Yesterday Tod and I planted potatoes in the hatake. It’s a bit late, but I hope they will still be okay. Once they were in the ground, I started to think about the rest of the field and what I might try planting. The monkeys and boars would enjoy most of what I would prefer to plant, so I have to plan carefully.
Tod & I headed closer to the house and my brain began planting in the spaces there. Should I try a kitchen garden? Perennial flowers? Annuals? Shrubbery?
I am blessed with good soil thanks to generations of gardeners. Yes, there is an occasional boot or random cast-off item, but mostly, I can dig anywhere and be sure of success.
So here’s my plan for each of the gardens and planting spaces:
Hatake
My goal is to try some new things this year: adding some more herbs to the witch’s garden; and succession planting with chiles after the potatoes. I have a lot of dill seeds and mustard, so I might just broadcast them into some spaces and see what happens. I’d also like to replace the dying mulberry with a roselle hibiscus, and add some dyer’s plants into the other areas. Will the monkeys destroy it all? Who knows? This is as far as I’ve gotten:
Kitchen Garden
The kitchen garden is in transition this year. The flowering ginger had taken over most of the space, and while it is lovely, I’d like a bit less of it. So yesterday I dug a lot of it up. Which may have created a monster; small rhizomes I missed getting out of the ground now have space to start fresh. So in the middle of this garden, for now, it will be annuals until I see what happens. I scattered kale and lettuce on the north half and will rotate greens in and out as the season allows. I am rooting some pussy willow to plant over on the south corner.
Above the kitchen garden is a seep that gets soggy in rainy season and stays damp most of the time. and I’d like to get some sedges or other water-loving plants to fill in there.
Backyard
The backyard – above the gabion – has already gotten some attention with a lemon tree, crepe myrtle, and a daphne. It needs pretty foliage to beat the weeds as these trees and shrubs grow into their mature sizes, so I will turn the east part into a butterfly garden around the dead but sculptural tree.
Front Garden & Tireyama
The front garden is really three small gardens in a long strip. On the east end is a Japanese garden that I only need to maintain. On the west, outside the dining room and along the Giant’s Teeth, I want to plant a scent garden using flowers and perennials that span the seasons. I need to do more study on this, as this is a rather shady part of the property. And in the middle, I can’t plant anything permanent because the water service pipes are already planted there. So I will use this space for cheery annuals and things in pots.
Along the slope of Tireyama, I will plant shrubs. It gets good sun, so I might try roses there, too. It’s not a high priority and I can imagine myself buying shrubbery on a whim.
And more…
555 has a lot of gardenable area. Here are some spaces that I haven’t planned out yet. Fortunately, there is no rush. Things will happen when they happen. 🙂
It’s a great big gardening adventure!
