Tag Archives: Heatherwood Japanese Garden

What is Around the Corner?

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Lower Garden Path
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Trees, shrubs, and ground covers frame the lower path of our Japanese garden area. I can hear water rushing, but there is no sign of it. What lurks around the corner of the path? Trees and carefully placed bends in the pathway obscure what is beyond.

The garden is filling in. It is hard to realize that only six years ago that this area was a grass lawn. ‘Visioneering’, imagination, design iterations, and some hard work formed the structure. Mother Nature did the rest!

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Here Come the Maples

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Filigree Japanese Maple
Heatherwood Japanese Maple

During the last couple of weeks our Japanese maples have been gradually leafing out in their beautiful spring attire. Seventy Japanese maples grace the Heatherwood landscape with their beautiful colors and shapes. Their colors are constantly changing throughout the seasons spring through fall. Through the winter their bark and irregular branch structure add special interest to the landscape.

We planted this weeping Filigree maple last year to complement a mountain lantern along our upper Japanese garden path. In years to come its branches will flow over the rocks above the path providing even more interest.

This year we have added five maples in our southwest garden plus two more in our upper northwest lawn. In addition, we are nursing two small baby maples in pots. Adding new maples is always a challenge in our harsh shrub steppe environment in Central Washington. Finding just the right places to shield the maples from the harsh summer sun is getting difficult as the garden fills up. As the conifers and deciduous trees mature and get taller, new opportunities arise.

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Peeking Around the Corner

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Looking Through the Japanese Garden
Heatherwood Spring

A narrow stone path leads around the corner of our house. Immediately my eyes are flooded with spring color from Japanese maples, a flowering viburnum, a Japanese umbrella pine, and a weeping white pine. Then the Kotoji lantern by our hillside stream pops into view. It feels like the lantern is a scout looking over the garden.

The view as I walk around the corner is almost too much to take in all at once. Do I focus on the trees, shrubs, and ground covers that surround me? Or, do I look up through the trees and see the surprises peeping out through the foreground? Or, do I just pause and take it all in one little piece at a time? I usually do the latter.

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Ground Covers Add Winter Color

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Winter Ground Covers
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

A touch of frost highlight these winter ground covers. These three ground covers add a little winter flare to the garden. The foreground Siberian Cypress changes from its summer grey-green to its winter bronze color. The Mahonia in the center adds red, oranges, and purples to its winter cloak. In the background, the Blue Rug juniper adds a cool blue to the scene. Winter is not dull in Heatherwood.

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More Fall Colors in Heatherwood

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Akebono Cherry, Fingerling Japanese Maple, Yukimi & Kotoji Lantern
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

I was sitting in my office doing a little work and looked out the window. The morning light covered the garden outside my window. The heck with work … I grabbed my camera and started playing in the soft light. The color was amazing, I moved from one position to another searching for little vignettes. Three hours later, my creative juices stopped flowing. I had covered less than one-third of the garden. Well, there is always tomorrow morning to do some additional exploring.

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Watching Over the Water

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Viridis Japanese Maple
Heatherwood Early Fall

Our green Viridis maple is changing to its fall orange as it patiently watches over our garden waterfall. Each year it extends further toward the falling water. The combination of the flowing water and the flowing branches of the Viridis is one of my favorite scenes I keep coming back to.

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Let Your Imagination Loose

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Waterfall Abstract
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Sitting by the waterfall, I continued to play with long exposures. I was looking for interesting vignettes that I could isolate with my telephoto lens. I created several images of this rock with the water flowing around its edges. By itself, it was interesting but not eye stopping. Later when reviewing my images of the morning’s session, something caught my eye. I squinted and saw a face with long white hair sweeping down along each side. The more I looked at it, the more my imagination wandered.

Can you see it ???

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Respite from the Heat

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Yukimi and Waterfall
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

During these hot summer days with the temperature in the high 90’s to mid 100’s, Heatherwood’s pond and waterfalls cool things down. The sight and flow of water creates a feeling of coolness even though the temperature is hovering around 100 degrees. This vignette was created while I was sitting comfortably in one of our Adirondack chairs overlooking the pond and waterfalls. I know that one typically does not see an Adirondack chair in a Japanese garden. We have chosen to mix a couple of cultures to provide a comfortable place to relax and enjoy nature.

This sitting area is a works-in-progress. It is shaded from the east and south but is relatively open to the afternoon sun from the west. We have planted Japanese maples, a Japanese pagoda tree, and an akebono cherry on the west to help enclose the seating area. This year we planted a honey locust tree to finish the enclosure. Now we just need to wait until the trees get a little taller to provide a 270 degree protected room with an open view of the waterfall and pond to the north.

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Welcome to a New Day

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Early Morning Glow
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Nothing is better than an early morning stroll through the garden to start a new day. The early morning sunlight filters through the leaves of the deciduous trees and shrubs. It sparkles around the edges of the conifers. The garden bursts out in life. As I look east through the garden, I feel the gentle morning sun on my face. I take deep breaths and become one with the nature that surrounds me. Today is going to be a great day!!!

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Which Way ?

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Lower Garden Path
Heatherwood Japanese Garden

Choices, choices, choices … which way do I turn? I hear rushing water to my left. I hear a plethora of bird songs ahead. I glance and see a dense packed pathway of shade loving trees and plants to my immediate right. A Goldilocks pine points its extended yellow branches to my different choices. Which way do I turn, or should I take my time and explore all three.

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