New Japanese Garden WIP

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badabing888
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by badabing888 »

Cheers, thats the one i was looking at the red pine tbey can be hard to tell from distance.

When are you planning on putting it in the ground?
damienw133
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

badabing888 wrote: August 27th, 2021, 6:56 am Cheers, thats the one i was looking at the red pine tbey can be hard to tell from distance.

When are you planning on putting it in the ground?
At this point i'm not too sure to be honest....i still havent built the rock embankment for it yet, so it'll probably spend the rest of this year in a pot and be planted sometime early next year i think but we shall see....

In the meantime i've still got a black pine and two other red pines to find homes for in the garden as well, so theres a bit on my to do list haha
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

Greetings all!
Apologies for the delay between postings...although work has been progressing the changes havent really been worth sharing until now....

With spring upon us its been nice to see things opening up and putting on more growth, not least of all the maples near the dry waterfall area...i think its starting to look a bit more like what i had in mind as the foliage is beginning to obscure some of the rock to add some more depth to things overall.
Though now i'm even more excited to see what it looks like come autumn!
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I've revised the rockwork in the bend of the path and have added more to it as well to help me build it up higher in the next few weeks. Personally i far prefer the big rock being on the ground as the base to build smaller ones on top of it instead of it sitting on top of smaller boulders like some floating monolith ....not sure what i was thinking originally... :roll:
At the moment its got a setsugekka camellia and an unnamed mystery white camellia with smaller leaves planted around it, though it'll ultimately likely also have a deciduous holly or two, another enkianthus and a red or black pine planted somewhere near it too (subject to how much light gets into that area after all the other plantings are in place)
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I've also been busy hauling more rock and soil to raise the ground level at a low point a bit further down the path in an attempt to get some more layering between areas when seen from the house side of the garden.


Although perhaps a bit inadequate, I've built a small 'well' around the base of the big rhododendron in the middle of this area to hopefully avoid smothering it too much, though, in all honesty i wouldnt be tooooooooo fussed if it ends up dying off down the track...i suppose time will tell!

The ground level still needs to be raised up a little more, but for now i'll be leaving it for a few weeks to help the current fill to settle a bit before i load it up with more soil.
The plantings for it arent quiiiiite figured out yet, but i'm leaning very heavily towards, a sasanqua camellia, enkianthus, ferns, mondo, liriope and moss and in the brightest area near the boulder at the bend in the path, possibly either another red pine or a black pine.
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Its a little embarrassing to admit that my stone path is STILL a major construction site, but i'm verrryyyyyyyy slowly making progress on it...the one thing that puts me off working on it more often is the insane amounts of dust it creates and the huge setup time to set up and partition off that area with tarps and the fan to blast the majority of the dusty mess away from the house and garden....we'll get there eventually though!

The design is evolving somewhat over time, but i'm thinking of doing a bit of a mix between obviously cut stones with right angles and much more organically shaped pieces, though all of them will be fitted to similar levels of tightness.
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Anyways...thats it for this installment!
Thanks for following along and stay tuned :)

Cheers!
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by BonsaiBobbie »

We’ll time for my first post on this forum. I think it deserves to be in response to this epic thread.

Loved looking at this garden and progress, especially as I only came looking for information on cultivating moss.

Not sure how you got so much and go it to grow so quickly, but it looks awesome.

Love to see the latest update when you can.
--
No idea what I am doing…
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

BonsaiBobbie wrote: February 4th, 2022, 1:04 pm We’ll time for my first post on this forum. I think it deserves to be in response to this epic thread.

Loved looking at this garden and progress, especially as I only came looking for information on cultivating moss.

Not sure how you got so much and go it to grow so quickly, but it looks awesome.

Love to see the latest update when you can.
Thank you so much!

I've been meaning to do an update but alas...i'm afraid between work and how hot the weather has been i havent really done all that much over the last few months. I did a little more work on the stone path this weekend but i'm hoping that once things start cooling down a bit more i can really get back into the heavy work again.

As for the moss - I did a LOT of hunting by the roadside for it pretty much anytime i saw any of it while i was out and about. By and large i've done quite well for survival rates, though i've also been quite careful to try to match the light/moisture conditions of the varieties i've found when i've transplanted them.

Depending on the micro climates where you are, the toughest ones by far that i've found to date have been polytrichum juniperum for bright shade or full sun (best grown on a gravelly granatic sand/soil and Pseudoscleropodium purum for dappled shade (really good to throw over mulch if you dont mind waiting a year or two for it to fill in the gaps).

Cheers!
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

Inspired by the last post...i thought i might as well do a little update to show the tinyyyyy amount of progress since my last big post.

