Each Little World

GBBD: In a Vase on Sunday

A week of temps hitting 90°F or above had me in the garden cutting flowers for the house.They bloomed and faded so fast outdoors that this way I got to enjoy them for a little while longer. 

I love photographing floral bouquets on my tall Japanese display stand against the gold Japanese screen. After photographing, I moved the tea cups to the fireplace mantel where we could easily see them from our favorite reading spots.

To see what's blooming in other gardens, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens who hosts this long-running meme.

Shakkei

Shakkei is a Japanese term that refers to incorporating views of a neighboring landscape into one's garden. We've enjoyed our neighbors' huge old Forsythia 'Beatrix Farrand' for as long as we've lived in this house.. Some years the branches have come right through the fence and we've told our neighbors not to prune them on our account. This is the view along the fence path approaching our hoses and faucet  — and the gate into their garden so we can enjoy their plants up close.

Their Magnolia stellata is always a wonderful sight. Usually our trees are more leafed out and the line between the properties is not so obvious. 

Next up will be their hot pink and orange Rhododendron shrubs. A perfect pairing of colors from the 1960s.

Summer garden tour: John Mathews, Part 2

John Mathews garden had more than beautiful plantings to inspire the rest of us. It was filled with wood structures and detailing as well as creative stone work not often seen in small home gardens. The air conditioning unit that we passed by as we entered the back garden was nicely disguised in a manner related to the rest of the garden.  

The back lot line of the garden was beautifully marked by this wall that lets air and wind blow through. It offers a peek at the neighbor's garden without taking the focus off the homeowner's garden. 

The exterior of the garage has been transformed into a structure well suited to the style of the garden. Plus its surrounded by noteworthy plants and stone work.

Everywhere you went there were striking details that caught the eye.

The fence wall along the driveway alternated open and closed panels along with bamboo details. 

Even the folding chair was in keeping with the setting.

Summer garden tour: John Mathews

Last summer a gardening friend and I went on the annual tour of home gardens sponsored by Olbrich Botanical Gardens. We took advantage of the fact that most of the gardens were on our side of town. I was familiar with half of them — which is how I am able to identify this garden.

John Mathews is a professional designer and we've visited each other's gardens a number of times. I always know I will see unusual plants and creative solutions when I visit his garden. 

John has a exceptional collection of conifers and they were marked with id tags which was a treat.

This garden is heavily influenced by traditional Japanese gardens but seen through the eyes of a western homeowner and plantsman. So I was not surprised to see a rain chain or large rocks.

When I get back home I always want to be sure I have images of how these lovely parts of the garden are actually put together. 

So I tend to take lots of detail photos.

We turned left at the rock which took us through the front garden. 

John interpreted a classic Japanese barrier using bundles of prunings. This was across the path from the big rock.

Further along were these standard Ginkgoes. I've rarely met a Ginkgo I didn't like and these were no exception. Look at the moss, rocks and ground cover. The path is behind this display.  

Nothing has been left to chance in this beautiful combination of planting and hardscaping along the side of the house, leading into the back garden. 

A koi pond nestled among rocks and plants. 

I love this scene because it has familiar plants and a simple bamboo fence that anyone could make. Great inspiration.

Again, familiar plants that showcase all different tones of green — contrasted with a big empty pot. 

Every garden we visited had containers with various types of plants. None compared with this one with its span, limited depth and use of rocks as both decorative accents and to create a mini crevice garden. 

Next up: John Mathew's wood and stone garden elements.

IVOM: A book for bouquets

I recently discovered a wonderful little book for those of us who post every Monday about the bouquets we make each week. It was a serendipitous find on the "new books" shelf at my local library as I had not heard or read anything about it. Authors Amanda Luu and Ivanka Matsuba, of Studio Mondine, describe their book, "Ikebana Unbound," as "a modern approach to the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging." I was hooked from the moment I looked at the image on the cover.

The book opens with a brief introduction to the history of Ikebana and a helpful section on basic techniques of flower arranging. There was not a lot of information that was entirely new to me, but it was a good reminder that I could be doing a lot more to create the kind of floral displays that I am drawn to — and don't quite manage to create. The book ends with a nice list of resources I perused online for a quite a long time, making notes and contemplating tools and containers. 

