Japanese Cheat Sheet: Gardening

With Golden Week beginning, the weather looking fantastic, and Greenery Day just around the corner, it's a great time to head down to your local garden center or plant shop and get started on the task of adding color to your balcony, terrace or windowsill. Luckily, plants themselves are obviously very visual, so finding the right vegetable, herb or flower seedlings is usually not difficult even without Japanese ability. But what if you want to go a bit further than that? Below are a few words and phrases that may prove useful when doing your plant shopping and garden planning.

園芸 (engei) – gardening

育つ (sodatsu) – to cultivate/grow

植物特性 (shokubutsu tokusei) – plant characteristics

特徴 (tokuchou) – features

耐寒 (taikan) – cold-resistant

多年草 (tanensou) – perennial plant

一年草 (ichinensou) – annual plant

野菜 (yasai) – vegetable

花 (hana) – flower

苗 (nae) – seedling

収穫 (shuukaku) – harvest

開花期 (kaikaki) – flowering season

収穫時期 (shuukaku jiki) – harvest time

春 (haru) – spring

夏 (natsu) – summer

秋 (aki) – autumn

冬 (fuyu) – winter

水やり/水遣り (mizuyari) – watering

置き場所 (okibasho) – planting area

日当たりの良い (hiatari no yoi) – good exposure to sunlight

水捌けの良い (mizuhake no yoi) – good drainage

培養土 (baiyoudo) – potting soil

肥料 (hiryou) – fertilizer

有機肥料 (yuuki hiryou) – organic fertilizer

腐葉土 (fuyoudo) – humus; leaf mold

堆肥 (taihi) – compost

黒土 (kokudo) – black soil

赤玉土 (akadamatsuchi) – red granular soil

軽石 (karuishi) – pumice stone (used for drainage)