You can building anything out of nothing...

It started with a simple comment - "there's nothing here", referring to the yard of house a just assumed. The innocent and unknowing reply back, "you can building anything out of nothing." That was nearly two years ago - and a lot of wandering green thoughts, half starts, a small dozer, 13,000 pounds of rock, five 10-yard drop boxes of grass sod, a ton of Mexican blue beach stone (so far), etc. It's now becoming something, evolving into something.

What I'm really building is a Pacific Northwest shade garden-strongly-Japanese Garden influenced-with a dedication to native plants from this Zone in the PNW and Japan and China. Now throw in your basic love of bamboos, maples and pines and you have a garden that keeps evolving... very organic mind you... into something that I think I will love and so will most of the small creatures that fly, swim and crawl here. It IS NOT a formal Japanese Garden, it's not a tsubo niwa (courtyard gardens) or a kare sansui (dry gardens) or any other, so please refrain from your over ego-indulgent-chastisations. If that's what I wanted I would move to Japan. I love the plants and feel of the PNW shade forest, but like architects Gustav Stickley and Frank Lloyd Wright , photographers Ernst Haas and Shinzo Maeda, and other creators, I'm influenced by the need for simplicity, my travels, my photography and the serenity and tranquility other elements afford - so adopt, adapt, and evolve. (Note - if you are banging your Japanese Garden head against the wall right now [you shouldn't be on this blog] then let me throw you this bone - I'm building what renowned garden designer Motomi Oguchi calls a native place-inspired "weed garden", so there, enjoy.)

Don't get me wrong, an authentic perfectly crafted Japanese Garden is amazing - I spend hours throughout the year in one (photo above). I'm further cursed and blessed by having as they say, "Proclaimed one of the most authentic Japanese gardens outside of Japan, the Portland Japanese Garden is a 5.5-acre haven of tranquil beauty nestled in the scenic west hills of Portland, Oregon." Sitting across town only 5 miles away the Portland Japanese Gardens is way too much inspiration and temptation! Then on top of that they go and have a member plant sale once a year - I was doomed!

So my garden is divided into four sections (I'll post a diagram soon), the front yard (west facing) and backyard (east facing) each 35'x50', and a strip on both the highly exposed south and shaded north each 6'x30'. Most of the blog will be focused on the front and back. For the near term I use the south for open storage of pots, bags of soil, etc. The north is currently being kept open for access to the back yard - which I can move larger plants, trees, stones, fencing, etc.

This is my first entry - the garden's blog beginning - but my garden is an eternity from being "complete" if one ever can be. So after numerous prodings from others I'm sharing what I have learned, questions about what I don't know, my constant mistakes, a few solutions, links to resources I discover, lots of photos, maybe a few videos as well.

What I Started With: