Gardening...

[Thundercat 60]

Not sure if anyone else is into gardening but I moved into a new house in April and started a garden in the backyard. I've got quite a bit of space and have been cooped up in an apartment for the last 7 years so I got a little ambitious with it I think. Anyway, here is a list of some of the things I'm growing this year:

 

Veggies

zucchini (4 kinds), togarashi (Korean pepper), jalapenoes, green pepper, tomatoes (5 kinds), green onion, red and green okra, Okinawan beans, green bean, lettuce, mizuna, radish.

 

Herbs

Mint (orange, pineapple, apple, peppermint, spearmint), thyme (and lemon thyme), oregano, zaatar, sweet marjoram, marshmallow (yes it tastes like marshmallow!), lemon eucalyptus, camomile, basil, parsley, swiss chard, niira, rosemary, lavender.

 

Fruits

raspberries, strawberries (wild), lemon (inherited from the previous owner)

 

We've also put loads of flowers out there as well... including some edible ones like nasturtium and sunflower. I'm sure there is more but I can't think of it now.

 

Here are some pics (keep in mind that they are a few weeks old now)

 

Veggie garden before

 

Veggie garden after

 

Herb garden before

 

Herb garden after

 

Backyard before

 

Backyard after

[Tubby Beaver 209]

Nice BM!!

I live in a house as well, but unfortunately we don't have a garden....well there is a 2 foot wide strip of mud that surrounds us on 3 sides that is all we have. My grilfriend grew tomatoes there 2 years ago and she has various flowers growing just now. wish I had an area where I could put up a BBQ

[thursday 1]

isn't that list a little too long for the first year. Maybe concentrate on some quality before going into more exotic stuff. Just a thought.

 

Is there room in the attic for hemp?

[Thundercat 60]

Yeah, I wasn't sure about some of the stuff I planted but luckily this isn't the first time I've had a garden... it's just been awhile

 

Sadly, no attic

[panhead_pete 27]

Have you seen any bales of straw anywhere? Maybe old corn stalks? If so go grab a few and cover all the soil with about 10cm. Each time you water it, it will break down adding organic matter and structure to your soil. Each year that wonderful little graden will get better better. If you are going down the route of fertiliser try find some liquid fish based product there. Good luck. Looking forward to seeing the friuts of your labour

[mitchpee 10]

I have a very similar setup BM, I will post pictures when I get some time here.

 

I am a bit worried since it snowed 2 inches over night and caught me way off guard. Caught everyone off guard, I think it should be ok though!

[snowdude 44]

Well actually I too grow my own veggies, in fact I am growing them professionally I have loads of farm land, I am growing them all organically, nothing like picking fresh vegetables off your own land / garden and eating them.

Good luck with your garden, hope you get lots of good stuff off of there to eat.

[mitchpee 10]

What are you growing?

 

any tips for mass scale growing?

[RobBright 35]

Hey Bm

 

nice set up there - we haven't got a garden, but instead, some balcony boxes.

 

Got some ingen, shiso, shungiku, mizuna and basil growing on there.

[NoFakie 45]

Looks good. We're getting towards explosive growth time, so you'll soon have a veggie jungle on your hands. With four zucchini plants, you'll be giving them away.

 

Pete's advice is good, but it can be difficult for small scale growers to get hold of large amounts of organic matter, especially outside harvest time. It's something permaculture books etc. take far too easily for granted.

 

I'm too lazy to do lots of weeding, so I recommend using a weed barrier. Bare soil is basically an open goal for anything that wants to grow. Newspaper and just enough leaf mould to hide it is about the cheapest organic way I've found. Some folk don't like it, but poly mulch is cheap and very effective too. You can buy paper mulch online, but I've not tried it yet.

 

What are you growing snowdude? In houses or open ground? How big is your farm? Are you JAS certified?

[Thundercat 60]

Thanks for the advice guys! Everything really is on the brink of blowing up big time. I've actually already harvested some togarashi! Tomatoes started flowering two weeks ago and the zucchini is also a few days away from producing it's first fruit. Luckily I love zucchini so I think I'll be able to use everything. Has anyone ever grown egg zucchini? I think it's actually a kind of summer squash but I decided to give it a go this year.