"Ikebana Unbound" is divided into four sections: Naturalness, Movement, Balance and Simplicity. Each one begins with a brief introduction to a specific concept of Japanese philosophy as it relates to the flower projects and techniques. Each arrangement has a title that illustrates the theme and a paragraph that explains the ideas behind the arrangement. Each one lists the flowers used (not always with botanical names) and shows in a series of photos and descriptions how to recreate that display. 

The names the pair have given to each arrangement perfectly encapsulates the concept of that display. A few of my favorites: Into Spring, Cresting Wave, In the City, Alone Together, Haystacks and Oudolf's Meadow. What really excited me about the arrangements in this book is the fact that many of them use flowers and plants I am actually growing in my garden or have something similar to use for the desired effect. They use spring blooms like Tulips, Daffodils. Fritillary, Muscari and Hellebores as well as a lot of grasses and dried material. I even saw 'Diablo' Ninebark and 'Black Barlow' columbine — two stars in my garden — in various displays. 

I have a number of books on Ikebana and even took a workshop on the subject. But reading "Ikebana Unbound" is the first time I've felt like the concepts and themes made sense to me. I look forward to trying my hand at any number of the ideas within its pages. Definitely a book to own ($24.95, Artisan/Workman publisher).

Pond re-design: The final frontier

Before adding the next layer of fill to the pond, Mark put down permeable weed barrier.

The weed barrier is intended to keep the layer of screened top soil from filtering below. 

We took advantage of a big hole partly full of dirt to replicate our portrait taken on the day we started to build the pond in 1997.

Once the soil brought the pond level up high, Mark attacked the stream bed and waterfalls. He took out all the rocks from that area, piling them temporarily on the soil in the big pond. Then he removed as much rubber liner and carpet from the stream as possible. A number of the rocks in this area were set with a bobcat and two people. 

We were lucky to be able to borrow a couple of contractor's wheelbarrows. These are built to carry loads of concrete. Even empty, I could barely lift and move them. 

Mark's assistant, Angelo, had no trouble moving them full of dirt or gravel. Everything had to go from the driveway up an incline into the back. Angelo was amazing in how quickly he could move those barrows. 

The soil layer also got rained on which helped to settle it and let Mark determine if his calculations were correct. 

At this point, Mark began preparing for the final layer: Quartzite chips. He put wooden stakes in the ground, linked with string, to indicate the depth the chips needed to be, tiny surveyor's stakes. 

The quartzite chips needed to be put down without mixing any dirt up into this final layer. We were following the system that Olbrich Botanical Gardens uses in their sustainable gravel gardens. 

Once all the quartzite chips were settled on top of the soil. Mark began to level the pond surface. (It may not hold water but Mark and I still call it the big pond, stream and upper pool.) This was amazing to me to watch as he went the length of the pond on his hands and knees with a long, even board, a level and smaller pieces of wood to smooth the surface. 

He took design breaks to work on placement of the stones around the pond edges. The round stone was moved a number of times, getting it just the right distance from the pebble beach. 

You can see he changed his mind on how this area should be edged compared to the big stone blocks he experimented with above.

This view from the Upper Pool shows the stepping stones that cross it and the top of the stream on the other side of them. 

Even the stream bed has raked patterns. 

The sharply curving rock in the bottom pool of the stream symbolizes a jumping fish. 

Once Mark removed that wide swath of Carexes to make his working "bridge," we decided not to replace any of them. Instead he created a beautiful little path down to the east end of the big pond.

He set a grindstone into the quartzite chips so you could step out into the pond for a different experience than just viewing from a distance. 

Mark's first raking design was a very traditional linear pattern, the length of the pond. 

The big stones in the pond and the curving edges mean there will always be curvilinear patterns. 

This is where the stream meets the pond. 

I love this view from the path between the two hills in the garden. It is a view I rarely noticed when the pond had water. 

This was his first raindrop pattern, which was quickly followed by more elaborate version. 

