New Japanese Garden WIP

[MJL]

This thread is epic... it’s like the TV series you don’t want to end... it one of those left field shows you start to watch —- wondering why it’s even on the channel or how you started watching it but then you’re hooked ...
one day a bonsai may or may not appear in the garden... but I hope not for a while because I reckon that’ll signal the end of the show ...

I can imagine Damian as narrator saying: “Anyway I did all this really just to show of this one little pine my wife bought me 14.5 years ago - when I started this garden ... enjoy my bonsai!”


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[damienw133]

This thread is epic... it’s like the TV series you don’t want to end... it one of those left field shows you start to watch —- wondering why it’s even on the channel or how you started watching it but then you’re hooked ...
one day a bonsai may or may not appear in the garden... but I hope not for a while because I reckon that’ll signal the end of the show ...

I can imagine Damian as narrator saying: “Anyway I did all this really just to show of this one little pine my wife bought me 14.5 years ago - when I started this garden ... enjoy my bonsai!”


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Haha, i must admit to feeling a little awkward creating such a huge thread that features no bonsai despite this being a bonsai forum...

i promise there'll be some sliiiiiightly more bonsai related musings coming! The big beastie yet to go in once some overhead branches are cut is a 3 or 4 meter long american white pine (either flexilis or strobus) 'yardadori' that'll need to be fully wired out....so that'll be fun

I'm just happy to hear you're still enjoying following along with it despite the sporadic updates and stone age paced progress!

[damienw133]

Nothing overlyyyyy exciting to report on juuuust yet as i'm still waiting on the big branches overhead to be cut which should be pretty early next month buuuuuut i got a little impatient today and added a few bags of dromana toppings and screenings to the path to get a bit more of an idea of how things will look when its done.

I'm pretty happy with the colour of the gravel mix and the contrast against the moss and plantings, although i'm hoping that with more time everything will settle in more, leaf out and get fuller and generally stop looking quite so 'raw'

Aside from that i've levelled the path a little more since my last post and have added in some more steps in an attempt to keep the gravel from washing away too much and i've added in a few more enkianthus and deciduous azalea plantings for good measure as well.

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[anthonyW]

Awesome Damien

[damienw133]

A bit of a small update tonight just to prove i've not been completely lazy these past few weeks...

I'm still waiting on the arborists to come early next week to chop some big overhead branches so i've been a bit limited in what i'm able to do in terms of planting or heavy landscaping in those areas and i've also been forced to keep the driveway (relatively) clear for access for their mulching machine...

buuuuut.....

When i stopped by for a quick look at the rock yard last week to see if they had anything interesting i just couldnt resist the temptation....soooo....cue one small load of nice rocks with a few big boys tossed in for good measure....

Although progress has been at its usual slow pace, i've been able to get the biggest boulders into place and have started to sort out the smaller ones to go in around them.

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A rare action shot of yours truly moving the biggest one up one of the rocky embankments i'd already built....it was nowhere near as dodgy as it looks though, as with the tripod legs dug into the ground with timber blocks at the bottom of the holes everything was pretty solid and safe against tipping

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You can make out the biggin in the background near the large rhododendrons - the plan is to slightly raise the soil level in front of it into a gentle slope and to further increase the soil height behind it and to the left to create a raised bed to be planted with a range of mostly deciduous shrubs and a LOT of moss and mondo.

At this point its a bit too busy for my liking so i'm thinking of removing the maple and pieris near the front, raising the soil in those areas and simply planting the whole area up with more moss.

I've also been doing some more work a little further along the garden path, trying to build up another area of rock work to help support yet ANOTHER raised bed which will be planted with a japanese maple, enkianthus and possibly either a black or red pine or a pieris ...depending on how much light the arborists are able to give me by taking some problem trees out.

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Its all looking pretty chaotic and intense at the moment but once i'm able to start raising up the ground level and filling in the gaps between some of the rocks with more soil, moss and plantings i think it'll soften nicely.

Anyways, thats all for this installment, thanks for reading!

[damienw133]

Though a bit of an underwhelming looking update, this was nonetheless a big milestone for me thus far....now that the arborists have done their thing and thinned out the overhead liquid amber branches and removed a few unwanted trees, i've FINALLY been able to move my big American white pine into its approximate place.

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I still have to build up the soil levels quite a lot around it to create another moss covered hill behind it which will rise up to meet the big rock on the right and will be planted with mostly deciduous azaleas and enkianthus.

The pine's branches still need a proper wiring and styling, but i think even in its rough state you get some idea of what the final result might be like...

A lot of the deciduous plants in the garden are taking their time to come into their full autumn colour and those that have seem to have peaked early, but even still...things are starting to get the sort of look i wanted for them. Though ultimately i'd like to grow almost everything to much larger sizes to really create a layered autumnal backdrop to highlight the pines in amongst it all
...fingers crossed that once everything gets a bit more established their autumn season colour change might be a bit more even from one plant to the next

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[MJL]

E.P.I.C.


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[Raging Bull]

Truly a monumental undertaking, Especially for a single-handed effort without earth/rockmoving machinery. Will it ever be finished?
Cheers, Frank.

[damienw133]

Truly a monumental undertaking, Especially for a single-handed effort without earth/rockmoving machinery. Will it ever be finished?
Cheers, Frank.

