Roger's head 0 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Poor us. But we have our cucumbers and daikons. (You'll have to explain the Norika bit, lost me there sorry!) Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 Apparently, if you rent a Leo Palace apartment (without a garden), you get that rather plain Norika dressed up like a dog's dinner living in your room with you. Unless of course the advertising is misleading. I'd rather have the daikon and carrots. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 200 sq meters or so for us We've got a fantastic view of the mountains and a stream running down from them behind us . We eat outside most days when its dry . Sansai (especially fuki-no-to) grow naturally out the back. The garden is under snow for four months of the year, and still can drop to freezing or enough to kill your basil in late April. We're on an alluvial plain so our "soil" is about 85% rocks , but after various backbreaking efforts, last year we finally paid someone to dig out patches with a digger and now cultivate maybe 40 sq meters in total. If it was my own house, I'd have the whole lot done. We grew quite a bit this year, with pretty good results. Until September at least, the weather was much better this year than last. If you can, it's great eating your own stuff. You can do a lot with planters even, if you've got a spot that gets some sun and put your mind to it. Coriander grows well here in Nagano from April to October. It's easy to grow from seed. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 My dear Wiggles, you should download the Humanure Manual in PDF format here . Soon you can get those rocks covered in new topsoil. Best to start next spring unless you want a big heap of shit covered in snow though. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 I compost most of the waste from my garden (don't do it all unless you want weeds growing out of your pile) and some of the kitchen stuff, but am yet to look into what comes out of our bodies. It would save us 40,000 a year on the poo truck for starters. The woman across the road uses rice husks to fertilize her garden. It produces a fantastic light, richly coloured soil. I seem to remember the "100 Meizan" hiker on Outdoor Japan describing a composting toilet on her travels, but am yet to encounter one myself. A bacteria toilet that only needs emptying once a year is the closest as I've come. The farmers near my parents place put sewage sludge on their fields but that smells really bad for miles around. They mustn't be letting it decompose first. Link to post Share on other sites
indosnm 0 Posted October 19, 2004 Share Posted October 19, 2004 O11, you should get onto that land next to yuor place! Around our area alot of old retired folk rent land very cheaply to grow their own stuff, I guess a retirement hobby. Every year I collect the decomposting autumn leave s from the walkways near our park and put it on our garden and it naturally composts itself and over a few years has made a really nice soil. we do get some silly looks of "what the F%RTYUck are we doing but it's a damn lot cheaper than buying the stuff! Link to post Share on other sites
nagoid 4 Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 Norika? You mean this Norika? Her or a daikon? Are you serious?!! Link to post Share on other sites
ian.f 0 Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 Hey what you got against Norika? I like her, better than some of the super-skinny things. I heard she was trying all she could to get herself to be a Bond girl. Link to post Share on other sites
BigSausage 0 Posted October 21, 2004 Share Posted October 21, 2004 That sure is a nice pic there. There's tons of daikon growing round the back of where I live. They're not actually mine, but the landlords, but he always passes quite a few on every season. Daikon are great. Link to post Share on other sites
xxx 2 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Quote: 200 sq meters or so for us Wow thats great, cost a fortune does it? Link to post Share on other sites
xxx 2 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 Quote: 200 sq meters or so for us Wow thats great, cost a fortune does it? Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted October 22, 2004 Share Posted October 22, 2004 No, not really, it's just there as part of the same plot as the house. The house was built for someone working for a Nagano company and is rented out now since they don't need it. The house is only 70 sq meters. Since I work from home, it's too small. Judging from other places around here, I doubt the rent would be any cheaper without the garden. It wasn't mentioned when I initially heard about it. To buy, land like this plot would be 15,000 yen per sq meter (50,000 a tsubo). Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted October 31, 2004 Share Posted October 31, 2004 Right, well I'm sorted now. I'm renting a plot on a mikan hillside for 2,500 yen a month. It has 2 mature mikan and iyokan trees on it and 4 new ones, plus lots of other space for growing veg. I got mud on my boots for serious today, breaking up the soil and making raised beds. There are also cherry, persimmon and fig trees that I can plunder at will, and in spring, bamboo shoots. Digging is great exercise and the hill is a five minute bike ride away. The owner said it's really popular with young girls in mini skirts, but there weren't any there today. Link to post Share on other sites
joshnii 2 Posted October 31, 2004 Share Posted October 31, 2004 That sounds great. Hope the girls turn up. They will if you grow that big daikon. Link to post Share on other sites
DrTom 0 Posted November 1, 2004 Share Posted November 1, 2004 That sounds great, I wish I could have a garden or plot here. Good luck with it. Show us a pic! Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 1, 2004 Share Posted November 1, 2004 I will post pics. I wanted to go today again but it rained hard all day and it would have been horrible. I ended up going to watch a ballet instead which was a very different sort of experience. Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted November 2, 2004 Share Posted November 2, 2004 Make sure you take the pics when the young girls in mini skirts are there. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 Ocean, do you have lots of rules and restrictions for that plot? Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 3, 2004 Share Posted November 3, 2004 No not at all. I can plant whatever I want, wherever, including trees. But I do ask that the mini skirt girls avoid standing on my parsley. Link to post Share on other sites
rach 1 Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 Thats great, I thought you might have so many rules clogging the place up there'd be no room for planting things. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 Here are some pics of the plot I had fun yesterday building a little wall and path. Now that I've seen the results of the US election, I think I'll dig some deep holes into the hill including L-bends. Link to post Share on other sites
NoFakie 45 Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 Epic drainage there mate. The brown stuff looks nice and loamy. "The hills are alive With the Sound of Music" Link to post Share on other sites
kintaro 0 Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 So Ocean, have you started your avacado tree yet? It'd be a good time now to keep in indoors all winter while it's small and move it out next Spring. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 5, 2004 Share Posted November 5, 2004 Good advice Kintaro. I'll get it started soon. Mr.Wiggles, the soil is good and very deep. The owner doesn't use any chemicals either. Link to post Share on other sites
Ocean11 0 Posted November 7, 2004 Share Posted November 7, 2004 A little more info on growing avocados . You can start them in soil apparently too. I'm going to get started today. Link to post Share on other sites
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