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Making a Japanese Garden
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My older son and I made a Japanese-ish garden for his school project. I had written a long, detailed post with long descriptions of our search for materials, etc., but somehow I just made it all vanish. So here's a recap.
The site: a corner of our backyard fenced area. About 6' by 3', surrounded by a building on the east and a six-foot fence on the south and west. Shady--only gets direct sun for a few hours per day in summer, and basically no direct sun in the winter.
Plants: Must therefore be shade tolerant. Moss, both nursery-bought Scotch moss and simple ground-growing moss, and some ferns for the ground. We also wanted a larger plant to give some verticality, to counterbalance the fence. Ideally, would have used a Japanese maple, but we discovered that they are:
1) Hard to find
2) Really expensive ($60-100 for a one-to-two-foot tree)
3) When we eventually move out, the landlady may object to having a tree in the small back area
Next candidate: bamboo. What we learned:
1) Many varieties grow so fast and spread so aggressively that we would have to spend every waking moment battling new shoots, or we would be:
a) Overrun by bamboo spreading throughout our whole backyard and into the community greenbelt beyond, leading to
b) evicted
2) Those that grow in slow clumps almost all:
a) are 30 feet tall, or
b) die if the sun doesn't shine on them 24 hours a day
3) The one variety that the local bamboo specialist recommended that
a) grows in a small clump,
b) is 6-8 feet tall, and
c) actually likes shady spots, is
d) imported from Japan and really expensive.
So we found our new friend, Podocarpus macrophyllus maki, which likes shade, grows slowly and not too tall, has pretty leaves, is noninvasive, and is also from Japan but is fairly cheap. Yay us!
Rocks: I discovered that
1) It is, as I though, more spiritually fulfilling to use rocks gathered in person and from the local area. However, such rocks are also:
a) Heavy
b) Invariably found at the top of hills, which make people like me
i) tired
ii) filthy
c) Heavy
d) Painful when dropped on your toe
e) Heavy
Nevertheless, we gathered our materials and began work.
Kieran (bigger) and Xavi (smaller) ready to start work.
Raw site, after weeding.
Rocks laid as placemarkers. The big ones are where the tree and island will go; the small ones are the coastline.
The tree planted.
Rocks coming into place. Mostly shale on the big land, with the neat stairstep effect. The big one which will be the island is granite, I think. It's the one that inspired the notation of Heavy.
Major rocks in place, at the end of the first day. The ferns are planted.
Scotch moss amongst some of the main rocks. It ended up being more yellow than I was expecting, and it contrasts oddly with the bright breen moss which will go in above it.
The finished garden.
Overhead view.
Overall, we're pretty pleased with it. I'd like to do another one, given space. There's a spot in the front which is just covered in ivy, and would look nice with a more sparse, white-gravel stone garden...
Total cost was about $85, that being about $30 for the podocarpus, $15 for the ferns and moss, and $40 for the gravel and black-gray beach pebbles.
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