When I went out on the balcony in this morning, I felt the urge to work irresistibly (again!), so I tidied up the late winter to spring plants and planted bitter melons. Yes, I really love gardening ...
There were a total of nine bitter melon plants plus one mini-mini, so the first step was to make space for them. Originally, they were planted quite miscellaneous like in the picture below.
First, I had the lavender moved to the planter where the violas are planted since it's nice flowers are growing together and it doesn't need net to climb up. The mint was divided into smaller pots, and the lettuce and spring onions were harvested completely. I was really thankful to the lettuce and spring onions that fed us over the spring. I will plant them again in the fall.
I roughly placed the bitter melon seedlings in the vacant space and positioned them. Perfectly 9+1 plants fit in 🙌
I placed bamboo skewers to support the plants as it is supposed to rain hard later this week. As you can see in the picture below, 2-3 bamboo skewers are inserted into the soil around the plant. They support plants properly without tying it up with string, and this works fine until they start climbing up the threads I installed early this week. By the way, you can also use this technique for other young plants such as leaves like lettuce etc.
The next task is to remove the top after they have grown a little more leaves. Speaking of summer vegetables, I found okra seeds the other day when I stopped by a DIY store with a friend, and I'm going to try to grow them on my office balcony or in the community garden containers.
Yes, I now fully enjoy spring/summer gardening because there are so many plants I want to try and the plants grow so fast with sunshine and warm temperature. Autumn/winter gardening is also nice though 😁
So have a great day everyone and happy gardening 🥒
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朝、バルコニーに出たら、また無性に作業をしたくなってしまい、晩冬から春にかけての植物を整理して、ゴーヤを植えつけてしまいました。我ながら本当にガーデニング好きだなと。
ゴーヤは全部で9株＋ミニミニの株が1株あったので、まずはスペースを作るところから。もともと下のような写真の感じで結構雑多に植っていました。
ラベンダーにはヴィオラが植っているプランターに移動してもらって、ミントは鉢に分けて小さくして、レタスとネギは株ごと収穫しました。春にうちの食卓を彩ってくれたレタスとネギに感謝。また秋に植えようと思います。
空いた場所にゴーヤの苗をざっくり置いて、位置を決めます。ぴったり9+1株が収まりました 🙌
今週後半は雨が強く降るとのことで、竹串で支えることにしました。下の写真のように台所で使う竹串2-3本を植物のまわりの土に刺して支えます。紐で縛らなくてもきちんと支えてくれて、ネットに絡むくらいまでこれで大丈夫。ちなみに、葉物の苗を作る時にも使えます。
ゴーヤについてはこれで一段落。次の作業は本葉がもう少し増えてからの摘芯です。夏野菜といえば、先日お友達についてホームセンターに立ち寄った時にオクラの種を発見してしまい、オフィスのバルコニーかコミュニティーガーデンで懲りずに育ててみようと思っています。
春夏は作れるものが多い上に、植物の成長も早く、ガーデニングが楽しいですね。今週はガーデニングしすぎ・・・でも、心はガーデナーなのでいいのです。
それではみなさん、良い1日を！Happy gardening 🥒
