It's been a strange year in the garden. Hot -- that is truly hot -- days are normal. My first two seasons I saw days over 32C (~89F) occasionally, but they were "Oh, my god. Today is really hot" sort of surprising days. Last week, we had three consecutive days of 35C(95F) or higher.
Rainy days seem fewer. When it does rain, it's violent.
Whether for environmental reasons or because I have been admittedly lazy in the garden, it hasn't been a great year for production. Part of it is that I lose track of what I need get done. Planting seeds, transplanting starts, building supports out of bamboo stakes -- I usually know what I need to do, but I lack alacrity. Hopefully by doing these garden reviews here I'll hold myself more accountable and be able to have a successful fall garden.
Soil
The soil in a number of my planters is acting strange when watered. Water sits on the surface, producing a sort of flooding effect inside the containers and grow bags until it slowly seeps into the soil. Clearly, this is not ideal and I think it's a main cause of incredibly slow growing plants. A bushing variety of green bean has been in a grow bag for a month and a half now with very little growth and definitely no fruiting. Checking the soil by hand, it definitely feels hard, almost gravelly. I bought a few bags of compost meant for rejuvenating old container soil and some perlite, so I'll see if I can't address the issue. I'm hoping I can pop the aforementioned green bean out, fix the soil, and replant with minimal transplant shock, but I guess we'll see.
Harvest
Harvests for this summer consisted mainly of jalapeños, leafy plants (swiss chard, romaine lettuce, leaf lettuce), and herbs. I'm also getting a super regular supply of garlic chives, which are really versatile. They've also just flowered for the first time since I planted them last year, so I'm looking forward to eating some of the flowers as tempura.
A new Twitter friend (I'm not ready to call it X), introduced me to the idea of fermented hot sauce, so I'm hoping to give that a try. I have 10 or so jalapeños ready to harvest today that should fit the bill nicely. I do wish they were a bit more productive this year. I didn't weigh them out, but last year I was harvesting 10~20 peppers weekly. This year, though, I'm at two or so. I didn't refresh the soil for that planter either, so it wouldn't be a surprise if that was to blame.
Wildlife
If there is anything I can claim to be succesful at this summer, it's at bringing in wildlife. More than edibles, I've paid a lot of attention to making sure flowers stay in bloom . It's become a favorite activity to go out on the veranda after running in the morning and sitting with a coffee. Honey bees, paper wasps, bumble bees, dragonflies, butterflies, moths, ladybugs -- they all make regular appearances around the garden. Sitting in front of the portulaca/purslane, I can count on seeing a bee in most of the flowers. Beneficial insect numbers are definitely higher than past seasons, though sadly the same can be said of woolly aphids.
Reptile life has changed somewhat since last year. Last year, it was common to see Japanese tree frogs hanging around under foliage and on branches. This year, though, I haven't seen a single one. Gecko numbers are significantly greater. They often pop out and dart away to find shelter when I move a planter. That may explain why a Japanese rat snake regularly makes an appearance. The first time I saw it, I was moving a deep planter I usually use for garlic and it slithered out. I don't dislike snakes, but I couldn't help but shout in surprise. I guess I didn't expect to ever see a snake in a second floor garden.
Looking Forward
As I've said, I'm hoping to make the autumn garden more productive than the summer. I've already started refreshing some of the planter soil. (Lupine, Romanesco, Kohlrabi, and Swiss Chard seedlings are responding really well so far.) I imagine a focus of the garden is going to be lettuces and other leafy greens.
Brassicas in general are going to be a much bigger part of the garden. Red Russian Kale and some unknown generic variety are already in the ground, along with some others. I'm looking to really bump up garlic production to hopefully get me through most of next year, instead of only 3~4 months. The situation here now is that you can buy a single head of domestic garlic for 400 yen (~$2.75) or you can choose to go with imports that may be treated with bleach, have no flavor, and require a ton of shipping to get here. Not something I'm interested in.
More than the edibles, I find myself again more focused on flowers for the fall. Borage, Cosmos, and Lupine are already in the ground. Sweet Pea are inching their way up a super rough DIY bamboo trellis, and I'm going to seed Snapdragons today. I want my wife and I to be able to look out to the garden from our living soon and see a really vibrant, beautiful space. Of course, I'm also concerned with continuing to give the pollinators some support as we head into the frozen months.
Thanks for reading this far. What are your plans for your fall garden? What are you hoping to improve upon from the summer? Feel free to let me know here, or @naturalfukui on Twitter and Instagram.
Hi Charlie, AizuYabanjin here! Interesting blog - I have dutifully read every post - this latest post being especially so. I have also had that strange pooling effect on my planters. Then it seeps down the side and out through the fabric (I've started using those cloth pots in the last year). Not ideal. I reckon it's just coz it's too dry, and lightly scratching the surface with a trowel can help. As mentioned elsewhere, I have also had a hard time in the garden this year, the blistering heat and the lethargy it can bring on which is only aggravated by the fact that the lack of water means crops are not exactly lavish, so I start to los…