This was his most recent pattern: diagonal lines across the width of the pond. Though it is a very simple design, it has proven one of the most effective because we can "read" it from inside the house. It also gets lit by east and west raking sun which makes the pattern pop.

Mark began this project on April 4th and finished on Aug. 17 — four and a half months later. It was an almost daily effort; whether with a wheelbarrow or a pen and paper. We couldn't be happier with the result. We celebrated the "unveiling" with an open garden event in early September. It was also Mark's 75th birthday. 

Pond re-design: The Upper Pool

The first step that Mark undertook in his big pond re-design project was the Upper Pool. This is where the recirculated water whooshed out between the rocks, overflowing between the stepping stones to travel down the stream into the big pond. (Double click the pictures to see the images larger).

. . .

2010: I was not allowed to plant in this area until Mark built the Tea House which is adjacent to it; a 10-year project in itself. Clearly this photo is from the earliest planting scheme which involved a lovely Amelanchier tree that died. 

2015: Five years later and things are coming along. The weeping Serbian spruce tree blocks your view down the stream into the big pond. 

2018: By this time the Upper Pool is almost completely hidden by the native water plant, Sagitaria latifolia. This view clearly shows the stepping stone path between the Upper Pool on the right and the stream on the left. 

APRIL 2021: Mark began actual work on the Upper Pool as soon as it was possible in the spring. He thought of the Upper Pool as his test project to see how this whole concept of a dry gravel garden would work. It meant taking the pond plumbing apart up here and pulling out the rubber liner. Doing that, however, also meant that we had made the pond system inoperable. There was no going back from this step.

Mark's using a sump pump and a commercial strainer to get all the  water out of the pool and the wet organic debris that was at its bottom. He piled the debris in the strainer to let as much water drain off as possible. 

I then emptied them into a wheelbarrow and he dumped the goop in any available bare spot in the garden to dry it out more. Eventually we took it to the Badger Road drop-off for garden waste. 

Once the pool was empty and dry, he pulled out any rocks he wanted to rearrange.

Next the hole was filled with soil. Notice how he was moving a wheelbarrow across piece of plywood on top of the steeping stones in order to dump the dirt where he wanted it. A more treacherous system than I was comfortable with, but he didn't have any accidents. 

We had initially thought we could hire a landscape firm to do this project, but the ones we called weren't interested. It didn't take Mark long to realize he was constantly making decisions that only he could make. It was not easy, but it made sense to do everything by himself that he was able to do. Here he's reshaping the edge and rearranging the rock placements. 

MAY: Mark drove up to Michel's Waterloo Quarry and brought back a pickup truck load of quartzite chips for the top layer of the Upper Pool. 

JUNE: We continued to play around with rock placement up here as work on the big pond began. You can see that the gravel does not go beyond the edge of the pool at this point in the process. 

August: As work on the big pond drew to its conclusion, Mark topped up the Upper Pool with more quartzite chips. Here you can also see that the gravel is now in the stream bed on the other side of the stepping stones as well. 

SEPTEMBER: The view in the other direction, standing on the stepping stones. 

I know a lot of gardening friends were shocked when we told them what we were planning to do. We were both thrilled with the result of this first big step. The garden feels new and different, which is not easy to accomplish when you have been in the same place for almost 30 years.

The gravel lightens the look and physically opens this area compared to when it was full of water plants. It is the perfect contrast to the highly planted area that surrounds it. 

Pond re-design: Why we did it

We moved to this property in 1994 specifically to create an ornamental garden. We spent the first two and a half years planning and designing the pond, which was going to be the centerpiece of the space. We belonged to a local pond group so we got to see a lot of water features in home gardens. That helped us decide what we did and did not want in ours.

Specifically we wanted a stream with multiple waterfalls to act as a natural filtration system. 

Eventually the pond was well-covered with waterlilies whose leaves kept the water cool; another method of keeping algae at bay. 

Though the pond was in the sunniest spot in the garden — to make sure the lilies got enough sun to bloom — it was surrounded by trees which created a maintenance nightmare.

