From Hirakata-city, Osaka-prefecture, Japan

We harvested potatos. I cut bud of potatos for big potatos but it was a little late. But we harvested many potatos.

Today, we harvested sweet potatos. It had been raining continuously so today is best day for harvesting. Our parents also came here because my son called them and we began to harvest. It took about 1.5 hour, very tired. I bought 20 peaces of sweet potato's seedlings (about 1000 Yen, 10$) and harvested 70 peaces of potatos. It might be that one peace of sweet potato is about 100-200 Yen so it is not so bad. I chose "naruto-kintoki" brand which is very popular one in Japan. After harvesting, we shared potatos half for parents and us. My mother-in-law immediately cooked "daigaku-imo" which is popular home cooking in Japan.  My son loved them very much.

Today , we harvested broad beans with son and his grandfather. As my memo , I bought broad bean's seeds on last Nov. which was about 200 yen (2$) and now these are like that (below photo) In winter time, soy bean and green peas are very good vegetables because there are several vegetables grown in winter time. But winter time is good because there are seledom warms so we don't care about them.  I challenged planting green soybeans in summer time but protecting them from warms is very difficult for me so finally gave it up ! And recent green pea taste very delicious. We like both of them very much.

Today , we harvested broad beans with son and his grandfather. As my memo , I bought broad bean's seeds on last Nov. which was about 200 yen (2$) and now these are like that (below photo) In winter time, soy bean and green peas are very good vegetables because there are several vegetables grown in winter time. But winter time is good because there are seledom warms so we don't care about them.  I challenged planting green soybeans in summer time but protecting them from warms is very difficult for me so finally gave it up ! And recent green pea taste very delicious. We like both of them very much.

Today, we planed potatos. I bought potatos 3kg (750yen) and cut these potatos in half. Before planting, we put ashes to potato's cutting planes and planted them. I always bought potatos about 1 or 2 kg so 3 kg is a little too much for our farm. There are half of entire spaces left but all was used for potstos. It took about 2 hours for farming, tired..

Last years autumn, I sowed this field with japanese radish, chinese cabbages and komatsuna. But it was a little late to sow (nearly winter time) so they grew slowly and spring has come and flowers bloom !! I first see japanese radish's flower. Suddenly stem of them grew taller and flowered with yellow tiny flower. Maybe they are all relatives so their flowers are very similar.

Potatos which we harvested came into bud so we planted them. Cauliflower and broccoli was grown. String bean blossoms are out. It took about 2 hours to plant and harvest vegetables, but today is very warm and sky is blue so it is enjoyable.

Hot summer season has gone and good season for grow vegetables has come. Yesterday, I bought seeds and seedlings. September is very good season to seed because comparing early summer time, there are a little warms so we can easly grow vegetables with leaves, so I bought 1) cabbage * 2) broccoli * 3) cauliflower * 4) spinach(ホウレンソウ) 5) komatsuna 6) field pea(莢豌豆) 7) Japanese radish 8) onion  ( *: which I bought seedling) As far as my last year's experience, bok choy(青梗菜) and No.2,5,6,7 is good. I usually plant onion seedling at november, but I found onion seeds so I'll try to seed them. Today, I plow the field about 2 hours and I got blisters on my hands ! It is also good season for eggplants ( in japan, autumn eggplant is synonymous with autumn delicious foods ). To get good autumn eggplant is to cut branchs at summer time. This is flowers of leeks(ニラ), it is similar with onion head. I sow them for the first time this season because I seeds them last ye

Recently my son likes dinosaur because TV program for children is broadcasted every Sunday morning and he likes this program very much, so we went to the exhibition of dinosaur. This exhibition was held at Osaka-dome (baseball stadium) skyhall 9th floor and this day, idle event was held at same time, so many young women was gathered and very crowded around this stadium. This dinosaur's event was not so crowded but many families had came. After that, there were another moving dinosaur (t-rex) and my son was crying ... After enjoying this event, we drop to the shopping center next to this stadium and afterthat, we walked around taisho-station (osaka dome is located near taisho ward). This area is famous for okinawa shops and it is about 10 year interval before we visited this town . I like this town's atmosphere and it is next to the sea so there are ferryboat for commuting.

We bought 3 fertilizer near our house. \250 per sack. Recently templature is rising and cherry blossom season will soon come, so planting season is coming !

We planed to plant potetos, so we digged our farm fot a long time. After digging, we found big stones and after removing them, this place began to a mud places. It was dangerous in such conditions because we couldn't step into this place! so we put back these stones and fixed them. It took about 2 hours and we were very tired. After that, we put potatos which we cut  half and was covered with ashes which protect potatos from bacteria.

 Our vegetable garden is fruitful of many vegetables. From right line to the left line,   -eggplant&tomato&small tomato&watermelon&melon   -cucumber&pimento&corn&cabbage   -welsh onion&komatuna (leafy green vegetable)   -green soybeans, sweet potato Now is the summer time and they grow fast and weed is same, so we (always this is my part!) pull out the weed and it is hard job. I always did at the early time of the day because about 9 AM, sun has very strong power and I sweat very much !  eggplant  cucumber from this side, green soybeans and sweet potato   And today, we catched some vegetables, eggplant, pimento, small tomato, tomato !

We found that we had a chance to do vegetable garden at city's garden place, so we applied it. And we were lucky to be able to do vegetable garden. This time, 4 vacant places are provided and 4 family including us applied this, so all members can have vegetable garden. Our garden place is about 6m long and 3.5m wide, but this is enough space for us. Before plowing (24 April) After plowing (30 April, today) For us, it was hard to plow it. We spend two day for plowing and yesterday, we bought vegetable seedlings (eggplant, tomato, watermelon) and seed of japanese radish and it cost about 80 yen(=1$) for one seedling so total cost was about 700-800 yen. And we bought powder of limestone for nutrition (at above picture, we can see white powder which is powder of limestone) And it might be fun for me and wife and especially our son ! Other family did like this (below). We need much time to have like this.