So now we have a slightly messy but exuberant gardener whose personality is unmistakably imprinted all over a yard which is equally messy and exuberant, trying to create an utterly simple and impersonal Japanese garden on a terrace already encumbered with a big, black gas grill. An unmovable gas grill.
My husband, whose fault this is, can't see why I say that the ornate wrought iron terrace furniture has to go. When I tried to explain about simplicity, he retorted that the utterly simple solution was to leave it there. We won't even mention the very British looking bay window that juts into the space, or the lamp post adorned with flying gargoyles that lights it. It's simply the only possible place for those bonsai.
Since I had some difficulty getting him to sit down and read the bonsai book so he will know what a responsibility he has taken on, I doubt I can also persuade him to sit down and read about Japanese garden design. He may be responsible for those bonsai's care and feeding, but housing is up to me. So I know where my surfing time will be spent this week, and I invite you to learn along with me. Take a look at my current gardens (more or less,) and then see if you have any bright ideas about how I can create a suitable setting for his treasures.
I already have a huge old Oriental brass tub, for which I have ordered a nice clump of Fargesia nitida, a beautiful clumping bamboo. I also have a Japanese maple or two that are small enough to be transplanted into containers -- as soon as I find more containers. I suppose I could excavate some of the current crazy paving to make planting pockets in the ground before I haul in the gravel.
But before I dig them up, or do anything else at all, I'm taking a tour through Scott Anderson's wonderful interactive site, Outside In where I can both see and hear all the variations on a Japanese garden. Why not join me?
For a more typical view of this same garden, visit the Missouri Botanical garden's Seiwa-en Garden of Pure, Clear Harmony and Peace.
The Shiga Project is a good basic introduction to the principles of Japanese gardening, as seen through American eyes -- a site I'll have to spend a long time at!
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