 

Mulching is a really great idea... I was planning on getting some from a friend who is in the process of cleaning up his backyard. He is going to be using a wood chipper to get rid of a few trees. If he doesn't get to it soon I'm going to buy some mulch from one of my neighbours.

 

I've also decided to go totally organic. I think with the small size it shouldn't be too challenging. The only problem I've encountered so far is from a little brown beasty that wants to devour my zucchini plants. I'm pretty much out there every day picking them off the plants and smashing them... there is quite a large(ish) farm next to our house so some bugs make their way over from there... I'm also interested in talking to the neighbours to find out if they are using any chemicals. I haven't noticed them using anything yet so that is a good sign.

 

I'm also interested to know more about your farm snowdude. Any tips for the organic farmer?

 

If the weather cooperates I'll post a few pictures this weekend.

[snowdude 44]

Originally Posted By: MitchPee

What are you growing?

any tips for mass scale growing?

Basically you need to grow vegetables suitable to your areas land / weather conditions.
For example here in Yamanashi I grow a lot of Corn and Aurbergines because they are suited to the conditions here.
Tomatoes and green peppers also do well here so I am growing a lot of those.
Then I grow smaller qauntities of things that are going to be more troublesome.
Also I grow different vegies in spring summer and autumn, usually things like diakon, cabbages, lettuces, broccoli etc in autumn.
Spring I grow chingensai, komatsuna, kabu, etc.

Basically if you plan to grow a lot it is better find out what suits your area, maybe you can ask the locals!

Unless you plan on selling what you grow, you would only need a little of various vegetables to supply yourself otherwise the rest would be wasted.

What are you thinking about doing?

[thursday 1]

I'm impressed. So many green figures and not a nostril in sight.

[snowdude 44]

All what I grow is organic, so obviously weeds and pests are a problem. To help combat this I use black mulch for virtually all vegetables which helps keep down the weeds. For protection against insects I spray them with vinegar, and well I have another natural way of helping to keep the insects down, but sorry can't reveal that here as I plan to market this product if it is succesful. As soon as I spot insects on the plants I pick or brush them off.

A few slightly eaten leaves on say aurbergines is fine, but eaten lettuce leaves want sell.

Basically growing vegies on a mass scale organically to sell requires a lot of attention, like feeding, taking off insects, trying to prevent them from getting on in the first place usuing only natural things, weeding all very time consuming.

But I love my job and am happy to be out all day form dawn to dusk, but

Growing just for fun then organic should not be too difficult, but you will still need to take care of the vegies, otherwise the insects and weeds will take care of them for you.

 

 

Answer to Mr wiggles questions, Yes I am Jas certified and qualified as a professional farmer.

I have around 25 aru of land, sorry not sure what that is in English, but it is a lot it is slightly more than the required 20 aru to be classed as professional for this area.

 

I grow everything outside in the open, and my tomatoes are grown outside but under a rain shelter.

[indosnm 0]

I'd love to get the Daikon going here... any one wanna bring me some seeds?

[NoFakie 45]

Thanks for the answers. Are you a teikei farmer?

 

One are is 100 sq meters, so you've got 2500 sq meters. Just over half an acre. Without lots of machinery, I guess that's realistically all one or two people can do intensively. If you ski, I'm guessing you have a supplementary income too. Good on you for choosing that lifestyle though.

 

Is there any particular school of organics you follow? Biodynamic, no-dig, double dig, HDRA, etc.? In Yamanashi, do you get much snow? For Nagano, this is the best resource I've found. Jam packed with local knowledge.

 

 

Are you near Hakushu by any chance?

 

We use about 100 sq meters but have many times that we could expand into. I've been a bit busy so far with landscaping around the house and site clear up, but that's kind of getting there now. Hopefully we'll get a lot of fruit trees in this year.

