Fukui Veranda Garden, #0002: Hope on the Horizon

I wrote last time about my general disappointment with the garden this summer. Most of the failure was likely my own fault, but a lot of it has to be chalked up to the incessantly hot weather. Cooling mornings and evenings have brought with them signs of hope, and that's meant more motivation.

Soil

I went through and refreshed the soil in a few containers as planned last week. I had a bushing variety of green beans struggling through in some heavy, boggy soil that I'd hoped would survive being replanted after I fixed up the soil, but sadly it didn't make it through. That said, water seems to be absorbed and moved through the soil much better than before.

It's not just the rejuvenated soil that's acting healthier. I've been adding more planters to the automatic drip system as time and budget allow. In the height of summer, I was going through with a hose on shower setting and watering every day. I suspect that despite setting a timer for 30 seconds at each planter, I was underwatering the plants. Now, the drip system comes on every two days for 20 minutes. Maybe it's my imagination, but after the switch, the soil seems readier to accept, hold, and pass water. With everything you hear about how overly dry soil acts hydrophobic, that makes sense.

Harvest

This was a good week. I took out an entire parsley plant, froze the majority of it, and replanted a chunk in a smaller hanger planter. I removed a failing marigold and struggling Hawk's Claw chili pepper, too. There were a few small chilis ready to go, so I used them in an fermented chili sauce recipe Twitter friend and blog reader Julian graciously shared. The jalapeño offered 10 peppers or so, and those went into the ferment as well.

Radishes have been coming up nicely. I pulled a few out yesterday, using the greens and as a ramen topping. You can't go wrong with radishes, I think. Even when everything else fails to go to plan, you can count on them, or at least their greens.

Wildlife

The biggest hightlight of the week came in the creepy-crawly department. I noticed late last week that there was a strange woody growth hanging off the Japanese maple. I didn't think much about it, but seeing as it didn't seem to be causing any harm, I left it. Skip ahead a few days and when I'm looking over the garden peacefully, I see the same woody growth wobbling violently. I should also mention a thin, dead branch from the maple had been cut off and was now spinning around the edges of the growth.

A Minomushi cutting through a dead maple branch.

I naturally thought, "The hell is going on here?" and went to investigate. Out of soft opening at the top of the woody growth popped out a caterpillar-like head. This thing was alive. Asking my wife and Google-sensei, it turned out it was a Minomushi, a bagworm moth caterpillar. I had only ever seen one before in Animal Crossing. It seems the little guy will munch a bit on the maple leaves and use dead twigs to make its protective home. I don't really like it eating the tree, but it seems that it's a member of a criticially endangered species, so I'm just going to let it be. May it become a healthy, breeding adult.

Looking Forward

The Brassica seedlings were looking a little rough there for a while, but they seem to be appreciating the cooler bookends on the days. Red Russian Kale and the unknown kale are gaining size quickly. I should make my first harvest of the mystery kale next week. Here come some delicious chips!

There are two big things I'm really looking forward to. First, the snapdragons have sprouted. They get to be such large plants, but the sprouts are absolutely tiny. If all goes as it should, they should make a very colorful addition to the spring flower landscape. Borage, which will also hopefully be a buffet for pollinators, is gaining size incredibly fast. The only suspicious character at the moment is the Lupine. It has its true leaves but doesn't add any size. Is this just its habit or is there some other issue at play? It makes me nervous, so naturally, I seeded some backups the other day.

The second big thing is garlic. I mentioned I cleared out parsley and some other things. That opened up the big planter, which meant I could plant garlic. I'm doing two varieties this year. The first is Aomori Roppen. It is apparently the most popular domestic variety in Japan. It's also what's recommended to grow in a place like Fukui that gets somewhat severe winters. The second is, sadly, an unknown variety. It's a purple-skinned hardneck cultivar that I've grown before and quite like. I don't know what it is because it's always sold as "garlic (OK for seeds too)" at a Michi no Eki in Ono City, Fukui.

One of two planters seeded with garlic.

In total, I planted 26 cloves, so hopefully that will translate to 26 healthy heads. It's probably only enough for 4 or 5 months, though, so I'm thinking about how and where I can plant more.

What sort of progress did you make in the garden this week? Did you find any interesting bugs or volunteers? Let me know here, or @naturalfukui on Twitter and Instagram.