Gravel's use in Japanese gardens

In a recent article of Roth Tei-en’s Journal of Japanese Gardening Sept/Oct 2005, I came across a piece titled “The Use of Gravel” by John Powell. For any homeowner with a Japanese style garden, this is a useful article. You will learn the tools tips and techniques to selecting, installing and maintaining gravel.

For those interested in Japanese gardens and design, the use of gravel is often given to represent water as it does in karesansui gardens. Gravel can be used to represent the flat surface of a lake or used as a streambed. It might also be used to represent snow covered hills.

For greater inspiration on this topic, take a look at the Adachi Museum of art. The grounds feature: a moss garden, dry garden, white gravel pine garden, Juryu-an Garden and Kikaku-no-taki Waterfall. Here the gravel is maintained 365 days by museum staff and gardeners trained to keep it raked, swept and free of debris.
While this is high maintenance indeed, maintaining gravel groundcover regularly keeps it looking its best. In the case of the Adachi Museum, the results contribute to the garden’s enchantment for the visitor.

Viewing the garden from above - Part 2

Tip pruning the canopy and select branches of Angel’s Trumpet: Datura, is also necessary throughout spring and summer for maintaining views from above of the rear planting areas. Although this tree is frost tender in many climates, we are fortunate to be able to grow it well in the Bay Area, where there are several nice varieties to choose from.

Badly formed plants such as the leggy growing purple flowering Princess Tree: Tibouchina, was a candidate for a severe heading back. While this pruning technique leaves the tree looking hacked and butchered for several months following, on a healthy specimen, dormant buds will grow from the woody stumps creating a new floriforous head.

As with all gardens, the seasons bring about changes, creating new expressions. With fall upon us, our job for view enhancement is nearly complete, once the Podocarpus tree is pruned. After that, we will have many months to concentrate on the understory and plantings.

Viewing the garden from above - Part 1

For a homeowner who is not going to go down into the garden but wants to enjoy it from above, taking into account the garden views from upstairs windows and/or decks will help adjust the planting plan.

In San Francisco, where garden space is typically 30’ X 30’, people look to maximize the design effects: creating outdoor rooms with patios, paths and fountains. The same is true with a garden to be viewed from above.

One such garden is one that we have been maintaining and restoring for over a year. The objective is that homeowner be able to see as much of the garden as possible from the 2nd and 3rd story decks.

An existing 35’ Podocarpus tree adjacent to the deck requires annual pruning and is due to be thinned and reduced on our next visit in October. While we typically schedule an arborists to prune trees larger than 25’, deck access from the homeowner and neighbor’s property make it possible for us to safely work on the tree.

Once the Podocarpus has been pruned the garden will require only minimal adjustments for the next 8 to 10 months. In the past year, we have pruned several Plum trees along the fence line and through out. At this point, they are in far better aesthetic shape: having opened up the garden as well as enhanced views.

Tips to improve the quality of your outdoor space and patio

It’s easy to get overwhelmed trying to figure out just how to bring an outdoor room together to make it a peaceful spot to relax or enjoy quality time with friends and family. But if you think of it as yet another room to decorate and furnish, the space will come together more easily.

Measuring and a simple site analysis

Just as you would for a room inside your home take the measurements of your patio or outdoor room area. This most important step is essential for scaling in comfortable sized outdoor furniture, patio accessories, planters and such. The next step is to conduct a simple site analysis. For this you will want to jot down factors such as the direction (north, south, east, west) your patio is facing, prevailing winds, if any; areas in sun or shade and any other relevant observations that will impact the quality of people spending time in that space.
Now for the fun part, create a realistic wish list beginning with how you would like to use your patio: to relax, to entertain friends, to grill/barbeque, to eat outdoors, to hang out with friends and family, to converse, etc. Now go back to your site analysis and determine, if applicable, where you can start staging the pieces to your outdoor room. But before you do so, here are some tips and ideas for you to consider.

Arrange patio furniture and elements thoughtfully

In order to create a comfortable space with pleasant atmosphere it is important to consider these details: Circulation – how will people walk through the space; Seating – where will people be sitting; Views - what will people be looking at when sitting. For circulation, you want to position a sitting area in a location where circulation will not pass directly through, making the space distracting, unless you have no choice. For creating comfortable seating for conversation, orient chairs, sofas, and gliders towards each other, 6 to 8 feet apart; this is a comfortable distance for talking without feeling too close. For views, you can create focal points with trees and shrubs in the distance, or planters and ornaments closer by.

