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.
東京には四季があるけれど、冬も花がよく見られます。駅に行く途中で、この白色のツバキの前を通ります。庭が小さいのに、いっぱい植物を育てていて、どの季節もきれいです。
I like how Tokyo has four seasons, but even in winter there are flowers. This well trimmed camellia is part of a wonderful residential garden that I pass on my way to the JR station. The space is small, but the gardener has dozens of species that are attractive in all season.
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.
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.
花壇の剪定の前と後の写真。この庭はビルの管理人と退職した夫婦が世話をしています。上の写真は、１０月で、葉と花が多いです。１１月は、隣の壁が見えます。剪定の後で、もっと明るくなりました。冬も毎月、花が咲いています。
I like this before and after photo set. It shows an apartment building green space that sits between the ten story building and its two story neighbors, homes and a plumbing supply business. It borders a small street that is mostly pedestrian.
The garden has a mix of flowering vines, bushes, bulbs, and a row of pine trees that were probably planted 35 or 40 years ago. The utility pole support is borrowed infrastructure for training a vine upwards.
The photo above was taken October 24, 2011, and the one below November 23, 2011. Above you can see all the fullness of summer: lush foliage, pink and red flowers at every height level, a blurring of the boundary with the neighbor’s garden.
A month later, the 3 story tree has been heavily pruned, which lets light in during the cold months. All the plants have been cut back, and you can see the wall separating the properties.
The maintenance is a mix of semi-professional gardeners hired by the apartment building and a retired couple living in the garden apartment. Although far more restrained in winter, the garden continues to bloom in every month, no doubt because of their efforts.
私のベランダの庭には、違う場所を呼び起こす植物を並べて置きます。ここはバラとフジバカマは一緒にあります。小さな庭なのに、楽しいです。
In my balcony garden, I like juxtaposing plants that evoke different places. Here is a late-blooming pink rose, originally from Asia yet cultivated extensively in Europe, along with fujibakama, one of Japan’s seven fall flowers. Mixing forms, colors, and histories make even the smallest garden fun.
コスモスは東京の秋の花だと知っていますか。近所の花店で買った。今庭で、ピンクや濃い青や白や黄色の花が多いです。ブルーベリーの葉は紅葉になります。
Did you know that cosmos are a fall flower in Tokyo? You see them everywhere this time of year, so I picked up this one from my neighborhood flower shop. This fall my garden has a lot of pink (roses, fujibakama), deep blue (Okinawa morning glory, lavendar, salvia), and white and yellow (pansies, marigold, geranium). The blueberry bush leaves are also turning red and gold.
今日は史火陶芸教室の展示会の準備をします。どんな植物がいろいろな植木鉢と似合うだろう。着生植物や季節の花と紫キャベツを使おうと思っています。土曜日から展覧会が始まります。写真は、最後の植木鉢の釉がけ前のです。
Today I am potting up plants and getting my flowerpots ready for the Shiho student ceramic show. Above are the last two larger flower pots. When I go to the studio today, I’ll see how they look after being glazed and baked.
The one with the holes can be used with a candle, or you can place a plant inside that you’ve bought at the nursery in its original plastic pot. I like that it’s lighter weight, transparent, and easy to swap plants in and out.
I am also showing small pots and smaller bonsai pots. I have an idea for untraditional bonsai plantings, including air plants that can be removed so you can see the whole ceramic pot. For the larger pots, I’ll try to mix seasonal flowers, purple leafed cabbage, and some of the plants Matthew left in the back garden.
The show starts this Saturday and runs for five days. I’ll be at the gallery on Saturday from 3ish to 7, on Sunday from 5 to 7, and sometime next week depending on my work schedule.
ベランダにこの色がとてもきれいです。この花は英語で「purple princess 紫姫」という名前です。日本語で「シコンノボタン 紫紺野牡丹」と言います。もともとブラジルの雨林から来ました。けれども、東京でもサンフランシスコでも育ちます。
Known botanically as Tibouchina urvilleana, I’ve always heard this plant referred to as “purple princess.” Originally from Brazil, it’s been called tropical, subtropical and “neotropical.” Despite its origin in rain forests, it grows well not only in Tokyo but also in San Francisco.
It’s taken me a while to get my small potted shrub to bloom, but I am glad I kept trying. I love the color.
突然、ベランダのミントに紫色の花がたくさん咲きました。午後遅くの日光に、葉は金と赤い色になります。秋の瞬間です。
My mint is suddenly full of purple flowers. And in the late afternoon sunlight, the leaves turn gold and red. It’s a fall moment.
I love having herbs on my city balcony: for cooking, for scent, and for variety. Mint is ridiculously easy to grow, and I hope the seeds travel and plant themselves somewhere nearby.
ベランダは小さいから、植物は皆、隣り合わせになっています。この写真には、室内用植物も二年目の一年草もバジルも素人の作った陶芸の植木鉢があります。こんな風に、組み合わせっているのが好きです。
The small size of my balcony garden means that each plant is always juxtaposed with others. In the center is a pink flower from an annual that’s lasted two years already and whose name I’ve forgotten. It’s in a white ceramic pot I made, and next to the basil I’ve been eating all summer. The broad leaf is a bird of paradise houseplant that is spending some time outdoors after becoming an ant magnet.
I love these bright red spider lilies, called higanbana in Japanese. They bloom in September with tall stalks, bright flowers, and no leaves. They come back each year along this pedestrian path, and the flower lasts only a week or so. Last year, too, I saw them everywhere in Tokyo. I like how they mark the turn of season.
These bright flowers have popped up all around my apartment building. They look like spring bulbs but they bloom in early September, with the petals closing at night. I like how they are next to the Joystep, the ubiquitous Tokyo contraption for turning a sidewalk curb into a ramp.
晩夏のベランダの庭は混沌としています。いろいろな多年草と一年生植物、花と野菜でいっぱいです。夏草と常緑草で出来ているグリーンカーテンで、アパートの中を涼しくしています。この長くて狭いバルコニーのスペースにはエアコンと洗濯機と物干しロープもあります。
The balcony garden in late summer is chaotic. A variety of perennials and annuals, flowers and vegetables, seasonal and year-round plants form a green curtain that provides some shade and cooling for the apartment. The long and narrow space also includes the air conditioner, washing machine, and clothes line.
