It was warm today. The temperature got more than 20 degrees Celsius outside. I felt comfortable with the sunshine so I decided to stay outside and plant Komatsuna, also called Japanese mustard spinach, this morning.
I would like to write about my Komatsuna planting today.
It looks similar to spinach but it tastes bitter.
It contains more vitamin A, Iron, and Calcium than spinach.
I bought some komatsuna in a local grocery store about 10 days ago. They had roots so I kept their bottoms in a jam container for planting them later. It was cold until yesterday so I couldn't find any chances to plant them outside. As you can see them in the picture, the leaves have already growing for 5 centimeters long.
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Today, I planted them with two kinds of soil; one is leaf mold and the other is the compost which was made from our kitchen wastes.
I would like to explain about the leaf mold at first.
We have two maple trees and one Japanese apricot tree in our garden. I collected some of the fallen leaves last autumn.
I also collected packages of rice bran that some of the local restaurants offer us for free.
It was just before Christmas when I put the rice bran, fallen leaves and some water in a plastic bag. I mixed them well. After that I put the mixture into a sand bag and placed them outside.
Twist the top.
I placed them outside under the roof so that the bags do not get soaked in the rain.
It was warm today so I went outside and opened the package.
I thought that our leaf mold was ready for use.
I put some leaf mold at the bottom of a small pot.
Then, I added some soil which I had sieved earlier.
The other soil was made from my compost, which is a mixture of rice bran, soil, water and our kitchen wastes such as peels of vegetables, fruits, coffee, etc.
I put the Komatsuna on top.
I am happy that I used the fallen leaves in our garden, and the free package of rice bran to grow organic vegetables from the roots of Komatsuna.
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