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Good day from Kamakura, Japan, on this Saturday, February 7th. It’s been a cold winter up here in the northern hemisphere, but here it’s been sunny, with very little rain. Earlier in the week I dealt with my oven issue, and luckily all turned out well with that…well enough that I was able to bake more cookies. In the south garden, some sort of critter, probably a squirrel devoured my broccoli heads, radish tops and stole some lemons off my trees. I’m about to start my 2026 garden planning, and I’ve bought new seeds for the spring and summer seasons. Join me for a look back at this first week of February.
A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.” Gertrude Jekyll
Timestamps:
00:00 Opening
00:53 The Oven Issue
02:23 It Still Works!
03:09 Repositioning the Oven
05:47 The Replacement Oven
06:04 An Afternoon Walk
06:16 In the Kitchen: Haru’s Meal & Cookie Bake
07:52 Trouble with Critters in the Garden
08:10 We Were Robbed!
09:10 Harvesting Lemons & Trimming Trees
12:35 What to do with the Broccoli?
14:49 A Small Harvest of Lemons & Broccoli
15:08 Getting Ready for Spring Planting
24:07 Beautiful Mt. Fuji 富士山, See you next week!
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16 Comments
Pesky critters are always…🤔 Pesky. 👍🏽 Take Care
Good afternoon Robert and Haru
Have a great weekend 🎉
Hey Robert!
Tons of squirrels?
A quick search came up with "19 Ways to Cook a Squirrel', including 'Kentucky Fried'. 😂
Glad it was just a cable instead of the microwave on the fritz.
Caught the tail end of your Crown at 9:03, and Haru waggin' her tail end all over the place.
Got a bit of snow just north of you in Tokyo today, so guessing you filmed this a day or three ago?
Cheers to you and Haru.
Wow, what a crying shame about your veggies! These pesky squirrels are smart and resourceful, so I hope you can come up with a system to keep them away. What about putting out a dish full of nuts and seeds that are easily accessible in hopes of keeping them away from your garden? We used to get unsalted dry roasted peanuts in the shell on sale to feed the squirrels, because one time we got squirrel food and the raw seeds and grains they buried in various places started sprouting. There was corn growing out of our lawn! One time, we got 2 beautiful volunteer sunflowers.
Can you still use the broccoli leaves? Cook then like collard greens? Seems like a shame to waste all of those leaves did just the florets. I wonder what commercial broccoli farms do…🤔. Feed them to livestock? Have you ever thought of growing Chinese broccoli, aka gailan? The flowers are smaller, as are the leaves, and you eat the whole thing, stems leaves, and flowers. Stir-fried gailan and beef is one of our favorites. Marinate the beef in a baking-soda-cornstarch brine so that it remains soft when cooked. Then just season the cooking oil with garlic, green onion, and ginger before putting the beef in, cook it almost through, then add the gailan, finish off with a little shoyu and oyster sauce. You can do this with regular broccoli too.
I think harvest the leaves, and start again. A channel i watch called Escaped to the Allotment, the woman had more of a cage like you mentioned, bamboo sticks, and the netting taught and it stopped the squirrels. How utterly disappointing, especially your raddishes. Have you got room for a cold frame?
Good morning Robert and Haru hope you have better luck with the squirrels
Like my grandmother used to say, "Dream it, Design it, Do it.". Better luck next time. I'm looking forward to your next garden design. From Clwtr Fl. 🌴👋
I share your pain with the squirrels – they are persistent. Foxes are also an issue for gardeners here in London. I'm building sturdier net cages to cover containers this spring. Chilli powder discourages them somewhat but you'd obviously need to keep it away from little Haru.
Good morning Robert and Haru 🌅😃👋☕️ We need smellavision for those cookies 🍪 😋
Blessings for success. Broccoli 'leaves' are more nutritionally dense than the flower heads and delicious, too! They are versatile in recipes. Your leaves look amazing 😊
@TheKamakuraGardener Time to invest in a circuit⚡️tester and squirrel 🐿️ trap. Big garden plans requires drastic measures to ensure harvest. Happy hunting. 🥦🍋🐿️🪤
Morn…ahhh, konban wa. Just remembered our time difference for once, Came to a realization Thursday evening of how much I look forward to your videos! I found myself getting excited that Saturday was coming when I could start my day with one of your videos. Now we don't have Squirrels to contend with here, but we have a few pest, even some 2 legged kind! A commercial farmer fell prey to someone "Night Farming" his entire crop of carrots! Not cool! Have to move my raised garden in able to gain more sun exposure, which is a monumental task!
Good morning. Try some deer netting. I live in Florida, and the squirrels or bad. They take the pecan while they are green, peaches. Take care and keep trying.
I didn't know there are wild squirrels in Kanagawa and Tokyo area. It's disappointed about the broccolis. Hope you can prevent them somehow.I am thinking to start to work outside next week for the gardening this year.I would like to watch your video as a reference.
I'm glad your oven worked out for you I hate spending money that I didn't have to spend thank goodness you found it was only the cord great video Mr Robert😊😊
At least you know of some of the animal challenges coming for your spring crops…plus the insects of course.