May in Tokyo in my mind is a month of warm, dry, blissful weather, but for the second time in the four-day weekend this year for Golden Week we’ve had constant rain, which is frankly a bit of a drag.
But being stuck inside with little to work on is giving me a chance to do a little study and fix my bikes to protect against theft, having being stung by a robber taking my bike earlier this year. I can also spend time with the struggling dinosaur, who still isn’t quite 100%.
And the rain makes the garden look absolutely spectacular! I had originally planned to spend the morning on a community clean-up and the arvo looking after Kangaeroo Corner, including replanting the seedlings I’ve grown from seeds this year. But the rain put paid to that, so I had to enjoy looking out from the inside, which allowed me to be enthralled by the delightful new addition of a grevillea bonfire.
I’ve enjoyed and been thrilled by growing plants from seed, but this year hasn’t really gone well. I planted melaleuca decussata, grevillea robusta and eucalyptus woodwardii, getting a single seedling apiece from the 60-odd sown, so it wasn’t a great average. The only seeds that grew were ones that I had planted in growth pds from the 100-yen store and kept in a flit, heated growth bucket using soil for Australian native plants. I sowed dozens of seeds in a seed kit from Costco, getting only a single sprout that subsequently died after a few days. I realized I made a mistake by using soil that was too heavy, and failed to keep the soil moist. It was also dark, so pretty much doomed to fail.
