Read more
The chill that signals the end of autumn has arrived in the mountains, and nearly all of our flowers have died or stopped blooming (aside for a stubborn rose plant, and a few zinnia). The cool air caused some of our late season tomatoes to drop off of the vine prematurely, so we harvested them green. (more…)
Read more
One of the advantages to living in the countryside is that many of our neighbors are farmers or keep big gardens, and there is a lot of produce-sharing in our community. Often, someone will show up at our house with bags or boxes of fresh fruit or vegetables that someone has collected for us to sample.
We have been given home-grown potatoes, bell peppers, squash, kale and cucumbers, to name just a few. This last weekend, we also had the opportunity to pick peanuts! (more…)
Read more
(Pictured: a Mr. Lincoln rose in our garden)
I grew up surrounded by roses, and when my husband and I moved to the country, I knew that I wanted to grow them. Roses are my favorite flower because of their beauty, scent, and symbolism.
I love watching roses bloom, and appreciate that they are a very hardy plant. Even in Japan’s climate of sometimes extreme weather, our roses have continued to be healthy and bloom continuously throughout the months.
Yet, it seems wasteful that occasionally the heavy rain causes blooms to wilt. After this happened a few times, I began to think about ways that I could make the most of these favored flowers, even if preserving them indefinitely is impossible.
Read more
During the summer, our house is surrounded by frogs of all shapes and sizes.
There is the lone, fat frog dubbed the “guard frog”, who hides in leaves by day, and chills alone in the pond by night.. and there are dark green, neon lime, brown, and other small frogs that rest on the top of rose blooms, or climb up to greet me at the second-story windows.
Once I switched the window screen in our bedroom from one side to the other, only to find that I had accidentally let a frog indoors! (more…)
Read more
We are ever-so-slowly learning how to garden, and began our first garden this summer. I’m still in awe that we’ve managed to grow anything! Even though I had experience gardening as a kid, it still feels different to take full ownership of one.
I decided to start small, by filling in a raised garden bed of stone at the front of the house. My mind was still full of the gardens in Ireland and the UK, and I imagined creating a cottage-garden style bed full of flowers of all different shapes, sizes and colors.
However, it was not that easy. (more…)