Day 1: Japanese Garden History Class

7:10, that’s the appointed time we are to be in the van to go down the hillside for the tour of the “diner” menu while enjoying a lovely view of the ocean. Half the menu was Japanese sets and half was American-style item so our mostly European group was torn with indecision. The one thing that became clear, they were going to start stocking more yogurt during the next few weeks because that was the number one choice.

An hour later our boots are lined up at the entrance door, hot water is on for tea and we are ready for the 3 hour history lecture. This would be our daily routine for the next two weeks.

To create a school in Japan you must own the buildings and you must operate the school for many years before applying for financial support. This program for training people from other countries in the tradition of Japanese gardens was developed over many years of planning by the Mr. Kosugi’s team at Kosugi-Zohen and he is clearly thrilled to share his experience and culture. He joined us almost every afternoon to guide our lessons in the field with his patient manner and introduced us to many of his clients and colleagues so we could have a complete immersing experience.

Mr. Kosugi showing us one of the numerous handouts

prepared in English for students to bring home.

 

Partnering with the European Landscape Association, the “in English” session drew participants from around the world and his dedication to making the program and our visit a success inspired us to be good students. The program is challenging and rewarding. http://kosugi-zohen.co.jp/seminar_top.htm

Dr. Andreas Hamacher developed this course and I couldn’t imagine a more qualified teacher. His degree from Chiba University required his thesis book on the Hein period in Japanese gardens to be written and defended in Japanese but much of the research required fluency in Chinese as well. Those two languages joined his native German and mandatory English allowing him to cross many borders in sharing his extensive background with our eclectic group. My colleagues were from Finland, Australia, Japan, Germany, Switzerland, and South America. We would soon be taking notes as fast as possible to squeeze as many translations in as possible because it quickly became clear that we couldn’t possibly absorb all that was to come. I personally gave up on writing the Chinese derivations of words and settled for the poetic Japanese translations.

Dr. Andreas Hamacher at the white board where Japanese landscapes were interpreted using diagrams of plans and descriptions in Japanese-Chinese-German-English.

Since this was our first day, we started with bit of trivia and general information about frequently asked questions. Apparently the one place everyone wants to go is the famous moss garden in Kyoto. We would not be going there. Only two groups a day are allowed to visit, the cost is an astounding 3000 yen ($30), and the monks require you to spend the first hour practicing writing characters in ink. We later found that admission to gardens was typically only 25 or 50 cents.

I love to hear foolish myths dashed by fact and in the United States, Japanese gardens are buried in false information. Dr. Hamacher didn’t disappoint me, “Many stories are made up to sell tickets because people like the charming stories.” He warned us to be careful about what was being distributed as the true history of gardens and to critically consider the explanations regarding the origin of spaces. Was the tea garden created before the arrival of Buddhism? It makes a difference and we would spend 3 hours a day for the next two weeks sorting out those details.

“Just because one is Japanese doesn’t mean they know gardens.”

 

Japanese Garden Seminar

Kosugi Garden Seminar, Atami City, Japan

Two Certificates, Japanese Garden History, Construction, Maintenance

They read, "History and development of Japanese Gardens, planting and pruning of Japanese plants (including bonsai), Japanese pathway construction and stone arrangement, usage of Japanese lanterns, construction of Japanese bamboo fences and earthen walls. All workshops were carried out in Atami, Japanese nurseries in Saitama and Chiba prefecture or in public and historical gardens in Atami City and Odawara City."

February 2012

This begins the story of my experiences and I will post it in many sections as I have over three hundred pages of notes and 5000 photos. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to share it as lectures and classes and the material lends itself best to those style of presentation.

 

Travel Days

Just one month ago I realized that my free time in February matched the English-speaking courses offered through the European Landscape Association and I decided to take a chance on a new experience. I had been to Tokyo years ago and longed to return to see the fabulous shapely pines of the Imperial Palace grounds. Although there were trips to Shanghai, Taiwan and Korea since then, Japan remained my favorite country to visit in Asia. After beginning to learn about bonsai and designing a couple Japanese-inspired gardens, it was time for a hands-on learning experience with a Japanese company that was willing to share their world.

Bright pink and plum clouds, the smell of coffee, and some strums of acoustic guitar start my day at the airport. The headcold that started 24 hours ago makes my eyes heavy when I want to be wide awake reading my Japanese phrasebook. When traveling to another country my routine is to memorize key phrases like: my apologies, thank you, where is the toilet (bathroom isn’t clear enough), and counting to ten. The numbers have been helpful over the years for critical travel details such as finding a train departure and asking costs.

After a few minutes speaking with a Japan Railway ticket agent, I am on a white bullet train to Shinagawa. Houses along the way display trained trees and shrubs no matter how simple or elaborate the location. Glass and plastic greenhouses are common along the rice paddies and even occupy a few urban blocks in Chibu. Orange-filled trees dot many of the small yards adding polka-dots of color to the otherwise still winter gardens. That is not to say that they are not green, far from it. Evergreen plants far outnumber the deciduous but they are not commonplace or simplistic placeholders of unpaved real estate. These are hedges and topiaries. These are trees and shrubs that have been cloud-pruned, windswept-trained, coppiced, and formed by every other manner of shaping that I have yet to learn about.

