タグ: gardening

It was a cold day. I was making a trellis for an apple tree

Today’s lowest temperature was -1 and highest was +2 Celsius degree (30 to 36 in Fahrenheit). Although the outside was cold, I had been out of my house, but in a tiny hut. The hut was built about twenty years ago when my father was still alive. It is made of polycarbonate corrugated sheet for the roof and wall, and of steel pipes for its frames. Even the inside is almost like outside because there are a lot of gaps, but no wind blows inside, I can feel a little warm in the hut.

The inside of the hut has long been a mess. Since I came back my home, I keep to try tidying up the hut. And the hut is now going to be a fun place to be, not to say it’s a secret base. Today I was staying there for three hours in the morning to make a trellis using steel pipes. I am going to set up a trellis for an apple tree. It is common that grapes grow on trellis. And in my area, farmers use trellis for growing pear trees. But I don’t think it is usual to use trellis to grow an apple tree.

There are six apple trees in my garden. Two were planted by my father who passed away five years ago. So, I don’t know the names of those two. Four are planted by me; Ohrin, Kougyoku, Alpus-Otome, and Shinano-Gold. Ohrin and Kougyoku are old varieties, Alpus-Otome is almost exclusively for pollination. Shinano-Gold is a variety that is new and very delicious. What I want to do is to make that Shinano-Gold tree bigger so that I will be able to harvest many apples from that tree. In order to do so, there must be an area such that leaves can extend wide. This is the reason I want to set up a trellis for the apple tree. Since the branches of apple tree are soft and flexible, I expect that it is possible to grow the apple on trellis. I hope that the result is coming in two years.

A Neighbor gave me Seedlings of Strawberry

I was cultivating a place to plant onions’ seedlings in this morning. Then a neighbor came to my field. He wanted to see how I was doing with my vegetables and fruits trees. At the end of the talk, he gave me seedlings of strawberry as the photo below. Actually, I had also grown strawberry in my field several years ago. But it was a little difficult for me to grow strawberry well. And then I had given up because I was too busy because I was working as a Japanese teacher on line at that time.

Although I thought that working for vegetables in this season would be over when I have planted garlic and onions, now I have got another plant that is strawberry in eight pots. Although they are not many, I need to make a place to plant them and take a care of them. If it’s going well, I will be able to get some strawberry in May.

Boards I saw in my community

Today has not been a productive day. I worked in my field three hours in the morning. What I was doing was to make a place to plant onions’ seedlings. It was not a hard work, but I got tired much. The only thing I did in the afternoon was shopping in a supermarket. I took some photos on the way.

Bicycles Parking Lot

Monthly Parking Lot

Don’t hit the Wall by a Ball

Rules in this Park

I want to plant bulbs of garlic soon and seedlings of onion in this month. After I plant these two kinds, there will be not much work for vegetables until the spring 2026 come. But I have to work a lot for fruit trees. Although my garden is by no means an orchard, I have planted a lot of fruit trees in my garden; they are apples, grapes, citrus, figs, plums, pawpaw, persimmon, kiwi, and so on. Actually, I cannot get many fruits from those trees, because I couldn’t take a good care of them in the past six years. Now it’s the beginning of October. I think I will not have many good days to work from now because the weather is going to be worse towards winter. Time is always limited.

As they grow, their number need to reduce by picking; Red radish and Carrots

I came back in Japan in July. Since then, I have been pulling the weeds, getting rid of roots of the weeds, cultivating soil, and planting seeds of vegetables in my garden. This work still continues. Though my garden is small tiny one, but there are a lot of things to do. Now in September, it’s the time to thin radish and green leaves. This is to give them a space for growing more by reducing the numbers. In this process, If it’s a small sprout, I just throw it. But now they have grown, I don’t waste them, but eat. Today I picked some red radish and carrots. Since the radish and carrots are still small, I use their leaves. In the supper tonight, radish’s leaves were used in Miso soup, and carrots’ leaves were cut in small and stir-fried with sausage.

I made Three Bottles of Apple Jam using “Kougyoku” that I got in my Garden

An apple “Kougyoku” is a little sour. The apples are suitable to be processed with heat, rather than eating fresh. Since I had put three of them in refrigerator, I made jam in the early evening today.

There are many ways to make apple jam. Today I made it by grating the apples. Apple peels are rich in pectin, so, I wanted to use those peels in the jam.

Many cooking recipes on the web say that sugar must be 50 percent of weight. But I am not sure about this 50%; Is it 50% of weight of fruits, or 50% of the entire weight of jam? Anyway, I don’t have a cooking scale, so, I just put a lot of sugar in the pan by intuition. I think the sugar must be 50% of the weight of the jam in order to keep the jam longer.

Though I forgot to take a picture, I did “boiling disinfection”. I closed the lids of bottle loosely, put the bottles in a big pan, boiled water in the pan with gas fire, and then closed the lids tightly by my hands with gloves.

I got three bottles. I will use them for toast of my breakfast from tomorrow morning. It will save some cost of living.

I have Harvested Three Apples “Kougyoku” in my Garden

Three Apples before Harvesting

I am not sure, but according to a book, it says the apple Kougyoku is one of varieties which was obtained from the seeds of “Esopus Spitzenburg” of North America.

Today I got three from the tree in my garden. In total I have got four, and that is all for this year. Kougyoku apples are a little sour. So, it is better to cook with heat than to eat fresh one. Now they are in the refrigerator. I am thinking about making them jam.

I couldn’t see Lunar Eclipse this morning because of Strong Rain

Moon from my Window

But now I can see the moon from my window.

It seems that some of my (ex-)students have visited this blog today. I know this because the numbers of viewers are displayed by country.

The rain stopped before noon. So, in the afternoon, I walked to a supermarket for shopping. I bought fishes and pork for suppers of today and tomorrow. When I got back, I planted sprouts of onion in the field. Planting by hand took time more than I thought, I didn’t have time to practice piano before cooking supper.

My life is tranquil these days.

My manual labor turned the bushes into a vegetable garden

Photo that I took on July 24th.

I took this photo today in my Garden

Please look at the houses behind. They are the same as the photo above.

By the way, I found there were many persimmon fruits on the tree in my garden. In every year so far, all the persimmons have fallen down before ripening. But this time I can see them a lot. So, I wish that some, or a few of persimmons could survive until it becoming orange color in November.

Yesterday’s Horse Mackerels were Grilled for Supper Tonight

I used only salt for taste, didn’t use any seasoning nor spices. This is the way Japanese grill fishes. We eat grilled fishes with natural taste. And I made notches on the fishes so that gas fire effectively can heat the fish meat.

Now my supper is ready.