Garden Talk: From Cucumbers to Blackberries
June 27, 2025
Episode Notes
Ed, are you there? Hey, hello.
Hey, Hey, good morning.
Hi, good morning, Ed.
Where were you? I was just outside in the garden, doing a little gardening.
OK.
Yeah.
You got a big garden? No, got a little tiny patch beside my house that we're uh we're allowed to to dig in and put some stuff in and uh.
But size doesn't matter.
I just love gardening a little bit.
Get my green.
You wanna see what I got this morning? Sure.
Whoa, what's that? Huge cucumber.
Wow, yeah, nice.
You do that.
Just for fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm.
Yeah.
Just for fun, I, I, uh, I cut a rose off the rose bush.
OK, yeah.
Yeah, just a little garden, just a few things, got, uh, this year, cucumbers, eggplants.
Eggplant, eggplants.
Strawberries.
Um, I planted an apple tree about 5 years ago, but not getting apples yet.
OK, and um.
A few herbs and things.
Hold on, it is hot out there.
I need a drink of water.
OK, yeah.
Hey, I keep on playing a computer sound.
Is that my machine or your machine? Uh, I'm on a phone, so I don't think I have any computer sounds here.
OK, OK.
Well, I, I'm on a phone too, but maybe it's my phone making them.
Bingbing sound.
And I could be getting messages, who knows, you know, technology these days, it's, uh, it is what it is.
It's gone beyond me.
So, how, how is the gardening going? Really good? Cucumbers are awesome as as we can see here, mm huge.
Um, eggplants won't be for a few months.
I also have blackberries, by the way.
Wow, you're lucky there.
That's great.
Yeah, um, not something that normally grows in Japan, but something I definitely missed and uh.
By weird chance, a neighbor up the road between us and the school, so every day we walked with the kids to school.
OK, and she had, she had blackberries growing in her garden, and so, wow, I, I struck up a conversation with her, and every day, every day, every morning we walked by said good morning and When they were ready to be eaten, she said, help yourself, and I said, oh no, I, I couldn't take your blackberries, and she said, we don't like them.
Really? Yeah.
So every day for every day for two weeks, uh, in summer.
Well, not summer, but whenever they're they're in summertime, every day we'd walk by, she'd say take as many as you want.
And then one day, one day I'm walking home and she, she yells at me.
She runs after me, says, hey, hey, hey, here, and she hands me an offcut of the plant.
In a little pot of soil, he says take that oil plant.
And then she did that about 3 or 4 times.
And it was 3 or 4, and she'd actually cut them and, and I don't know what right term rooted them.
So they're actually growing their roots.
And, uh, I ended up after a couple of years with a huge out of control bush in front of my house.
Um, and last year I cut it back to almost nothing, and so now I have a nice small bush and uh all my neighbors get to enjoy some blackberries.
Oh man, you're, you're lucky there.
That's great.
Yeah, cucumber, well, apples and blackberries and strawberries are every year.
They just keep doing their thing and then uh this year, cucumber and eggplant.
How about you? You got a garden? I don't have a garden.
I, I live in an apartment, but you know, one day I might buy a house and get some land, and then I, I'm gonna grow.
Until then, pots on the veranda.
That's right.
That's right.
Speaking of which, I better tend to my plants.
They need water.
Take care.
Bye bye.
See you later.
Hey, Hey, good morning.
Hi, good morning, Ed.
Where were you? I was just outside in the garden, doing a little gardening.
OK.
Yeah.
You got a big garden? No, got a little tiny patch beside my house that we're uh we're allowed to to dig in and put some stuff in and uh.
But size doesn't matter.
I just love gardening a little bit.
Get my green.
You wanna see what I got this morning? Sure.
Whoa, what's that? Huge cucumber.
Wow, yeah, nice.
You do that.
Just for fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Mm.
Yeah.
Just for fun, I, I, uh, I cut a rose off the rose bush.
OK, yeah.
Yeah, just a little garden, just a few things, got, uh, this year, cucumbers, eggplants.
Eggplant, eggplants.
Strawberries.
Um, I planted an apple tree about 5 years ago, but not getting apples yet.
OK, and um.
A few herbs and things.
Hold on, it is hot out there.
I need a drink of water.
OK, yeah.
Hey, I keep on playing a computer sound.
Is that my machine or your machine? Uh, I'm on a phone, so I don't think I have any computer sounds here.
OK, OK.
Well, I, I'm on a phone too, but maybe it's my phone making them.
Bingbing sound.
And I could be getting messages, who knows, you know, technology these days, it's, uh, it is what it is.
It's gone beyond me.
So, how, how is the gardening going? Really good? Cucumbers are awesome as as we can see here, mm huge.
Um, eggplants won't be for a few months.
I also have blackberries, by the way.
Wow, you're lucky there.
That's great.
Yeah, um, not something that normally grows in Japan, but something I definitely missed and uh.
By weird chance, a neighbor up the road between us and the school, so every day we walked with the kids to school.
OK, and she had, she had blackberries growing in her garden, and so, wow, I, I struck up a conversation with her, and every day, every day, every morning we walked by said good morning and When they were ready to be eaten, she said, help yourself, and I said, oh no, I, I couldn't take your blackberries, and she said, we don't like them.
Really? Yeah.
So every day for every day for two weeks, uh, in summer.
Well, not summer, but whenever they're they're in summertime, every day we'd walk by, she'd say take as many as you want.
And then one day, one day I'm walking home and she, she yells at me.
She runs after me, says, hey, hey, hey, here, and she hands me an offcut of the plant.
In a little pot of soil, he says take that oil plant.
And then she did that about 3 or 4 times.
And it was 3 or 4, and she'd actually cut them and, and I don't know what right term rooted them.
So they're actually growing their roots.
And, uh, I ended up after a couple of years with a huge out of control bush in front of my house.
Um, and last year I cut it back to almost nothing, and so now I have a nice small bush and uh all my neighbors get to enjoy some blackberries.
Oh man, you're, you're lucky there.
That's great.
Yeah, cucumber, well, apples and blackberries and strawberries are every year.
They just keep doing their thing and then uh this year, cucumber and eggplant.
How about you? You got a garden? I don't have a garden.
I, I live in an apartment, but you know, one day I might buy a house and get some land, and then I, I'm gonna grow.
Until then, pots on the veranda.
That's right.
That's right.
Speaking of which, I better tend to my plants.
They need water.
Take care.
Bye bye.
See you later.