By and large things are doing pretty well, though the biggest change by far i think is the addition of the old Japanese red pine niwaki tree i bought last year.
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Its placement is pretty much finalised at this point, though it'll stay in its pot until things cool down a little more in autumn, just to give it as long as possible to recover from the traumatic experience that was entailed in getting it up to where it is now.

Planting height wise it's also pretty much right at this stage, so i'll be building up the soil level around it a little more come planting time, then covering the mound with additional moss, mondo and if i can get it, Japanese sedge.
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Although not immediately all that noticeable, i've also been adding in quite a lot more hares foot and rock felt ferns into the pockets in the rocky borders in the hopes that they'll one day be able to sprawl over more of them and help to give things a much softer and older look....the ones i put into the 'waterfall' area last year have certainly taken off!
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The only slight hiccup so far has been with two enkianthus peralatus that were thriving but have since taken a bit of a beating over the last few weeks with the sudden spike in temperatures and hot windy days...
My ugly but hopefully useful solution has been to make some tulle barriers for them to help cut down on the sun and (after a light spray down) provide a more humid environment for them to counteract the wind....fingers crossed it helps them!
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Anyways, thats all for now and probably for the next month or so still things really cool down.
Thanks for following along, hope y'all aren't getting too bored with the slow progress!

Cheers!
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by Raging Bull »

Looking better all the time!! All the now established plants have softened the whole look a great deal and made everything look so much more natural.
Just a note of caution with the haresfoot fern, it can be very invasive and become quite dominant. Its subsurface runners can travel quite far and will emerge in all sorts of places.
Cheers, Frank.
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

Raging Bull wrote: February 7th, 2022, 4:56 pm Looking better all the time!! All the now established plants have softened the whole look a great deal and made everything look so much more natural.
Just a note of caution with the haresfoot fern, it can be very invasive and become quite dominant. Its subsurface runners can travel quite far and will emerge in all sorts of places.
Cheers, Frank.
Thanks Frank!
I know what you mean about the hares foot...we've got a much older neglected patch in the backyard that has been scrambling over another rockery for the past couple decades with no encouragement needed.
I'm not toooooo worried about it compared to some of the other potential beasties in the front though, with the ring fern (paesia scaberula) top of the list of things that need watching.

I'll definitely be editing some things out as the other plantings settle in and put on more size, but for now everything seems to be staying put okay.
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

Howdy everyone,

Sorry for the huge delay between updates...work had pretty much stalled on the garden the last few months with how hot its been here.
I've started getting back into some of the stonework in the last couple weeks though, with an aim to trying to get more of the stone path finished up.

It remains a painfullyyyyyyy slow project, but its gradually getting there ...chasing really tight fits with thick stone has massively pushed out the time and difficulty in laying it. Once its finally finished i'll be constructing a low stone retaining wall behind it so that i can plant a mix of deciduous shrubs, ferns and sedge into it.

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Here's a poorly photoshopped approximate plan for the layout of this area...very much subject to change depending on the sizes of bluestone i can get for it. At the moment i'm using reclaimed bluestone 'pitchers', though i've been using a point chisel to create a more irregular 'natural' texture on them.
photo_2022-04-23_17-17-24.jpg

I've also finally been able to get the large red pine i bought quite some time ago in the ground and have begun to put in the supporting plantings around it. This area will also need some extra rocks and soil once i've got the right ones but for now i'm quite happy with it.

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Anyways, thats all for this installment, hope you're still enjoying it!

Cheers!
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damienw133
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by damienw133 »

Howdy everyone,

I wish i had a more dramatic update to show off but alas i'm still toiling away on the stone landing area at the top of the stairs as well as a special project soon to go in near it...lots of rock cutting and dust but hopefully it'll be worth it.

For now, i thought y'all might like to see how things are looking in their first real autumn.
Its been very interesting to see the colour progression running through things over the last month or so; starting with dark reds and maroons through to oranges a little later and now finally gold colours coming out.


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Also excitingly i've spotted some native orchids i think Acianthus pusillus as well as maidenhair ferns popping up in some of the areas of moss in the last couple weeks

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Thats all for now, hopefully i'll have some bigger and better updates soon (finally!)
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by SuperBonSaiyan »

Absolutely beautiful. I've started to appreciate Japanese gardens more after getting into bonsai and it's amazing to see different examples. Thank you for documenting the process :)
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by Rc65 »

Hi, I was wondering where you got your Red Pine Niwaki from please?

I’ve been looking all over for a small Niwaki Pine.
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Re: New Japanese Garden WIP

Post by Bonsaii »

Have loved following your japanese garden journey and it's inspired me in the design in my own garden. Can't wait to see what else you come up with this year.
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