“Yukimi & Siberian Iris” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Today is the first day of spring. Early spring bulbs including the Siberian iris and crocuses are in bloom. Daffodil chutes are poking up through the ground. Their blossoms are still a couple of weeks away. The forsythia is blooming along with the first blossoms of the star magnolias and the Cornelian Cherry dogwood. All of the grasses and perennials have been trimmed. The garden spring weeding has been completed. We will celebrate the first day of spring today by pruning our roses.
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.
“Akebono Cherry & Waterfall” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Today, I woke up to a cool, dreary morning … great day for photographing! This newly planted (this spring) Akebono cherry has lost all of its leaves and just looked cold against the flowing waterfall. Black and white captured the feeling.
The Akebono was the first of our cherry trees to transition to its golden yellow fall color. As such, it was also first to loose its leaves. Our Heatherwood garden has sixteen cherry trees. The two Kwansan Cherries and a couple of our weeping cheery trees still have their leaves, the other twelve are now just “stick trees” waiting for winter to come.
“Yukimi Lantern and Waterfall” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
It has been a couple of weeks since my last post. I guess it is time to continue the stroll through the garden.
After exiting the garden path, the visitor walks around a couple of trees and starts to walk up the lawn bordering the Japanese garden. The sound of the rushing waterfall catches his/her attention and they look over their left shoulder and catch this small vignette. As we developed the Japanese garden, we tried to create small windows of interest from various view points. This is one of my favorites.
Our visitor leans back in the Adirondack chair, his/her head turns from left to right wandering up over the landscape. There is so much to see. But soon the attention focuses on the main waterfall and the Kotoji lantern guarding the stream. The rushing water and roaring sound hold the viewer’s attention. The Japanese maples and surrounding evergreens frame in the waterfall and pond.
Our visitor notices another Adirondack chair up above at the top of the stream. Curiosity arises, “How do I get up there?”
“The Waterfall & Pond” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Catching a glimpse of the waterfall and hearing the sound increase our visitor picks up the pace around the curving path. The garden opens up and presents its star attraction. It is time for the stroller to catch his/her breathe and sit down in one of the Adirondack chairs to just relax and take in the scene.
This is one of the views we have for our morning cup of coffee and an afternoon toast of wine. Our Japanese Garden stream and pond area is starting to slowly fill in. The shrubs and ground covers we planted are taking hold and covering many of our open areas. This year we added eight trees, multiple shrubs, kinnikinnick, cotoneaster, and thyme around the stream and pond area. In addition, we planted several screen trees and shrubs around the top of the garden to shield the view of our neighbors home from the bottom of the pond area.
Next year, we will continue to add ground covers. Then as the trees get larger and produce a little shade, we plan to add rhododendrons, azaleas. and other shade plants to finish off the Japanese garden. And, I’m sure we will find space for a few more Japanese maples.
Our guest takes a couple more steps down the path and glances left … SURPRISE! A small window opens up and the source of the sound is exposed. As the water rushes over the rocks, a small Yukimi Japanese lantern projects out guarding the pond. The vignette is just a teaser of what is to come as one strolls further down the path.
Limber Pine Cones and Waterfall Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Every time I walk through our garden I get a different perspective. This day, I chose to walk around with my camera and a wide-angle lens. I saw huge (8-inch) pine cones on one of our Limber Pines. With my wide-angle lens, I started searching for something interesting to complement the cones. Moving around the tree, our pond and waterfall appeared.
As I explore our garden I sometimes focus on details, sometimes on wide views, and sometimes on whatever catches my eye. Walking in the garden is always an adventure.
“Lower Waterfall in Early Morning Sun” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
Continuing from my prior post, this image illustrates the design opportunities that we have to create my vision for the stream, waterfall, and pond. We have laid the foundation for the stream’s surrounding areas with a few conifer trees and shrubs. To compliment these, we need to add contrasting shapes and textures along with a lot of ground cover. I hope to achieve this with interesting evergreen and deciduous shrubs and a few more deciduous trees. I am looking also for fast-growing ground covers to keep the bark in place. When we have a strong wind, the surrounding bark is blown into the stream and pond, causing quite a mess and a lot of maintenance work. While adding framing plantings, we need to make sure that we allow “windows” for morning and afternoon sun to highlight the flowing waterfalls. Plant placement will be critical.
