By dennis
Stinging nettle is a for most people an annoying weed. A noxious weed that can easily take over your garden. They sting and leave a long lasting itch and burning sensation.
Maybe change your view of these plants and play with them a bit as they are actually very useful. Edible as they are, they make a delicious and cheap spring vegetable. When cooked they loose their sting and are delicious in a stir fry. Blended up into a pesto and mixed with the wonderful Kyoja niniku and almighty bacon makes a great spring pasta.
Also healthy as tea afterwards.
When you want to get rid of them, put them with you compost as they are a great source of nitrogen or, like i do, stuff them in large buckets and fill them up with water. Like all goodness comes from fermentation, you end up with a potent liquid fertilizer or even more handy :a pesticide.
It works great on caterpillars, aphids and the likes. Mix some of the concentrate with water and a bit of green soap and attack the grubs.
Leave them in the buckets with a lid on and stir occasionally and wait for a week or 3-4, depending on the heat outside. Strain, but use the left over pulp as fertiliser.
Just don’t forget to bring some proper gloves!
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By dennis
building
We get so much snow every year that we have to rebuild the greenhouses every year. The snow is light and fluffy at first, but always ends up as ice.
To prevent the green house from collapsing we have to take the plastic off and just leave the frame in winter. Even then the weight of the snow bends the pipes and does a lot of damage.
Also by having to remove the plastic every year it reduces its transparency and life span. We can only use it about 3 years. Living in one of the snowiest places on the planet doesn’t make life easier and certainly can get costly.
Anyway, here is a timelapse of how we put the roof back on. ( click ‘ building ‘ on top)
or on youtube
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By dennis
One crop that does well in a short season climate is garlic. It's not popular just because it's delicious and healthy but also because it's relatively easy to grow. Planted in autumn and just about a week free from snow these garlic shoots are already bright green and loving life. They will be ready for harvest late July, early August. But before that we can harvest the garlic shoots sometime in June when they start to flower.
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By dennis
For 5 months of the year our landscape is pretty minimal and natural colours are pretty somber.
When the first spring flowers emerge they make quite a contrast to the still white backdrop.
Still a wait for the last 60-70 cm of snow to melt, but with flowers around, we know it will be soon.
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By dennis
With the warm weather finally coming in, the trees also awake from hibernation and are keen to absorb some rays of light. Lots of deciduous trees in the Niseko area and it creates some quite stunning colours and views. This photo is taken from the Niseko Green Farm overlooking the river valley and the Hirafu ski resort in the back ground. There is still quite some snow on the top on the mountain.
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By dennis
Spring came late here in Niseko area. Also our asparagus took their time to stick their heads out of the ground.But finally they are here and in abundance. For ¥1200 you can get 1 kg of our organically grown spears.Our web shop will be open soon or just send us an email and we will send you a box full of spring delight.
Click on this link to see Glen Claydon’s post on his website about NGF asparagus.
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By dennis
Nursery time at NGF. Looking after many little baby plants. It is a bit of a delicate job.
These little fellows don’t need much but some light, water and fertilizer, but to get the balance right for good growth is a bit harder.
Once the plants are established and the first true leaves are appearing life goes pretty quick for these jalapenos. they will be producing their first fruit in two months time.
We had a bit of a late start, but late May early June we will have seedlings for sale as well. But for outdoor planting that is right on time for Hokkaido.
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By dennis
Some nice miserable weather in April. Many cold and cloudy days. The recent rain helped to get rid of most of the snow and now we areWatching the snow melt away finally on our fields.
Hopefully it will not rain too much in the on coming weeks, so we can start with fertilizing our fields for another year of vegetable growing.
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ニセコ グリーン ファームは、羊蹄山とニセコアンヌプリに囲まれた杜で、 新鮮なオーガニック野菜やハーブを育て、直接皆様にお届けいたします。