With three large Locust trees, it was impossible to keep the leaves from falling into the pond each fall. That meant that ideally we needed to empty the pond and clean it out each spring. (Look for the rocks marking the edge of the pond; the leaves make it blend into the grass and the deck.)

Mark, with very little help from me, did that messy job for years. It was easy in the early days when he was younger and when there were multiple unplanted areas where we could spread out the muck and let it compost. Along with cleaning out the rotting debris, he divided the water lilies, repotted and repositioned them back in the pond.

The last bare spot was the former moss garden where Mark dumped the slimy debris a few month before I began to redesign and plant this area in 2017. 

That was the last time he seriously cleaned out the pond. He never was able to do this job without help and we found it almost impossible to hire a company to do the kind of job we needed done — with the care we always use when working in the garden. 

During our COVID summer at home, the pond started having more problems than not being cleaned out. It sprang three leaks. Mark managed to find and repair two of them. But the third one was the problem. It was likely located in the rubber liner somewhere under the rocks in the stream; a location which meant it would never be able to be found and fixed. We had to turn off the pond pump because of the leak, which made the water eutrophy. 

We knew it was time for a change; a big change. All winter long we talked about what we might do; we looked at most of the garden books we own for inspiration and information. It didn't take long before we agreed to turn our wet pond into a symbolic water feature; something Mark had been interested in from the day we moved here. 

In those early day of creating our garden, I was less enthused about having a traditional raked gravel garden like Ryoanji (below). Over the years, I have come to appreciate this classic style of Japanese garden and was excited to make the change.  

Our new gravel garden has one major difference from the traditional Japanese style garden. We followed Olbrich Botanical Gardens' directions on creating sustainable gravel gardens like they've done with the one illustrated below. Thus, someday we can plant directly into our gravel garden should we, or the next owners of our house, decide to do so. (More on that in the upcoming posts about making the change-over.)

OLBRICH BOTANICAL GARDENS PHOTO

Rake No. 2

When I posted about Mark's new rake to make patterns in the gravel garden last week, Loree Bohl of Danger Garden commented: "I saw Mark's rake and thought 'how ingenious!' followed by 'but I bet he's working to design something more artistic...'." She was right.

I had barely posted the images of what he was up to, when he showed me his new rake (on the right). This one makes deeper marks which are more visible at the new, larger scale needed in this bigger gravel garden. 

Having made a new rake, he completely re-worked the gravel garden in a new pattern. It looked absolutely stunning. Sunday he created yet another entirely new motif of interlocking circles like raindrops.

There's only one problem with him playing in the gravel. I am not allowed to walk on it which means I can't work around the edges, planting where he's left room for shrubs and perennials. Neither one of us wants to reveal the finished symbolic pond until it is complete. So you will have to wait a little longer to see it in its full beauty. 

Practice makes perfect

Last Friday, Mark went to the quarry in Waterloo to get a pickup-load of quartzite chips to finish the pond project. Though we'd had 14 cu. yards of the chips delivered, he wanted a tad more to get it all even and to the height he wanted.

He spent Saturday unloading them and getting the surface completely even. On Sunday he got out all the big garden forks and rakes and tried them out to see what kind of patterns he could make in this gravel. 

None of them were quite the right size to make marks of a scale that works with an area this large.

So he went to the hardware store yesterday and came back and made his own temporary wooden "rake." We both agreed that he's moving in the right direction. 

Here's his temporary rake: The handle and screw plate from a sponge-style floor mop fitted with a board into which he inserted dowels. Once he decides exactly the size and spacing of the dowel markers, he plans to make a more artistic version in keeping with the artfulness of the garden as a whole. 

Mark dug out a huge swath of Carex siderosticha variegata to make a working route from our gravel garden path down to the pond. Along the way he decided to leave the path as a way to get closer to the gravel garden. You now walk down a gray gravel path with these limestone bars (filled with Mexican river rocks) across it. You can then step out onto the grindstone and flat rock in the third photo above.  

This whole project is coming together nicely. He now needs to work on the rock placement around the edges of the "pond;" then I follow with the plants.