New Japanese Garden WIP

[damienw133]

Agree. That rock cut is fkn brilliant!. Kudos to you my friend.

Cheers! Its definitely a job i'm glad to have out of the way now!

[damienw133]

You've really put some work into it. It's looking good now. be amazing when greeny parts progress as well.

Is there a book or some site that you learnt what a japanese garden consists of etc i would love to understand it more

Thanks! Annoyingly there's still quite a lot more heavy work to do before i can really plant things properly, but slowly slowly its getting closer!

By and large i've relied mostly on photos of Japanese gardens online and my own pictures from a couple of past holidays, but i've also spent a lot of time looking at sites on rock gardens and woodland gardens. I found i got more use from resources based towards recreating 'natural' environments than i did from dedicated 'japanese garden' books or sites.

That said though, i recently bought few fantastic books that i wish i'd had when i started:

A Thousand Mountains, a Million Hills: Creating the Rock Work of Japanese Gardens by David Engel

Secret Teachings in the Art of Japanese Gardens: Design Principles, Aesthetic Values by David Slawson

Japanese stone gardens Appreciation and Creation by Isao Yoshikawa
Yoshikawa also wrote a pretty good reference book on tsukubai water basins called 'Stone Basins, The Accents of Japanese Gardens' if you're interested in those too.

[damienw133]

Another day another update...

I've been very busy over the last couple weeks building up the rockwork along the wall near the front of the house in readiness to raise the soil level up for planting...i'm getting better at getting rocks to fit tight and somewhat more naturally but it still remains a much slower process than i'd like...still...at least this layer is finally done!

I've done most of the plantings that i can at this point, though there's still a large almost horizontal american white pine niwaki (either a strobus or i think - a flexilis) and a bunch of other enkianthus, and maples to go in to fill the big bare spot....unfortunately i cant really put those in until i get some arborists in to cut some overhead major branches out of the liquid amber, probably after the leaves drop in autumn.

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As well as that i've started a surprise project to fix an minor stuff up i made very early on before the retaining wall was replaced....it seems i didnt pay enough attention to the ground levels when i built the first mossy area, so as a result when it came time to start leveling the path alongside it i discovered that with the position of the rocks the path would have to be about 200mm above the top of the retaining wall if i wanted it level...

cue some creative thinking -

i excavated a space underneath the worst offending rock and slid another rock underneath it with a chiselled cutout in it to allow it to slide in all the way underneath the one above, then dug out the space in front of it and started to lay a very heavy 'crazy paving' pathway - both to level out the area and to create a much stronger barrier to keep any of the bordering rocks from being able to work their way loose....getting things to fit as tight as i want however is a slowwwwwwwww exercise to say the least...but on the plus side it'll be pretty ridiculously strong once its done and bedded into sand and mortar

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[damienw133]

Just a small update from todays work -

At last after putting it off for months i finally got around to cutting the basin into the granite pagoda base i bought last year...a lot of fine cuts with grinders followed by far more chiselling than i'd have liked but i think it turned out pretty well

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Although the granite is probably just as hard as most of the basalt i've been working with throughout the rest of this project this piece was extremeeeeeely unpredictable to work with which just meant having to work much slower and being far more careful with everything.

The only big issue i came across was a hairline crack in the top on one side that opened up slightly while i was working, but its still watertight so i'm not too fussed...if it becomes an issue over time i figure i can always use some sort of stone masons epoxy or something to fill it.

I still have to extend the water service for the spout, and add some pebbles and extra plantings in, but the tsukubai area is coming together pretty well now!

[anthonyW]

Hi Damien enjoying your landscaping, wondering what material are you using between the steels in the retaining wall..ie concrete, timber...looks nice and straight..cheers

[damienw133]

Hi Damien enjoying your landscaping, wondering what material are you using between the steels in the retaining wall..ie concrete, timber...looks nice and straight..cheers

Thanks man!
Its a concrete sleeper retaining wall with two sets of agi drains behind it to stop any pressure from building up...one would probably be fine, but since i was building up the ground level above it so much i figured it couldnt hurt

[damienw133]

Another quickie tonight as i try to complete the final push for this stage before i have to go back to working full time and the pace of everything slows down again...

For the past couple weeks i've been slaving away on the small crazy paving area, trying to get things to fit as tight and level as possible while maintaining an interesting pattern....a task much easier said than done! i can definitely see why tight and thick crazy paving is so rarely done

The biggest challenge thus far has been trying to keep the shapes unique whilst avoiding triangles, diamonds and T section joints, lest they disrupt the flow through the rest of the pattern.

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Today however was another nice mini milestone as i was finally able to remove the soil filled tarps that were lining the drainage trench along the retaining wall to replace them with a much more appealing crushed granite which should hopefully match in fairly well with the smaller granite gravel going in for most of the paths.

