Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森 has several chestnut orchards. As the place was a productive farmland especially before World War II, those chestnut fields have/had owners. The largest orchard of chestnuts is now the property of the City of Yokohama. It is on the north-facing slope when we enter the forest at B-2 point. At the foot of the orchard, there is a large signboard and a map of the forest with C-1 designation. It’s a sort of a main gate for Niiharu Citizen Forest. The chestnuts are on the left slope there. I guess some of you have already been there several times. The previous owner of the orchard, an old lady, still lives (a sort of) in front of the place. Why do you ask they transferred the ownership to the municipality? Ah-hem, there is a typically Japanese it-is-cheaper-to-pay-tax-by-land-story, mate. This north-facing and steep slope is loved by Golden-rayed lilies. When they appear in summer, the old lady who previously owned the place has enjoyed beautiful white flowers in her orchard since her younger days. The condition when she passed on the ownership to the city was, “Please keep the lilies.”
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| There. The chestnut field, 2023. |
The place had suffered serious damage by the typhoons of 2019. In any case, the chestnuts were already very old trees. So, it would be an inevitable thing for ancient trees to be knocked down by super typhoons … The lady lamented the sorry scenery of her former property, a lot. The City decided to semi-clear the place and afforest it with maple trees or the like. I mean, not all the chestnuts are removed, but many would be discarded to make space for another trees. The Lovers have engaged in the project for these 4 years. We removed fell-down trees from the slope, thinned overgrown Quercus myrsinifolia around the orchard to let sunshine in to help seedlings that would be planted later. We also do regular raking to remove mowed grasses, leaves, burs from the ground. The work continues now.
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| In spring 2022, the orchard looked like this. We cleared a lot of this place to reach this level. |
Before the typhoon, the Lovers of Niiharu did … slightly cutting corners for the maintenance of the orchard. Yeah, we mowed mechanically twice a year the place, otherwise the orchard would have been covered completely by grasses and western bracken ferns. That was an obstacle to collecting chestnuts. We wanted to harvest the nuts. So, we ran our mowing machine mainly around the chestnut tree. Another reason of our “light-touch” for the place was Golden-rayed lilies. When the grass grows tall in summer, it is very difficult to mow mechanically without damaging the lilies sprouting out of the mass of grass. Lovers’ works unconsciously avoid in-between space of the chestnut trees where lilies would call for home. I don’t know how long such an approach continued after the land became the property of the City. When I joined the Lovers Association, the seniors already talked like “Hey, the number of lilies in the orchard is getting smaller, don’t you think?” The lady living in front of the orchard also complained. “Are you doing the proper care?” The Lovers murmured “Of course, we’re doing our best. But twice yearly mechanical mowing for such a large place is the max we can do with a limited number of hands!”
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| Er … before, it was like this. |
Then the super-typhoons came and the landlord City decided to do a large intervention. Lovers mowing has changed. Before, we left the cut grasses and ferns there after mowing. It did help the new growth of grasses suppressed. It also prevented more lilies from coming to flower. Now I recall the words of Mr. Katsuyama for Hakone Sengokubara National Treasure Site 国天然記念物箱根仙石原 this spring (my post on May 12): when we want to have lots of herbaceous plants to flower, we must sweep the place and remove the mowed grasses. It worked OK for a limited man-power Lovers could provide for the maintenance of the place. New approach the City employing for the place is “Please keep the place neat, and ready for professional landscapers to come.” Er, OK. So, Lovers began raking the cut grasses et al in the orchard, and moving it as much as possible for the garbage collection of the city. It was, I tell you, heavy work.
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| Chestnut orchard, Niiharu, 2022 |
For one thing, the orchard spreads over a very steep slope. Removing cut grasses is practically dropping large masses of cut grasses down the hill. If it fell smoothly, Harasho. Otherwise, we keep our body steady over the almost cliff-like slope with our muscle power and sweep the grass-mass pushing down to the foot of the hill. The debris of left-over mowed grasses for the previous years had not decayed as we expected. It was piled high and heavy … In the process, we hand-mowed the area around the lilies, and removed the cut grasses carefully. Once the field is raked, the new growth of herbaceous plants, being it a grass or lilies, becomes more vigorous so the mowing and raking is continued. At least the remains of previous years are smaller now … Then, our endeavor started to pay off since last year or so.
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| Naomi mowed around here! |
Although there remain damaged chestnut trees here and there, the number of flowers we can enjoy are getting larger and larger in the place. Last year visitors started to notice the old chestnut orchard is becoming a large flower field for Golden-rayed lilies and the others. The City has begun asking the Lovers to take care of the lilies more. This year since last week the place has impressive number of large Gloden-rayed lilies in full bloom. I guess this weekend is the last for the peak of 2023. Once you’re approaching C-1 point, the atmosphere of the area is completely dominated by the fragrance of noble lilies. It’s spectacular, and we Lovers are proud of our work. If you have any chance to visit Niiharu Citizen Forest this weekend, please don’t miss the once in a year natural pageant of the Forest!
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| Last week for Golden-rayed lilies in the
chestnut orchard. Could you see there are more buds? They’ll bloom this week! |
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| A week before the above photo, the place was for Orange Daylily. |
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| Patrinia scabiosifolia is
also getting strong these days near Niiharu. They say it’s rare to find them in Yokohama now. By the way, they are the flowers of autumn in Japanese Haiku poetry. Season is changing … |
If you find a problem in the greenery of north-half of Yokohama, please make a contact with
Office for the Park Greeneries in the North
北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau
横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016
FAX: 045-316-8420
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