Tim's Japanese Garden |
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Having renovated the house completely, we turned next to the badly neglected "landscaping" in need of some renovation. In a bold decision influenced by having visited many Japanese gardens, my wife and I thought it would be interesting to attempt to create a Japanese style garden on the acre surrounding our house. Thinking that was a little ambitious, we settled for starting in just the backyard. Besides, my wife wanted an English cottage garden so she |
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could have some flowers which are pretty much verboten in a Japanese garden. First we hired a landscape architect, but, after his first couple of renderings, it became quite apparent that he knew far less about Japanese landscaping than we did. So, we started doing some research gathering all the books and information we could assemble. We visited all the Japanese gardens we could find in the western United States from Texas to the West Coast, including Western Canada. I brought out my pictures taken on trips to Japan. Eventually a plan emerged that took into consideration the existing contours and mature trees and shrubs we wanted to save (we must had cut down at least 50 trees). The swimming pool was filled in to be replaced by a pond. We imported over 150 tons of stone, some of which are secretly named, and started construction. Three years later we have a roofed entry gate, two ponds (about 8000 gallons), a stream, four small waterfalls, three viewing decks, a hot tub, a barbecue blind, a bridge across the lower pond, a retaining wall, and meandering paths in place. From the perspective of my office that looks out on the garden, it has the feel of a Japanese tea garden, which is meant to be looked at from one perspective. However, the garden is really more of a strolling garden that will eventually have surprises at every turn. Yes, and we even have some cliché stone lanterns, a couple of bronze herons, and some koi. The lowest part of the garden is still pretty wild. But it is not visible from above. I'm thinking of making a Zen garden there surrounded by walls. This is an evolving project that will probably never be finished, but, in 500 years or so, it might look pretty good. After the structural elements were in place, we had to populate the garden with appropriate plantings which turned out not to be as big a challenge as I first thought. I wanted to have only Japanese plants, but I wondered how I was going to do that in our zone 5 region of Northern Idaho. So far we have been able to assemble about thirty five different species of plants. We have learned a lot and continue to learn as we continue this on-going project. I remember reading during my research about an Englishman who went to Japan and became enthralled with |
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the landscaping. When he came home he spent a fortune creating his own Japanese garden. When it was finished he invited a Japanese delegation to visit his home to see his garden. When he asked them what they thought of it, they said, "Oh, it's wonderful. We don't have anything like it in Japan." So, it is with trepidation that I offer a glimpse of our efforts so far. |
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What is a Japanese garden? |
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