Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Garden Report - June 2006 -


Sad news. I won’t be able to get rose hips from my balcony garden this autumn. My dog rose is sick. :( 

Remember how it looked just one month ago? All the leaves were green, looking completely healthy, and pink flowers were so lovely. Then it happened. At the end of May, some leaves started turning yellow. Then more and more leaves… When I looked close, I found tiny black spots on the leaves. This is a common rose disease, right?

I used a fungicidal spray, and kept removing yellow leaves as much as possible every day, but obviously it was not enough for saving the flowers and hips from turning brown and falling. How disappointing… I heard that in other countries, dog rose just grows wild on the roadside, so I assumed that it was a disease-resistant kind which needs very little care. But with our hot and humid weather, it’s a different story here, I guess…

Well, let’s not be too disappointed, because other plants are doing fine.


Sweet Marjoram (blooming) and chervil. They are just perfectly fine.


Blueberries are gradually ripening. :D


Mizuna mustard. This is a less-bitter variety which is good for salad. According to the package, the seeds came from Denmark! Is mizuna popular over there???


Mom’s neighbor gave her 2 young tomato plants and this is one of them. According to the neighbor, this is supposed to have oblong tomatoes, so I hope this is an Italian tomato plant. If so, I’ll make dry tomatoes this summer!

Dill is doing fine, as always. I’m hoping to be able to get more dill seeds than last year.







These are called “chima sanchu,” a variety of leafy lettuce(?) with long leaves and a little bitter taste. Well, that’s what I heard. They say it is great with yakiniku. Think about tasty yakiniku wrapped with crispy chima sanchu leaves… and accompanied by ICE COLD BEER!(← Very important.) :D


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4 comments:

obachan said...

milgwimper
I guess there’s nothing I can do about the rose at this moment other than keep picking the sick leaves as much as possible. All the rose hips are gone now. :(
Thanks for the info. about chima sanchu. I googled right after I read your comment and yeah, looks like it came from Korea. I didn’t know that until now. Both chima and sanchu do not mean anything in Japanese…we are just using its Korean name pronounced in Japanese way.

CG
OH, what a shame! How could you ignore a yakiniku place right in front of your house for 10 months? They must be feeling awfully sad. ;)
Beer glasses coated in ice? Mmmm… great technique. I want to know how they do that.

Anonymous said...

Hello from Finland Obachan! From the garden shop I found a small plant of Mizuna for the first time ever. And it started to grow VERY well indeed. So I have a lots of it.... Pls give me some ideas how to use it!!! I have mixed it with sallad and also to some soups and wok dishes. Else?! It is very tasty and good and I will continue to use it!

obachan said...

Hi tiv!
Nice to hear from Finland. So you do have mizuna in Northern Europe! I usually use them for salad with sometimes Western and sometimes Japanese dressings. What kind of dressing do you use when you eat mizuna in your salad?
Today I made mizuna and shredded chicken breast salad with mayonnaise-wasabi dressing. It would be nice with mayonnaise-mustard dressing, too.
I've read somewhere that mizuna tempura (batter-fried mizuna) was also good, but I haven't tried it yet.
I'm thinking about posting about some kind of mizuna dish soon (hopefully).

Unknown said...

Hello Obaban!
I am very impressed by your balcony garden. I have a balcony garden too (I'm in London) and am trying to grow from seed : mizuna, shiso (Korean and Vietnamese kinds), Vietnamese mint, tomatoes and strawberries. But I fear I won't have enough space once these all grow beyond the seedling stage - I got greedy and planted many seeds but I know I'll have to cull some when I plant them out into larger containers.
I loved the shiso drink recipe too, I hope to try it once my shiso grows (it's only just past the 2 leaf stage).
Anyway, best regards and I do hope you are feeling much better.
Cheers,
Dancing Duck