 

The main pest problem I've ever had is flea beatles attacking the aburana family, such as rocket. They pepper the leaves with lots of tiny holes. The other one is tanuki eating my sweetcorn!

[Thundercat 60]

Anyone know what these guys are called in English?

 

In Japanese they are called Urihamushi (ウリãƒè™«ï¼‰ Is it melon bug? Anyway, I'm locked in an epic battle with them right now and am determined to win! Fighto!

[RobBright 35]

Originally Posted By: Mr Wiggles

The main pest problem I've ever had is flea beatles attacking the aburana family, such as rocket. They pepper the leaves with lots of tiny holes. The other one is tanuki eating my sweetcorn!

a reet bastard that tanuki.

[snowdude 44]

Originally Posted By: Mr Wiggles

Thanks for the answers. Are you a teikei farmer?

One are is 100 sq meters, so you've got 2500 sq meters. Just over half an acre. Without lots of machinery, I guess that's realistically all one or two people can do intensively. If you ski, I'm guessing you have a supplementary income too. Good on you for choosing that lifestyle though.

Is there any particular school of organics you follow? Biodynamic, no-dig, double dig, HDRA, etc.? In Yamanashi, do you get much snow? For Nagano, this is the best resource I've found. Jam packed with local knowledge.



Are you near Hakushu by any chance?

We use about 100 sq meters but have many times that we could expand into. I've been a bit busy so far with landscaping around the house and site clear up, but that's kind of getting there now. Hopefully we'll get a lot of fruit trees in this year.

The main pest problem I've ever had is flea beatles attacking the aburana family, such as rocket. They pepper the leaves with lots of tiny holes. The other one is tanuki eating my sweetcorn!

I am a private farmer, but registered as a professional, which is how I wish to be for now anyway.
Thanks for the size conversion, managing what I have is not so hard as I anyway have access to a tractor and plow and the rest of the equipment I anyway have, such as rotorvators etc.

Basically my principals are grown everything organically and put back in the soil what I take from it.
So I make my own compost from vegetable scraps and re-use / cycle all waste.
I absolutely do not use any chemicals of any sort.
I do spray my vegetables but using only home made concoctions made from pure ingredients, all 100% chemical free!

My main concept is to produce 100% safe, chemical free vegetables that can safely be consumed by anyone.

We get some snow here in Yamanashi, it snows very heavy a couple times each winter and lightly a few times throughout the winter. More than snow it tends to be very cold in winter.

I use the local Nogyo Centre here when ever I need to know something or got a question about something, the are very helpful, but I do have several books on farming including organic farming.
Yes I do have a supplementary income, although I have now turned pro, I am not yet earning what I would like, and with farming having a second income certainly helps.

Flee beetles and the aburamushi tend to be a problem here.
If you get aburamushi (little green flies that leave the sticky honey dew) wipe them off the leaves gently and lightly rub just a very little dirt on the underside of the leaves, they will not be back. They only like clean leaves to stick to. Not easy to do if you have many plants of course.
Don't put dirt on the tops of the leaves though, as that will block light from entering the leaf veins and can kill the plants.

Spray your plants with a little watered down vinegar this will help, especially if you do it regular.

[NoFakie 45]

Thanks for all the details and good luck to you! Anyone who is certified is the real deal. We don't use any chemicals, but I bet there are still residues in the plot I use. For people going out of their way to buy organics, I think proper certfication is very important. I also think there is a massive difference betwen growing say ten tomato plants among other veg, preferably with a staggered harvest, and growing one hundred in one or more blocks to a standard that people will buy. Therein lies the difference between "gardener" and "farmer".

 

The economics of farming in Japan can be extremely tough. It's interesting to know how people approach it, hence the questions.

 

My other big pest is my two-year-old son. He kills way more plants and seedlings than the insects. Usually with a bigger smile on his face than Mario there!

[stemik 14]

good to see all you gardeners growing your vegetables.

I am a lawn man myself....I am going to cut my grass this afternoon

[griller 9]

I have two potted plants on my 'balcony'.

I water them every so often.

That's how far my gardening goes.