Tsuyako Asada

Tsuyako Asada

Tsuyako first got into horticulture when helping her parents with gardening, going on to study herbs, roses, trees and plants. What influences her style the most is natural vegetation and the many decomposers and creatures living in it.

See the Tomie’s Cuisine the Nobonsai garden

Tsuyako​ says: “I decided to get involved with the RHS Chelsea Flower Show to share our ‘No-waste gardening method’ with as many people as possible to help slow the climate crisis. I hope visitors can get inspired by our Tomie’s Cuisine the Nobonsai and adopt those methods in their garden.”

Tsuyako’s tips to designing a balcony garden:

• Consider how exposed your balcony is to the elements, and choose your plants accordingly. Suppose it’s in a windy location; look for plants that can thrive in this environment, like coastal gardens. Alternatively, if your balcony has no shade all day, plants that can reflect sunlight will be ideal on those hot days.
• Put cardboard and newspaper at the bottom of the planters to reduce the need for soil and the weight on the balcony. How much you use depends on the pot’s size. As an added bonus, cardboard is also fantastic at keeping the water in the pot.
• Cover the soil with pruned twigs, trimmed stems, weeds and collected leaves to prevent drying. This locks the moisture in and helps grow bacteria on the soil surface and inside. The fungi make the plants strong and healthy. So we don’t need to feed and add any chemicals to plants.

You may also be interested in...

• Buy tickets to RHS Chelsea Flower Show
• Read more about the show
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