Archive

Tag Archives: balcony

Extravagant tulips imported from Netherlands with two-tone flowers and leaves

March 18, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

オランダが輸入されたこのぜいたくなチューリップの花は二色あり、葉っぱも二色あります。春が待ち遠しいです。

Two tone flowers and variegated leaves make these tulips very extravagant. I also like how the seller reinforces the idea that they were flown or shipped from the Netherlands. I was amazed to find these “Top Lips” tulips at the local home center.

Some garden purists insist on growing from seed or bulb. I don’t mind mixing up seeds, starters, and buds. With the small space of a 4 square meter balcony, it’s nice to let the nurseries do some of the preparation so we can enjoy more variety and color.

“Scabiosa blue balloon” sounds like a medical condition and hospital gift. Actually, it’s very fetching.

March 16, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

「スカビオサ・ブルー・バールン」という名前は疾患か病院からのプレゼントみたいです。ライラックの色はとても素敵です。今年、はじめて見ました。

This lovely lilac flower with an odd name, Scabiosa blue balloon, is one I don’t remember seeing before. It’s native to southeast England, and developed into a garden cultivar. I like to mix up nostalgic plants like daffodils with ones I’m not familiar with.

Lupinus re-made into showy annual. It’s only barely recognizable from American species.

March 14, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

この冬は長くて寒いですね。最近、自転車でホーム・センターに行って、花をたくさん買いました。ルピナスと言う花はキャンディーのような色です。北米の起原だけど、日本のは全然違います。ベランダに置きました。素敵です。

This winter seems to never end. So I biked over to the local home center recently, and loaded up on bright flowers including daffodils, tulips, stock, and this amazing lupinus. I am familiar with it as a very handsome deep blue flowering perennial, native to North America, that becomes a bush. I’d never seen it in candy colors and bred for maximum floral display. It’s at once familiar, odd, and just the right antidote for more cold days.

Pink, purple & red in balcony garden. Flowers & foliage.

January 22, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

去年の写真でベランダの紅葉を見られます。前の年の紫色のサルビアと新しいピンク色のガーベラもあります。

From last year, I like these images of the balcony garden in late fall, still crowded and with leaves turning color, the previous year’s purple salvia re-bloom, and new pink gerber daisies as highlights.

Winter snap peas alongside large tool shed

January 17, 2012
small business, Urban food, Walking and transit
Leave a Comment

足立区で、物置小屋の隣に元気なスナックエンドウを見つけました。ベランダで私も冬に育てているけれど、こんなに元気じゃありません。うらやましいです。

These snap peas look very vigorous growing alongside a large tool shed in Adachi-ku in December. While visiting the cherry trees of this northeastern section of Tokyo, I was delighted to see these fantastic vines inside a work space visible next to the sidewalk. Last year I learned that you can grow this vegetable in Tokyo’s winter. I wish mine looked so full and so ready to provide many meals.

Winter decorative cabbage in flower ceramic

January 15, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

もう一つ、植物の室内撮影。ハボタンは東京の冬に育ちやすいです。この小さい紫のキャベツと花のデザインの陶芸を組み合わせるのがおもしろいと思います。

Still more indoor plant portrait photography.

Another plant that usually lives outside in the balcony garden, decorative cabbage is great for winter color. I also like how the purple leaves and mini trunk combine with the flower design of the ceramic. In San Francisco, raccoons ate our decorative cabbage the first night we brought them home. The next day two raccoons knocked on the backdoor with a hungry look on their faces.

Another gerber hybrid

January 14, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

ガーベラの雑種をもう一つ。植物の室内撮影をもう一つ。

こんなに細かく刻まれた花びらを見たことがありませんでした。東京の冬のベランダで育っています。

Another gerber hybrid. More indoor plant portrait photography.

I’d never before seen a gerber with shredded petals. Another lovely winter flower in Tokyo.

Mini gerber makes loud cheer

January 13, 2012
Residences
Leave a Comment

もう一つ、植物の室内撮影。このミニガーベラはとても派手ですね。たくさん化学肥料を使っているからかもしれません。ホームセンターにはそんな植物が多いです。短い茎は異常で、このピンクと白色のガーベラは人工的です。人工的に育てられた花と手作りの陶芸を組み合わせるのはかっこいいと思います。

More indoor plant portrait photography.

I love how this short stemmed pink-and-white gerber is so loud. It seems super-charged with fertilizers, which seems likely since I bought it at Shimachu, a “DIY” home center in Nakano. I like the prices and the proximity, although I consider many of their plants more on the human side of the nature continuum.

In winter, it seems like some of the filler and seasonal color I bought there is lasting a long time. And I think there’s a perverse balance in combining factory-produced plants with hand-made ceramic.

Another bonsai transformed in winter

January 11, 2012
Residences, trees
Leave a Comment

もう一つ、植物の室内撮影。去年作った変わった盆栽は紅葉で色づいています。今、深紅の枝が三つ残っています。部屋のなか以外に置く時は、台所の窓の近くに置きます。

More indoor plant portrait photography.

I made this strange bonsai last summer with a small bi-colored grass, tall leafy tree, and gravel. It’s fun to watch the leaves turn deep red and fall. When it’s not inside, this plant is close to the kitchen window.

Bonsai shedding leaves

January 8, 2012
Residences
1 Comment

冬の日光は、室内で植物を撮影するのにいいと思います。

ベランダの庭には、植木鉢が多いです。ですから、室内に持って来るのが簡単です。一つの植物はお客さんを接待するときに使えますし、気分を変えてくれます。盆栽は一番持ち運びがよくて、いくつかの要素が小さな世界を作ってくれます。

The winter sunlight is particularly good for indoor plant portrait photography.

Bonsais are the ultimate in portable and creating an entire, changing world with few elements. Part of gardening involves the overall effect of dozens or hundreds of plants. But part is also the specific plant and season.

As a balcony gardener using containers, I have many small plants that are especially portable. A single indoor plant can welcome a guest or create a mood.

Snow begins to cover Mount Fuji

January 1, 2012
public space, Residences
Leave a Comment

寒い季節は、空が澄んでいることが多いです 。今富士山にはいっぱい雪があります。あけましておめでとう。

The cold weather brings clear skies. You can watch as the snow gradually starts out as icing on Mount Fuji, and then covers it entirely for winter.

Happy new year!

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 841 other followers