| Home page | Our house | Us | Our family |
In 1996 Peter and I went to the Chelsea Flower Show. I had been to a few previously, but we had no way of knowing just how far-reaching the effects of this visit would be...
One of the exhibits was a Japanese garden, which was described as a fusion between the old traditional Japanese gardens, as seen in Kyoto, and a more modern approach. We thought it was absolutely lovely and stood in the rain admiring it for quite some time. Eventually we took several overlapping photographs...no panoramic digitals for us then!...and moved on. When the photos were developed some weeks later we still felt that the garden was lovely—so peaceful, even in a photo—but we regretfully decided that it was not for us as we shared our home with a large and boisterous German Shepherd, Maggie, who would soon dig up any attempts we might make to re-create a gravel-based garden. We put the photos on the noticeboard to admire now and then, and shelved the idea.
Unfortunately, we lost Maggie in March of 1997. Later that year we began thinking about the garden again, and decided that we could now plan a complete makeover of our traditional lawn-and-flowerbed back garden. We spent the winter thinking about it, putting ideas on the Geoff Hamilton Garden Designer program on the computer, and generally rethinking a square garden design into a triangular shape to fit the space we had available.
In the spring of 1998 we made a start. An island bed with Himalayan birches was an early arrival, as was the tea garden with Miscanthus Sinensis (which grows to six feet tall from nothing each year), Fatsia Japonica and a lovely bamboo, Murieliae. We planted prostrate cotoneaster and ivy as ground cover and they soon became rampant. (Whoever said Japanese gardens were low maintenance?)
Once those were in place, Peter continued with the landscaping. When finished the garden contained fifteen tons of granite gravel, all of which had been moved in by barrow and raked into place. We used to tell people that each piece was placed by hand, and it wasn't that far from the truth. He had also built four separate areas of decking, a raised bed for chrysanthemums—the national flower of Japan—and excavated about thirty metres of water feature, both wet and dry. The contours of the garden changed quite dramatically from the original and all of that was done with a shovel and sweat.
As the various areas became ready for 'dressing' I drew up my plans for the specimen plants, ornaments, rocks, etc. that we would need. Most of the stuff we used was bought locally, although some of the rocks came from areas where they are more plentiful and therefore cheaper. It took a surprisingly long time to decide precisely how each area was going to be done—most of them we considered from three different angles and then placed the composition provisionally, moving them around slightly over a few days until we were happy with the result.
The final result contained about twelve varieties of bamboo, ten of grasses and six different acers. There were also Arum lilies, day lilies, irises, chrysanthemums, honeysuckle, azaleas, rhododendrons, Scots pines, a blue pine, a hawthorn... And all the trees needed regular clipping as well, to maintain the carefully natural 'outdoor bonsai' look.
Plans were scaled down slightly towards the end, particularly when we had decided that we were definitely moving to Spain. But nevertheless the garden was a success, and we opened it for a Village Open Gardens Day at which people could not believe that something so oriental existed behind a bungalow in an Essex village.
I haven't been back since we moved and I don't intend to. I still see our neighbours on my return trips but I make quite sure that I don't look over the fence or ask them what is going on. Since the new owners have children and dogs I think we are better off not knowing.
We do have just the one bed here in Spain as a small retrospective, and it contains a lantern and a small dragon that we brought with us. Otherwise, the plants, rocks, and ornaments are Spanish/Japanese...and that's just fine by us!
