On to the Japanese Garden

Note: There will not be another post until late March, as I will be touring the Deep South (hopefully viewing lots of gardens.) 

   The final major garden featured in this long series of posts on my gardens is the Japanese Garden.  I started to develop it in 2000--and, of course, I am still not done.

   The first photo is of the west entrance to the garden along a path that is going downhill.  The fence was built in 2013.  It is made of ipe, a wood from Brazil, which is extremely dense, hard, and resistant to insects or other damaging items.  I oil it every spring with rosewood oil, rosewood being another tropical tree.  Hidden in the boxwood on the left is a rock shown in full in the second photo.  It had been broken in half very long ago, probably when it was brought down from what is now Canada by the last glacier.  I found it in a road ditch a quarter mile from my house.  Water flows into it from a bamboo pipe, which then flows down a natural crack, then over its side and into the ground under it.

   The third and fourth photos show the view just inside the gate, looking east through the upper part of the garden, which was developed about 2010.  There are several areas of moss, in addition to some containers of moss, throughout this area.  I visited over 60 temple gardens in Japan, and everyone has cultivated areas of moss.

   The next three photos show the azumaya, or "viewing house."  Such houses are common in Japanese gardens.  I built it myself in 2014, the inside walls constructed of stucco.   Also seen in these photos is a small stream I made, sourced with water from my well.  It is forced through bamboo pipes in three separate water drops into small pools. The water then continues downhill to where it empties onto the ground amongst a grouping of boxwoods.

 

It's been snowing. 

   November through mid-January was a "fake" winter.  Since then, lot of snow and lots of cold.  

Enough of the wimpy winter!

   I sort of feel sorry for residents of the South who never get to see the beauty of a sunny day after a snow that hangs on branches.  If they had any sense, they'd come up for a few weeks--and hope for such a snow.

Continuing beyond the pergola

     The last post showed the area near the pergola.  The first photo here shows the pergola taken from the northwest corner of the back lawn.  It was taken in 2019, as were the second and third photos.  The rocks, seating area, and the Angel Wing Begonias were all new in 2019.  The last four photos were all taken in 2020.  The fourth and fifth photos show the triangular area of rocks with miniature hostas that I added in 2020.  The last two photos show the steps leading to the gardens in the back of the property.

The Pergola 

  Note: I will be traveling for the next three weeks, so there will not be another post until about the last week in January.

 In 2011 I built a pergola, which is off the path leading down the hill to the east, or the front of the property.  Then adjacent to it, and to the south, I built a seating area on top of a wall of granite cobblestones, reclaimed from the streets of Milwaukee.  I did all the work myself, so now I know that in my next life I will refuse to be a carpenter or a stone mason.  (Note: the third photo was inserted by error, and I cannot delete it.  It will be part of the next post.)

Going downhill

     These photos are from the far northwest part of the property, then leading down a hill towards the east.  The first photo shows the path on the right, which leads to the southeast.  Taken three years ago, it does not show the new stone structure built on its left side in 2019 (that structure appeared in the last post).  The path on the left heads east and eventually leads down the hill to the Japanese garden.

     The second photo shows the tiny rock garden, which is just out of view in the first photo on the left.  The rocks are all from Arizona, collected from my friend's place in Cottonwood, just west of Sedona.  

     The third photo shows one of 10 walnut log sections I placed moss on 12 years ago.  The second last photo was taken about 30 feet down the path to the east.  The last photo was taken another 20 feet down the path, but it looks south southwest towards the southwest corner of the property.

 

To the northwest

     In the first photo, the steps on the left lead to the water garden.  Going straight ahead, seen better in the second photo, leads to two steps, next to a railing, that then allow one to turn left to a path that leads to the northwest corner of the property--and to the back of the waterfall (seen in the last post).  The 3rd and 4th photos were taken before a new stone structure was built in the scene in 2019.  These two photos show the scene from both directions.  The 5th photo shows that stone structure.  The last photo shows a bird bath in which are placed stones, most of which I collected abroad, including Lake Baikal in Siberia and from hikes along the border of Nepal and India.

Behind the scene

   These photos are of the back of the major waterfall seen in the previous post. My wife bought some tiny clay pots for me to use for growing moss.  This was the perfect spot for them.  The moss is Anomodon rostratus, which prefers growing on limestone, which is what is there.