“Japanese Maple”
Heatherwood Winter
There is still a lot of winter interest in Heatherwood. The skeleton structures of the Japanese Maples provide interesting winter forms. The reds, yellows, and greens of the evergreen plants provide highlights through the garden. Good weather is predicted through the first couple weeks of March. It’s time to get our and start our winter/spring clean-up and pruning.
“Blue Rug Juniper and Woolly Thyme”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Many times I walk through our garden with my camera focusing on a simple objective. Contrasting colors and textures in our winter garden was my photographic theme during this day’s garden stroll. I consider our Heatherwood garden as one big experiment. This little vignette is the result of two seasons growth of a creeping juniper and a soft-textured thyme. It provides a tight contrasting ground cover in our Japanese influenced garden. More thyme has been ordered for this year’s planting project to provide additional interesting ground cover for the garden.
“Ajuga et al”
Heatherwood Winter
Every stroll through our Heatherwood garden presents little “treats” of joy. The above image is from a shady part of our Japanese garden.
Nature’s Cycle
New and old mix together,
From decay, emerges new,
Another season ahead.
“Frozen Waterfall”
Heatherwood Winter
The beauty of a trickling partially frozen waterfall is a special gift of a cold winter day.
A flowing trickle,
On a freezing winter day,
Beautiful crystals abound.
“Winter View from the Perch”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Standing above our stream and waterfalls gives me a wide perspective of our Japanese garden below. It is very quiet and peaceful up here now that the main stream has been shut down for its winter rest. When I am up here, my mind wanders from enjoying the openness of the wide perspective to focusing on little vignettes and details. Many times I lose track of time as I peacefully dream over the landscape. Winter snow adds a whole different feeling.
“Hokkeji in Snow”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Our Hokkeji Japanese Lantern with its winter hat welcomes us into Heatherwood’s snow covered garden. A crabapple with its winter apples provides a little red tone in the background. As the apples soften, they will provide winter food for the local birds.
Our winter garden work has stopped for a while. It is time to take a little rest and just enjoy the garden as it is. Now we are planning for our 2022 landscape projects. Ideas flash through our minds as we envision the evolution of the garden. The start of planting season is just three months away.
“Autumn Sunrays”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
We are having a blizzard-like snowfall right now. The high temperatures for the last week and a half have been below 20 degrees. The waterfall in our garden is frozen. I need a change! All I have to do is look back on some of the images I created this past year to get a little feeling of warmth.
This warm early autumn image from our Heatherwood Japanese garden was just what I was looking for. I can feel the warmth of the early morning sun rays filtering through the Japanese maples and gracing the lower leaves of a Japanese “Full Moon” maple. The leaves were just starting to change from summer yellow to autumn red. It simply gives me warmth. Maybe it will provide me enough stimulus to go out and collect come cold winter images.
“Frozen”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Brrr … We are ending the year with an arctic blast! The temperatures are dropping into the single digits and the highs are hovering around 20 degrees. This year, I have left one of our two waterfalls running into the pond to keep the pond aerated for the fish. A side benefit is a beautiful water-ice feature to accent our winter Japanese garden landscape.
“Top of the Waterfall”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
We needed a design element to anchor the top of the waterfall and stream in our Japanese garden. We looked for something that would add height as well as droop over the top of the waterfall. A weeping blue spruce was the solution we decided to plant this past spring. The lower branches, like arms, will bend down and cover the rocks above the stream inlet. The top tip will continue to grow up to project a guardian-type figure over the waterfall. We just need to give it time to achieve the results we desire.
“First Day of Winter”
Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Today is the first day of winter. Light snowfalls in the last couple of days ushered in winter in our Heatherwood garden. I even had to plow our driveway yesterday.
Last year most of the Japanese maples kept their leaves through the fall and most of the winter. This year, they all have lost their leaves. The maples’ naked branches just blend into the background. The landscape seems more barren than it was last year. Hopefully the trees are taking a rest as they continue to develop strength below the ground’s surface preparing them for next years growth.