Ultimately there'll be a similar granite lined trench running all around the garden but i've yet to put the edging stones in for it...it'll happen....slowly...
I'll also be getting the house's roof redone sometime this year, so once that ordeal is over i'll be able to order some matching flashings to cap the top of the retaining wall to tie everything in nicely

Anyways...thats all for this installment folks! Thanks for following along!

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[anthonyW]

Thanks Damien appreciate that I put timber in mine, but I think the concrete looks better with the straightneess and no warp..cheers

[damienw133]

Apologies for the delay between updates but progress has been regrettably slow, especially now that i'm back to working full time again, so this'll be a pretty small show and tell i'm afraid

My big project continues to be the short section of crazy paving for the path leading into the garden...i'm gradually getting there but its unbelievably time consuming work...chasing tight fits and a nice pattern is much harder than you'd think! Although its on a bed of sand and mortar, at 100-200mm thick i dont really think these 'pavers need much in the way of additional support!

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I tried to use unworked surfaces for the exposed face in the first section of paving i was doing, but unfortunately i quickly ran out of suitable pieces for that so i've largely had to resort to chiselling the faces down to a flat surface in the current area...slow, but fairly meditative work once you get into it.

For anyone curious, i'm using a point chisel and mallet to break the majority of the waste off before flattening the faces with a combination of the point chisel, a bushing hammer and a trimming hammer. The Trow and Holden tools i bought for it remain an absolute delight to work with, so if anyone's thinking of trying some traditional stone masonry i'd highly recommend them.

As well as that, the mossy areas i planted earlier last year are really starting to take hold, so that's nice to see too.

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[Raging Bull]

Really starting to look the goods!!

[KIRKY]

Your garden is coming along nicely. I’m curious, do you have any bonsai to show?
Cheers
Kirky

[damienw133]

Your garden is coming along nicely. I’m curious, do you have any bonsai to show?
Cheers
Kirky

Thanks so much! Alas though, at this point all of my 'bonsai' really arent much to look at...by and large the majority of what i've got (mostly pines) is currently in the ground in an attempt to grow them out more.

To be entirely honest, bonsai have intimidated me for a while ...
Everything about them just seems so much more precise and controlled than whats required for niwaki

[damienw133]

Another very small update today...

Not a greatttt deal has changed as far as heavy landscaping goes, beyond refining some of the stone work in a few areas...though i did move another largish boulder into place in the middle of the garden to add some more visual weight and depth to everything...at this point there's not that much more i can do until i get around to going to the rock yard again to select another pile of back breakers for another round of fun.

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I have however been able to start adding in more plantings, with extra maples and a couple of new light pinkish purple deciduous azaleas to break things up a bit in the raised planting mound parallel to the front fence....my final 'vision' is for everything to form a single backdrop of mostly deciduous foliage to provide a colourful autumnal screen to create extra contrast for the pines on the main hill and those that will be going in closer to the house to play off.

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I've also more or less finished the water bowl area aside from adding in a new run from the water service to feed a bamboo (or copper with a bamboo sleeve over it) water spout for it.

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Anyways, sorry for the somewhat boring update...stay tuned! there'll be some good stuff coming soon!

[Raging Bull]

Hi Damien, Keep going with your fantastic work. You must be on a first name basis with all the landscaping supply yards in your area.
What kind of rocks are you using, they look to be a couple of different kinds. Are the ones with the holes in them of volcanic origin?
Cheers, Frank.

[damienw133]

Hi Damien, Keep going with your fantastic work. You must be on a first name basis with all the landscaping supply yards in your area.
What kind of rocks are you using, they look to be a couple of different kinds. Are the ones with the holes in them of volcanic origin?
Cheers, Frank.

Thanks Frank!

And pretty much! I'm getting to know quite a lot of the local nursery people too now which is becoming rather handy too!

I wish i could be more specific about the exact rock types but alas...my geological knowledge is pretty sparse...all i can really say is that the vast majority of the landscaping rock is volcanic basalt, though there's quite a lot of textural variation between individual pieces of it.

As a general rule, the vast majority of what i've used is extremely dense and fairly free of large air pockets or faults so its all been pretty solid and heavy thus far...though the flip side is that it stays where you put it and isnt dislodged easily...I've been lucky in being able to hand select pretty much all of them at the supply yards so i've mostly been able to avoid anything that seemed crumbly or too lightweight to support other pieces on top.

As a bit of a visual guide toward weights - according to the scales at the supply yard, the big rock with the horizontal striations behind the water bowl is around 740kg and the more angular one to the right of the waterbowl is about 280kg.
That said, though the big one is among the largest rocks in the garden, with the heaviest so far being the big one in the corner of the retaining wall weighing in just under a ton before i cut it to fit into the corner

Aside from the basalt rocks there's 2 or 3 large scoria landscaping rocks scattered around here and there in amongst the bigger basalt rock arrangements as well as a single overhanging slab of sedimentary mudrock in the mossy area near the corner of the retaining wall...i'd replace it with a basalt slab if i could be bothered, if only for the sake of uniformity, but now that the moss is pretty established i think i'll just leave it as is and cover it with more moss over time.