The plants are their owner’s demonstrations patience and caretaking that is clearly embedded in the culture after centuries of learning. They live in meditation with nature. These are not just small bonsai that I see from the train but 15’ black pine clouding up an entrance. Sycamores march up numerous streets in allees pollarded to 10’ wide lining the avenues of several different towns. Entire collections of ten-foot tall this and that’s surround many small yards to lend the shapely whimsy reminiscent of some cartoon books for children.

Waking up on this first morning it is easy to forget that Atami City, Japan is a sea town. Sunrise wakes up the birds and they start making slow circles as they ride the air currents from the ocean up the hillsides toward my window. Through the morning fog I can just make out the outline of land across the bay, dozens of orange trees down the slope, outlines of clipped pines, bright blue tile roofs, and heavy patches of bamboo. This will be the place I will come to know during my time here over the next three weeks to learn as much as I can about Japanese garden design.

Day 1

1st order of the day is to pre-order lunch...

 

 

 

Atami City, Japan, looking out of the window of our breakfast restaurant where we had a lovely choice between Western sets or traditional Japanese sets. A small tourist center, there are hot springs underground that not only keep it's semitropical plants in a microclimate of happiness, but it's people also happy with welcoming naturally heated mineral baths or "Onsen."

 

Where have all the flowers gone?

 

Ed Bowen, owner of Opus Plants, drove all the way from Rhode Island to give a memorable lecture for the Hardy Plant Society. I had to have a photo along with a couple people from the audience, Charles Cresson, Ed Bowen and Ron Rabideau.

 

It was a full house at co-host Scott Arboretum to see photos of interesting and beautiful plants for zone 6/7 and they must be somewhat salt tolerant to boot since the nursery is on a peninsula. What I didn’t expect was Ed’s insightful presentation on the state of the horticultural marketplace. “We are almost embarrassed to say we are growing a plant just for the flowers,” was only one example of his typically unspoken revelations. He told us that he gave a plant to a local garden display only to find it removed in the summer as having uninteresting foliage. If they had waited for the fall/winter flower show they would have been rewarded with billowing clouds of blue. He felt this has grown out of many years of emphasis on colored foliage at the expense of texture and flowers by the media and retailers. It was amazing to hear such frank reflections on market trends and his appraisal of how the much sought-after Generation X gardener is misunderstood and mislead. I would strongly suggest green industry trade groups invite him to speak to get their symposiums buzzing.

Plant photos were not just a plant catalogue review but an illustrative journey with species lined up next to each other for comparison, references to who brought it to the US from where, hybrids from England and Japan, and lots of “why isn’t this in everyone’s garden” because it’s just a great plant. For example: Brunnera ‘Gordano Gold”, Sanguisorba ‘Midnight’s Child”, Hydrangea involucrata ‘Yokudanka”, Schizophragma integrifolia var, faureri , Helleborus thibetanus, Bergenia pacumbis all drew oo’s and ah’s. We all sat there nodding our heads while scribbling down all sorts of pertinent details. By the end of the tightly moderated timeframe (he set an alarm so he would finish precisely within the allotment) groups of audience members were figuring out when they would go to Rhode Island!

The Chatto Scree Beds

Beth Chatto’s “Scree Beds” were planted in 1999 as a remembrance of the scree plants in the Alps. Her extensive gravel garden already flourished with large scale plantings grabbing guests’ attention so this new area became home to small conifers and alpines that are easy to maintain. It was formerly a flat area with an established Mediterranean plant collection that filled her personal view into the garden and is today the background for her white sheets hung out to dry on laundry day.

 

Goji Berries

Pomegranate seeds are so yesterday.

Goji berries are the new "it" food to add to your healthy eating arsenal. They can be used much like blueberries, either dried or fresh, to add super high anti-oxidant benefits to all the dishes you are already familiar with so they have been nicknamed "vitamin berries." You can see loads of details in this link!
www.provenwinners.com/vitaminberries

Lycium barbarum has been on the herbal radar in China for centuries and this tough sprawler does well in commercial landscape use in other countries but is an unknown here in the United States. Why the attention now? There are two new cultivars that really showcase it's best features. 'Sweet Lifeberry' dries nicely and reminds me of dried cranberries so I'll be using it in the same way. 'Big Lifeberry' are two or three time larger and look amazing on the plant. What a show they will make in the garden, well, until I've cleaned it off throwing a handful into my juicer everyday to pump up my vitamin shakes.

After a few years of pruning, maybe I'll be able to train it as a nice bonsai with a cascade style. It will be beautiful in a pot loaded with fruit.

Garden Rant, a very popular blog for many years, has a wonderful story by Allen Bush about his visit to Philadelphia for the International Plant Propagators Society 2012 Eastern Regional Conference titled "Guest Rants, Unusually Clever People: An Almighty Will to Propagate."  It is such a pleasure to go plant hunting with great plant people!  http://gardenrant.com/2012/11

"English Gardens"

Sharee Solow will present "English Gardens" at Springfest on March 14 at the Sussex County Fair Grounds, 37 Plains Road, Augusta, NJ 07822. http://www.njstatefair.org/springfest/springfest.cfm

Come along with me to vicariously visit some of the great gardens of England! There will be “no-experience necessary” as we quickly flip through images for an inspirational immersion into this beloved floral mecca. Iconic RHS properties like Wisley, Hyde Hall, and the Hampton Court Flower Show plus the semi-private gardens of Beth Chatto, Adrian Bloom and Will Giles might be added to your vacation wish list whether you are a gardener or just someone who likes to smell the flowers.