridges with black mulch-sheets

 When I see their positive attitude, I strongly believe my education through my gardening will make for establishing their views in a good way. I always tell my kids that we live on food like meat, vegetables, fish, what we can get by growing and killing them. They seem to feel or acknowledge how important it is to know how we live and how interesting and valuable it is to take part in gardening, where they can grow their food.

Exploring the rain forest in Iriomote island

I had a dream for long time. It's exploring a rain forest with canoes. At last my dream came true!

My family have trip to Iriomote island, located in about 450KM southwest of Okinawa main island.

90% of the island is covered with rain forest and is famous for indigenous wild animals an plants and various kinds of activities in the forest.

We took part in a excursion tour to the Pinaisala falls with paddling in the river and trekking through the forest.

It was the first time for us to paddle canoes so we had difficulty in dealing with the canoe and strong wind. But we MANAGED to go up the river to the goal.

We found many kinds of tropical plants like Bruguiera gymnorhiza in the mangrove forest along the river.

Bruguiera gymnorhiza: Black mangrove

Bruguiera gymnorhiza: Black mangrove

Heritiera littoralis

Cyathea lepifera:Flying Spider-monkey Tree Fern

The scenery from the top of the Pinaisala falls

I

My family and the Pinaisala falls

t was still cool to swim in the basin of the falls but we had a craving for doing it and at last we dared to dive into the water and swim! Look at a middle aged man diving into the water with joy! It's me! 

diving with yelling "Yeaaaaha!!"

It's not a drowned body but he is my son relaxing himself on the water.

Working in a cold day

 I hate a cold weather. I'm sensitive to cold temperature so I wear wool socks when I sleep. How about outside? Do you think I wear a shaggy fur coat when I work in my garden? If you think so, the idea could be a little exaggerated. I always bring some portable body warmers in a cold day but today was much colder than I expected! Look at the ice in a bucket! It's about 1cm-thick ice! I had to bear with the severely cold temperature with only 2 body warmers.

 I wondered if my vegetables, especially my spinach, were growing well while the cold days but I felt relief when they grew well in a vinyl tunnel. The tunnel is very effective to keep the air inside warm judging from the growth of the spinach, which are as sensitive to cold temperature as me.

 While I worked in my garden suffering the cold weather, my daughter was so brisk with vim and vigor that she cultivated the gardening ridges for the next seeding.  Today's harvest: 1 Chinese cabbage

Today's dinner: A hot pot dish with the Chinese cabbage, sliced pork and tofu boiled in miso-based soup.

Winter harvest

 I and my wife are delighted with beautifully grown Chinese cabbages and gingers. We see the great harvest as our best Christmas present!

 As I mentioned in the previous blog, I tried to minimized usage of chemical things like pesticide and the beautiful cabbages show us my try is successful. All of my 5 Chinese cabbages have no damage by aphids and much fewer holes by young worms than in last year.
 It's my first try to growing gingers but it's easier than I thought. I just payed attention only to watering since gingers hate dryness.
 I planted only golf-ball sized seed ginger and it's amazing to see "multiplied gingers " from the small seed ginger. My wife will preserve sliced ginger in honey to add it to tea.
 I have to admit I failed to grow my daikon radishes due to severe attack by aphids. I installed insect screens but I did't realized big holes on them! When I found the holes, many aphids hibernate on leaves of my radishes. They sucked the radish extract and most of the leaves were dead and that could cause the poor harvest.

Christmas harvests:

・Chinese cabbage
・Ginger
・Daikon radishes