Dealing with wind and sun

From your site analysis you have discovered information about how the wind blows. By knowing the direction of the prevailing winds you can make some good decisions about the placement of certain items. First, if you are going to include a grill or barbeque be sure to locate these accessories in a location in which the wind will carry the smoke from the cooking fire away from the outdoor space; there’s nothing more irritating than the uncomfortable sting of a smoky grill. Also, if you have an area with cold wind, you can block it by creating vertical planes; this can be done by planting trees or shrubs in the ground, or by placing them in planters within or around a part of the patio. Fences and walls can also help. As for sun, these same vertical planes can screen hot, late afternoon sun. For overhead sun, retractable awnings can be a very effective way to minimize both sun and heat. These awnings are designed to extend (open) or retract (close) to create shade or sun options. Other ways to create shade from the hot sun: patio umbrellas and trellises, pergolas, or arbors.

Creating a sense of enclosure

Creating a sense of enclosure is a great way to make your outdoor space more intimate; it is also a great way to create separation and privacy from your neighbors. Think of the walls and ceilings inside your home: the walls are the vertical plane and the ceiling is the overhead plane. Outdoors these vertical and overhead planes help create the foundations to an outdoor room. While you don’t want to overdo it or completely enclose your outdoor space, adding elements: shrubs, trees, arbors, trellises pergolas and such in a careful way can improve the atmosphere of your patio space. see: http://www.everything-patio-furniture.com/

Buying patio furniture and accessories

Once you’ve measured your outdoor space, done the site analysis and figured out the area where you will be putting your outdoor furniture it’s time to begin reviewing outdoor furniture and accessory options. If your patio is very small, you may only want to buy 1 or 2 chairs or loungers for conversation and relaxing, and a small bistro table with chairs for snacking. If your space is large, you may be looking for a larger seating arrangement: sofas, chairs, coffee tables, in one area and a patio set with umbrella in another. There are many options and styles available and you can learn more about the materials and brands available by visiting a local patio furniture store or by shopping online. Popular furniture materials include: outdoor wicker, teak, wrought iron, cast aluminum, recycled plastic and casual aluminum. You can buy this furniture individually or as a set such as a dining table complete with chairs. With many patio furniture options to choose from you can easily create an outdoor space that will be well used. Additional outdoor decorating accessories such as patio lamps, fire pits, garden arbors and trellises, and outdoor heaters fit in well to create a great atmosphere outdoors as well as being extremely functional. For example, outdoor heaters will greatly extend your time outside, allowing for more time to enjoy yourself outdoors later into fall, and earlier into spring. Outdoor fireplaces such as: chimeneas, fire pits or even a gas outdoor fireplace create a great atmosphere and focal point, as well the opportunity to grill, heat, or just enjoy hanging out by the fire.

Restoring an older garden

With a recent trip back east to Larchmont New York from San Francisco, the idea of tackling a beautiful, albeit overgrown composition of foundation trees and shrubs, brought about a wonderful restoration opportunity.

Considering that the home, a large handsome Tudor build in the 1920's by a well known architect who designed the house to live in, the home has beautiful detailing. While no information exists about the planting plan, the present homeowner has lived in the house since 1978, and has been reluctant to prune, shape or edit many of the woody plants surrounding the property.

That said, the homeowner, being a garden enthusiast as well as interior designer has brought about an expansion to existing planting areas as well as the creation of new ones. Small planting areas such as the woodland garden and dry creek were developed based upon microclimatic conditions and factors such as shallow soil and bedrock outcropping.

So while the last 10 to 15 years has brought about a handsome transformation to parts of the property with many unusual plants: Hepticodium, Callicarpus and Rheum. The house had begun to loose some of its architectural beauty due to the eclipsing plants, gaining unnecessary proportions in both height, width and shape.

To restore the overall shape took a full day. No tools other than pruning shears, loppers, and foldable saw were required. A walk through of the property, front, sides and back made clear statements of improvements needed to be made. Examples include: scaling down 6 foot Azaleas and Kalmias, form enhancement to create a balanced undulating effect of companioning shrubs, trees and more.

In addition to sizing down plantings for the sake of architectural enhancement and easy passage, large scale Tulip and Oak trees would require selective lower limb removal as well as thinning to open the sky to the home and property.

After 30 years of unstoppable growth, it was time to take back the house and create a better feel and look. While the project will require more work next summer, the effects have left the homeowner very pleased.