Thanks mate!
As hard as it is to believe looking at its current state....i'm not toooooooooo far off 'finishing' this main garden....
I'd say there's another 6 ish months of work involved in the earth and rock moving plus a few more for planting everything, but by the end of the year it should be pretty well together....i think

...then we can start on the never ending job of pruning and developing it haha

[damienw133]

Another day another update! Annnnnnnd an exciting new purchase!
Although my wallet and savings no doubt hate me for it...i couldnt help myself on Saturday when i stumbled across this mature Japanese red pine

Its about 2 meters tall and has developed some pretty good exfoliating orange bark throughout most of its branches and is juuuuust starting to get some thicker plated bark forming on the lower trunk.

For now it'll just have to sit on the sidelines while i continue to build up and extend the garden beds more, but i've got a pretty good spot picked out for it where it will be elevated up quite high on a rocky embankment so that it'll be able to reach out over the pathway....though...thats still a ways off yet!

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Also, hopefully these variations on the same view arent getting too boring for everyone, but with how strange this autumn has been i think this is likely to be the most uniform show of colour i'll get before things start to lose their leaves....i think you can sortttt of get an idea for the layered look i've been trying to achieve, even if it is a little rough and ready at this stage

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Alas...its still got a long ways to go before it starts to get the look of the garden that largely inspired it, Ginkakuji in Kyoto....

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Anyways....Thanks for following along!
Cheers!

[greg27]

Beers at your place I reckon Damien.

[damienw133]

Small update today and a story about the hideous new 'feature' in the garden
Things are continuing to show some the last of their autumn colour, though i'm hoping that next year it might be a little more uniform in its timing.

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Just before the current round of Melbourne lockdowns i was meant to be getting the roof redone in colourbond sheeting...unfortunately however, due to the abysmal access on the property the easiest way to get the new sheets up there was to take out a fence panel and to bring them through the garden.....
That also created the requirement for a bridge of sorts to make access easier and to avoid the risk of tradies clambering over the rockwork and moss areas and destroying both in the process

Pretty it most definitely isnt, but its solid and mercifully...temporary
For now i'm just crossing my fingers that once lockdowns are relaxed a little more the roof can be done quickly so i can pull the bridge apart and get on with things.

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Aside from the bridge, work has come to a bit of a standstill in the garden, as i need to build up the rockwork and soil in the area where the bridge is before i can do much more elsewhere as access will be restricted even more

....sooooo...

I've spent my time dealing with other small jobs, such as the painfully slowgoing work of the 'crazy paving' path leading into the garden.

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Annnnd for todays installment; hunting for moss to chop up and spread over the mulched areas. I was able to find some fairly large patches of the very fast growing and somewhat invasive, neat feather moss (pseudoscleropodium purum) as well as a few other similarly tough varieties, so it shouldnt be too long before they start to take hold....

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Anyways, thats it for this installment, thanks for reading!

[damienw133]

Howdy all, hope everyone's doing okay in these crazy times!

Apologies for the huge delay between posts, we've been getting the roof redone at home so my time in the garden has been pretty limited as of late...but at last its done! Soooooo i used this past weekend as a chance to get back into it

Theres been a few changes since my last post, most notably the commencement of work on a level platform at the top of the stairs leading into the garden. I was able to use my trusty chain hoist and tripod to lift the two main (300kg +) rocks up the stairs over the course of a couple of days and then spent another day working at them with a grinder and chisels to roughly work the surfaces of both flat and level, though i still have to go back and refine them quite a lot more.

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I'm planning on fitting a third large rock in between them in either the front or the back and then infilling the remaining spaces with tightly fitted rocks like the crazy paving path that leads on from this area, although i've yet to go back to the rock yard to find the perfect pieces for it.

Looking up to it from further back in a yet to be worked on section of the garden i think you can start to sort of get an idea of how the path flows up from the platform....even if things are a bit of a mud pit at the moment!

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The other big update has been this weekends addition of another large 500kg rock at one of the bends in the path, as part of a plan to further restrict the views to the rest of the garden from the path and to help create more variation in levels throughout the garden.

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Once i've added more rock around this main one i'll be building the soil level up behind them to turn it into a planted up embankment.
My plan so far is to plant either a japanese black or red pine just behind this new rock and to train some branches down around it to help soften things whilst developing the main branching over the path to really give more of an enveloping feel when you're walking under it.

As well as that i'm thinking of planting quite a lot more enkianthus, deciduous azaleas and maybe some more camellias or maples into the embankment to give more of a woodland feel to things...but thats still quite a long ways off yet.

On a lesser note i've also done a little more work to further refine some of the rockwork and plantings lining the path on either side, with a few more enkianthus peralatus for reliable red autumn colour and enkianthus campanulatus for oranges and golds + the obligatory mondo and liriope to help retain the steep slopes. Once things have settled in a little more i'll start adding more moss to the plantings to bring them into line with the more established areas.

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Anyways, thanks for following along, I hope its not getting too repetitive!
Cheers,

Damien

[badabing888]

Nice Japanese black pine land scape tree how tall is it if you don't mind me asking?

[damienw133]

Nice Japanese black pine land scape tree how tall is it if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks! but so far the only black pine in the front yard is the one in the side of the dry waterfall - its about 50cm tall or thereabouts...
The more bluish pine planted in the mound in front of the waterfall area is a dwarf scots pine, i think either p. sylvestris argentea or beuvronensis, and is around 1.5 meters high at the moment with plans to grow it out to double or triple that height eventually.

The other pines in the garden at the moment are the american white pine that is still in a pot and spreads quite close to the ground at around 4 meters long and a japanese red pine planted near the fence thats also around 1.5 meters high.

The really old japanese red pine in a pot that i had photos of is around 2.5 meters high and wide