Well it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten my hands dirty in some soil and even longer since I’ve checked into my blog.
My wife, son and I moved back to Nagoya Japan in January this year and we’ve been very busy setting up and running our new English School. It’s been going incredibly well and I am now excitably able to start devoting some time to getting my hands back into some soil!
I wish I had taken a photo of what our backyard looked like before we spent 4 days clearing it of the jungle and assorted detritus that builds up over many years of neglect but here it is after all our hard work.
I’m planning on setting up a small 2 x 2m raised veggie patch, areas for flowers and plants, a grassy area, a bench and a nice big ceramic fish bowl.
Lots to do before our second son is born sometime in March!
What: Yates Seed. Where: Round Bucket. When: 6 June 2010.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 7-10 days. Actual Germination:
Advertised Maturity: 10-12 weeks. Actual Maturity:
I found a fat caterpillar had moved in made short work of one of the seedlings and was working on a second already! >_<
What: D.T. Brown Seed. Where: Large black container. When: 15 June 2010.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 5-8 days. Actual Germination: 4 Days.
What: D.T. Brown Seed. Where: Rectangular self-watering container. When: 6 June 2010.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 10-14 days. Actual Germination: 8 days.
We had a fantastic time on our holiday back to Japan for 10 days to introduce Boudi to all of his Japanese relatives and heaps of our friends. While we were away I asked my Mum to feed my fish, pick up our mail and to water the veggies.
BEFORE
The fish survived although my external pump blew out but miraculously re-sealing itself and thus avoiding pumping the tank dry and flooding the apartment. This was not fault of my Mum’s however as I’d neglected to clean the filter before we departed. The filter ended up being a right-off and I had to make a frantic purchase on Ebay to get everything going again.
No problems with the mail and not too many bills to come home to which was nice.
Now on to my poor old ‘veggie patch’. As a disclaimer I should note that my Mum has ‘black thumbs’, a point I’ve known for a long time. About the only plants that she’s able to avoid killing are the type that you stick in vessels of water (lucky bamboo and the like). I think I set the fear into her when I suggested that my tomatoes were incredibly thirsty plants requiring lots of water every day.
We returned home and I found half the veggie patch a sickly yellow colour with puffs of mould here and there and what wasn’t yellow looked like Swiss cheese. A bunch of aphids and a tribe of caterpillars had moved in and made short work of anything that wasn’t yellow and / or mouldy. I salvaged what I could and junked the rest.
AFTER
It actually turned out not to be a bad thing in the end as it forced me to give the balcony tiles a really good scrubbing which was just as well because we had our 6 month unit inspection the following week.
Mum always taught me to look for the positives in any negative situation.
What: Yates Seed. Where: Medium black pot When: 24th April 2010.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 6-10 days. Actual Germination: 5 days.
Advertised Maturity: 6-10 weeks. Actual Maturity:
30th April 2010
These suffered a lot from over-watering while I was away on holidays and some aphid damage but seem to have bounced back with some TLC.
May 2010
15 June 2010
I thought I'd get another lot going:
What: Yates Seed. Where: Medium black pot When: 6 June 2010.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 6-10 days. Actual Germination: 7 days.
1 1/3 cups sugar 1 cup white vinegar 3 medium carrots 20 radishes, skin scrubbed, cut in half and then sliced very thinly 1 ½ telegraph cucumbers cut into quarters lengthways, seeds cut out, sliced thinly 1 ¼ tsp salt
Method
1. Heat sugar with vinegar till sugar dissolved. Cool. 2. Combine all sliced vegetables, sprinkle with the salt and gently toss with hands. Sit in a colander in fridge for three and a half hours. 3. Wash off salt and gently squeeze out excess liquid, pour over vinegar mixture and refrigerate in a glass jar for at least two days.
What: Seed (Grower's Pride Baby Carrot). Where: Large Rectangular Self-Watering Planter. When: March 2010.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix at a depth of 6mm. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 10-21 days. Actual Germination: 16-18 days.
Advertised Maturity: 10-12 weeks. Actual Maturity:
I didn't have a lot of luck last year with these but I have put them in a sunny spot with some cucumbers and hope to at least get a few good bunches of carrot tops to use for tempura.
