Tag: オージープランツ

No Paws for Thought

Kangaroo paws, the big success story of my Aussie seeds saga, and the one that most mattered to me, reached a new stage in their progress from propagation.

Mrs. Kangaeroo noticed that they were crowding the large pot that I had planted them in, and if they weren’t moved they could end up choking each other.

Showing a turn of speed I’m not known for (unless there’s chocolate around), I was off to the local 100 yen store to fill up on pots and stones to put at the bottom of them.

Along the way, I put in an order online for Aussie native plant potting mix.

I spread out the individual pots, covered the bottoms with stones, then added a layer of a mix of sulphur, perlite and peat moss.

The dirt arrived and brought my fears with it.

I knew now that I would have to take action, and my record with transplanting seedlings is not good.

Not really keen on yet another failure….but, I got stuck into it anyway.

Despite my best intentions to be careful and gentle, I was a clumsy as ever in digging out the kangaroo paw plants, maintaining as much of the root ball as possible and inserting them in their new homes.

In the end, I left a couple of the smaller seedlings in the original large pot in the hope they may grow.

And I put the bigger seedlings into their own pots to give them space.

Being the middle of the rainy season, there are probably friendlier times for them to be put through transplant shock.

But I will keep my eye on them and hope for the best.

(Already, less than 24 hours after the transplant, I’ve had to lop off a few dead leaves that hadn’t existed before. I hope I won’t have to go through that process too often. We’re due a bit of sunshine later this week, and I hope it will be just what the plants need to thrive)

These are the kinds of flowers I’m hoping we’ll get…and we may even get them this year?

Fully Fern-Ished Garden

Kangaeroo Corner has now got a fully fledged fern in place, with the amazing Alex Endo planting a dicksonia tree fern this morning.

The fern went into the back entrance where the nandina had been.

BEFORE

Alex, who specializes in Aussie plants and creating gardens filled with Australian native plants and a magician who conjured up a magical transformation on Kangaeroo Corner a little over a year ago, also pruned the garden and got it looking even sharper.

DURING

It was important for me to have a dicksonia because they’re a tree almost synonymous with the Dandenong Ranges, where I grew up and still have so many fond memories.

And it looks magnificent.

AFTER

BONUS!

And we got a bonus! We got the tree fern because our earlier dicksonia had been choked by the nandina’s aggressive roots.

I’d actually un-rooted the dicksonia and had it ready for the garbage pile until I saw the roots of the new fern.

They were not too different from the old one, so I asked Alex to have a look at the old girl. He thought there may be a possibility of rehabilitation, so we’re gonna give it a go and hope for the best!

All in all, an absolutely magnificent day!

Nurturing the Soul

British Poet Laureate Alfred Austin once wrote, “To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the bodybut the soul.” Kangaeroo is getting to find that out.

Gardening never really meant much to Kangaeroo, other than getting dragged out of bed as a youth on Saturday mornings to mow the bloody lawn with an antiquated, run-down Victa lawnmower.

Never the most energetic or enthusiastic of people at the best of times, the onerous task colored Kangaeroo’s views on gardening for decades, despite all family members showing a penchant and delight for gardening.

Having spent the vast majority of those aforementioned decades in Japan, where apartment life had been the norm and having a garden, even on a balcony, was rarely an issue, gardening was something that barely entered Kangaeroo’s consciousness.

However, having been blessed by circumstance and the amazing Alex Endo, gardening has become a daily delight.

Who could have dreamed that search and destroy missions for weeds could be so much fun?

And it’s a delight to enjoy the neighbors’ gardens, too, as well as to share information with them on the delights of getting out in the garden.

Fortunately, if a less-than-successful year so far, if nothing else the warmer months of 2022 in Tokyo have had finer than usual weather, which has also made the garden even more enjoyable.

The Aussie animals filling Kangaeroo’s garden are sure enjoying it, and so are the neighborhood cats and birds who are donating their unprocessed fertilizers!

Spring Has Finally Sprung

Almost as though on cue, probably the most delightful time of the year in Japan–May, when it’s warm, dry, sunny and with the longest hours of daylight–has been generally bleak and glim by its usual standards in 2022.

This year has been subjected a bit to the rule of law: Murphy’s Law, unfortunately.

Still, amid a global pandemic when the vast majority of people around the world are feeling the pinch in some way or another, there have also been plenty of blessings.

When the sun finally started showing its face with a bit of consistency as May drew to a close, it also enabled Japan’s glorious spring to put on yet another one of the fine faces it displays in this season.

And Kangaeroo’s 2022 spring was a little bit special because it was the first chance the Aussie garden got to bloom.

And boy was it special!

Can’t thank the magical Alex enough. His work is bringing absolute delight on a daily basis!

Amazing Alex’s Aussie Oasis in Tokyo’s Tama

Alex’s Garden Party