SHIZUOKA GOURMET

I was recently asked by a good Japanese friend of mine to re-design her roof garden she had built some ten years in the view of creating a tree and flower space above her new apartment building.
The plan is to transform at least half of it into a vegetable and fruit tree garden.
I may not talk about the many reasons behind this project as this is part of a confidential venture, but I can at least describe my work as a journal.
I certainly hope to share views with like-minded souls in Japan and abroad!

2013 March 15th

I noticed the daffodils really growing big and some small and cute flowers and there!

More flowers!

First seedlings session!
Did everything in Room 206 which was given to me for that sole purpose or any experiments I might feel like doing!

Great place to work in!

The passion fruit seedlings are doing well!

Seedling pots on the sill!

I proceeded with 4 seedlings for 14 varieties of vegetables.
I used dark plastic small-sized seedlings pots

Organizing the seeds order

I used a seedling soil mix from a dependable producer.

I added plenty of moisture to the soil mix first.

I made sure to mark the pots to avoid any confusion!

I filled the pots up to half with some soil first.

Tiny seeds!

I made a point to use at least three seeds per pot except for large seeds.

Big colorful seeds!

As for paprika I prepared eight seedlings as they come as a mix of colors.

I laid some soil on top of the seeds and sprayed water over them before covering them with some seedling transparent cover and laying each tray on the window sill for maximum sun exposure.

Today’s seedlings:
Paprika x2
Puszta Gold Pepper
Suyo Cucumber
Yellow Aiko Tomato　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　
Chiharu Mini Tomato
Orange Charolu Mini Tomato
Black Cherry Tomato
White Cherry Tomato
Green Zebra Tomato
Cabbage Filderkraut
Japanese Pickling Eggplant
Snowy Eggplant
Zucchini Gold Rush
Snack No 2 Peas in Pod

I did some more cleaning of the raised beds to take out the last roots away.

I also planted 8 pots in the “herb square” with the following herbs:
Peppermint
Oregano
Sage
Lemon Balm
Coriander
Chervil
Thyme
German Chamomille

Organic vegetable soil

The organic lime and vegetable soil came in the afternoon just in time to prepare the soil of the right hand side T-shaped vegetable raised bed.
It was real hard work for me and Ms. Kinoshita carrying the 22kg bags one by one onto the roof!

Organic lime.

I first mixed the lime with the original soil as the latter is good enough and topped the whole with plenty of vegetable soil.

Lime mixed in the original soil.

The new vegatable raised bed!

We finally covered the raised bed after some watering with tarp to allow the soil to ferment.

RECOMMENDED LINKS FOR ROOF GARDENING

Best New York Gardening Blogs
Battery Rooftop Garden Blog (UK)
Green Roof Growers (Chicago)
Mitsukoshi Roof Top Garden – Ginza by Tokyobling’s Blog
NYCFARMER’S BLOG
The Tattooed Gardener
Town and Country Gardening
My Botanical Garden by Tamara
My Food and Flowers
Vienna Roof Garden
Leaf and Twig
Ekostories by Jack Yuen
My Food And Flowers
The Japans
Photography Art Plus
LOSTINTHOT

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pierre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento,

Must-see tasting websites:

-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!, Beering In Good Mind: All about Craft Beer in kanzai by Nevitt Reagan!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

Non gastronomy must-see sites by Shizuoka Residents

HIGHOCTANE/HAIOKU by Nick Itoh in Shizuoka City

Tags: Agriculture, Ecology, Environment, Garden, Gardening, Japan, Japan Culture, Roof Garden, Shizuoka

This entry was posted on March 16, 2013 at 7:04 am and is filed under Agriculture, Ecology, Environment, 観光, 農業, Gardening, Health, Japan, Shizuoka, Shizuoka agricultural products, Tourism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.