I've grown both individually in the past but as I use them for the same recipes etc I thought I'd just see how they went together in the same container. Previously I've planted all of my choy/choi seeds in their own container or spaced apart and as a result always end up with huge leaves very loosely bunched.
This time around I planted a heap of Buk Choy and Pak Choi seeds in the same container in order to keep the bunches more tightly packed and so I can 'cut and come again' with small leaves.
The Buk Choy and Pak Choi seed packets have very similar germination and maturity guidelines, however the Buk Choy seeds sprouted 5 days ahead of the Pak Choi seeds and have raced away as you can see:
In future I don't think I'll bother with Pak Choi.
Rocket What: Seed (Mr Fothergill's). Where: large rectangular self-wateringcontainer. When: March 2010.
Sown in:Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 6-10 Days. Actual Germination: 5-7 Days.
Advertised Maturity: 4-5 weeks. Actual Maturity: 5 weeks.
10 April 2010
After first harvest (Ruby Chard on the left).
These have been picked quite regularly however some of the leaves have gotten a bit too old to be good for a salad. I might do a big harvest and make some potent pesto from the older leaves.
29 April 2010
These were decimated by caterpillars while I was away on holidays, the END....
Try Again.
What: Seed (Mr Fothergill's). Where: large rectangular self-watering container. When: 6 June 2010.
Sown in:Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 6-10 Days. Actual Germination: 8 Days.
What: Seed (D. T. Brown). Where: 20L Bucket modified to a self-watering container and large rectangular self-watering container. When: March 2010.
Sown in: recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface.
Advertised Germination: 6 - 10 Days. Actual Germination: 6 days.
Advertised Maturity: 8 Weeks. Actual Maturity: 10 Weeks.
10 April 2010
You wouldn't think that the plants in the container and the bucket are the same age:
29 April 2010
Obviously I'm going to pull the pin on the ones in the bucket and have a go at something else....
The plants on my trellis did OK but suffered heavily from being over-watered plus being decimated by caterpillars while I was away on holidays. I ended up getting about a dozen cucumbers in the end.
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix.
Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 5-8 days.
Actual Germination: 4 days.
Advertised Maturity: 6 - 8 weeks.
Actual Maturity: 5 weeks.
10 April 2010
I’ve read a lot of posts regarding the best spacing for radish and how you shouldn’t plant them too close together or it will stunt bulb growth etc.
I have to call Bull Shit on this however.
I planted these radishes to try a new pickles recipe I came across. The recipe called for 20 radishes so I decided to plant 2 seeds in each of 12 holes in an area the equivalent of 60cm x 5 cm around the edge of the container and well the results speak for themselves:
Lots of good growth and healthy looking leaves:
No problems at all with adjacent bulb growth:
A massive harvest from an area of 60x 5cm in just 5 weeks:
The end result:
I've put in another run of radish (24 April 2010) at the base of my Reggae Roma Tomato and have tried 3 seeds per hole to test the limits.
29 April 2010
These were over-watered to death while I was away on holidays, the END...
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix.
Fertiliser: Thin layer of RICHGROW: Organic Blood and Bone + Trace Elements & Sulphate of Potash 100mm below surface. Weekly application of YATES: Multi-Nutrient Plant Food with Seaweed at 5ml/L.
Advertised Germination: 5-8 days.
Actual Germination: 6 days.
Advertised Maturity: 6 - 8 weeks.
Actual Maturity:
What: Seed (Yates ). Where: Large self-watering container. When: March 2010
Sown in: Recycled Potting Mix. Fertiliser: Thin layer of blood and bone 100mm below surface.
Advertised Germination: 7-10 Days. Actual Germination: 6 days.
Advertised Maturity: 6-8 Weeks. Actual Maturity: Picked as young leaves from 5 weeks.
10 April 2010
Have already produced two big loads of leaves for the dinner table and below is after the second harvest. No signs of Aphids yet but I have killed a few caterpillars......
29 April 2010
These were decimated by caterpillars while I was away on holidays, the END....
I used to grow vegetables in containers in an area of about 2 x 4m on a 3rd floor balcony on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
I moved to Nagoya, Japan in January 2011 to start my own children's English school and now that it is successfully up and running, I’m finally able to start devoting some time to getting my hands dirty again in a small 2 x 2m plot.
