Life In Japan: City Boy Gardener

Yes, we’re at it again. Playing in the dirt, stocking our shelves and fridge with fresh, healthy vegetables.

Actually, as many Japanese do who are not officially farmers, we do this every year.

Mind you, growing up I didn’t have a garden. I lived in a mobile home park and our yard was about the size of a throw rug. And it was suburban Detroit. Detroit was not exactly famous for its farms at the time. It was the Motown sound and automobiles, i.e. groups like the Four Tops and Supremes providing the rhythms for tearing up the dance floor, and gigantic factories belching smoke to provide the world with family transportation. The population then was over 2,000,000. Now it’s less than 750,000 and I’ve heard — have not confirmed this with a personal visit — now there are actually huge tracts of abandoned property and Detroiters are growing all sorts of organic veggies. Right in the city! Amazing how things can change!

Anyway, so far we’ve already harvested more onions and potatoes than we can possibly use. We give a lot away.

The garden pictured above is at the early stages of producing the next round. We’re raising tomatoes, green peppers, eggplants, cucumbers, butternut squash. And of course, we planted a nice amount — fifty-five plants, to be exact — of black beans.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: City Boy Gardener | John Rachel

Life In Japan: One Potato Two Potato

The excitement never stops here is the Japanese countryside.

A few months ago, we planted potatoes. This weekend we harvested them!

I still regard this whole experience as something of a miracle.

Of course, growing up in Detroit, Michigan — which at the time was the automobile capital of the known universe — I was very familiar with plants. There was the Dodge truck PLANT over on Mound Avenue. There was the auto assembly PLANT in Sterling Heights. My whole town was full of and surrounded by such plants. From age 14 through high school, I worked as a shipping clerk assistant for an automation machinery company which sold their product internationally. We shipped 150-200 foot-long machines which machined everything from cylinder heads to crankcases to intake manifolds, by sea and land to automotive manufacturing plants in Germany, England, Argentina, Australia and so on. Some of our behemoth product lines were even painted green, I guess to go with the wallpaper in the gigantic factories which would house them. True, I had heard of this thing called a “farm” but thought it had something to do with cultivating baseball players for the major leagues. Not really curious enough to give it much thought, I assumed that since people needed food, it just somehow showed up at the supermarket. The idea that edible plants had to be planted, then slowly and organically grow into something useful and hopefully delicious, was never on my radar.

Okay . . . enough about my pitiful agricultural ignorance.

It’s never too late to learn unless you’re dead. Since I’m still alive and minimally sentient, I have embraced the whole gardening thing with random relish and earthy delight.

But enough talk. Feast your hungry eyes on our potato harvest. While you do that, I’ll be surfing the internet for potato recipes. Because yes . . . we’ve got a lot of potatoes!

You’ve heard the expression, “The world is an oyster.” It’s attributed to Shakespeare, from The Merry Wives of Windsor. I have to come clean. I never bought into that. In fact, for some reason lately I’m leaning toward: “The world is a potato.” Which puts a whole new spin on global warming, wouldn’t you say?

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: One Potato Two Potato | John Rachel

Life In Japan: Our New Garden

Yep! It’s that time of year again. Actually, it was that time of year again well over a month ago when we started with the plot of plowed earth pictured above.

Time to plant a new garden!

If anyone doubts just how incredibly hard we had to work to get things in shape, these should dispel any skepticism. (Ignore the smile on our faces . . . admittedly it is fun!)

Cutting to the chase, here is how things are developing.

We’ve had a couple set-backs. My high-tech rain and bird shielding construct made of the finest netting and plastic didn’t do well during the first serious rain. I had to do it all over.

Then there was some low-tech but highly effective pilfering of our first two cucumbers by a Japanese raccoon dog. Yes, it’s a hybrid of a dog and a raccoon. Not quite sure how how that came about. This particular one is about 50 cm long, new to the neighborhood, and apparently loves cucumbers — not the skin, just the juicy insides. I always thought they were nocturnal but I spotted this fellow strolling by our back window in the bright sunshine of late morning, acting quite casual — FOR A THIEF! Masumi was understandable upset. Cucumbers are an important component of our sense of self-worth.

Anyway, here’s what our little garden looks like right now.

I know I know. This whole gardening escapade can’t compete with all that’s going on in the world . . . Ukraine, Biden’s latest gaffes, the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp trial, the shortage of baby formula, gasoline prices. But it’s not supposed to. Maybe that’s the whole idea, eh?

I’ve mentioned a number of times that we live in the middle of rice and bean fields. Good farming methodology dictates rotation of crops, to keep down soil depletion. Looks like the field in front of our house will be growing rice this year. Here’s our neighbor playing in the mud with his tractor.

[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]

Life In Japan: Our New Garden | John Rachel