Finding Balance - A Work In Progress

This garden drives most of my friends crazy - they want it done. I can not tell you how many times they step into the backyard only to say - sarcastically - "gee, so many changes" or "wow! almost done." In some ways that sums up gardening in America versus gardening in Japan - time is the reward, there is ultimately no finished product.

There are dozens of changes, albeit small, maybe Lilliputian, but I cherish every one - every new moss, new fern, new pine growth, every new bird that visits. Slow change is a delight.

Some things go in this garden and I know they will change - I want them to change, grow, surprise me. Sometimes I simply know I have planted or placed with hope, and the plant or stone has other intentions. Time will travel them to where they must be and then the right balance will emerge.

Recently I began reconstructing a small section (above) where gravity conspired with terra firma to find their own balance - not mine. I finally followed their lead and rebuilt the entire section of stone, rock and plantings, keeping in mind their wishes.

Thee above image show the section reconstructed and washed.

The final step was to remove all the Mexican blue river stone (more to be added) and was it clean of winter's mud and earth that had fallen down from the banks that would not remain quietly where I intended - oh I have so much to learn. Silent lessons.

Finally to add back the life in the crevices and locations it was deciding. (all the small ferns and mosses were removed before I started the reconstruction and mapped so they would go back as close to their homes as possible.)

Giboshi in Spring

It's been far too long since I have updated my garden blog, especially considering after a wet cold early season spring has finally come, or at least the garden has decided to move forward regardless the wintry fronts that continually blow over the westhills from the Pacific.

Several new plantings from late fall and winter have erupted in shades of green - a half dozen Hosta (Giboshi in Japanese) varieties, several native ferns and a few Rhododendrons, and a striped bamboo a returned from the east coast with several years ago and had nearly thought was lifeless - a lesson learned about the eternal hardiness of bamboo rhizomes.

I have been working on water features, new plantings, finally decided on a fence and a deck design and preparing to build. Those last two elements pave the way for the five large stones purchased last year to make their way into the back yard. Photos and details all coming later June.

Couple of things to share. First a wonderful book on the Tea Garden, by Marc Peter Keane. Keane is considered America's top expert on the Japanese Tea Garden. This from the NYTimes review:

THE JAPANESE TEA GARDEN (Stone Bridge, $59.95), opens with an evocative scene of people arriving for a tea ceremony. "The important thing is that a guest be neat and clean as an expression of respect for the host and of purity of mind. No one wears jewelry or uses perfume or cologne, those being too worldly and distracting." Since tea gardens have had a major impact on the design of Japanese gardens in general, this book is a necessary addition to the library of any serious student. The rest of us will enter with humility -- mindful of the small door through which one must crawl into the tea room -- and sip slowly. The sweeping historical ambition of this work emphasizes the connection between social and economic change and the development of tea gardens. In the 16th century, for example, moss was a sign of decrepitude and poor housekeeping; that it went on to become a revered element in Japanese gardens represents "a paradigm shift," Keane notes, "as to what constitutes beauty." We learn that stepping stones not only create beautiful patterns on the ground and keep feet dry but also slow the visitor's pace. It's impossible to be in a hurry and expect to understand anything about Japanese gardens -- a lesson that holds for understanding life in general. --New York Times, Sunday Book Review, December 3, 2009 by Dominique Browning.

The other sharing is the website JapaneseGarden.org Great resource for all this Japanese Garden - maybe more than you thought you ever wanted to know.