Japanese gardens

There are many gardens in the Japanese style in Nara and Kyoto.

At Isui-en in Nara Koen, an ancient gate frames the garden view.

I visited late in the day and there was no one else there.

In the fading light, trees reflected in the water.

Water and stone, important elements in Japanese style, are used throughout this garden.

Peaceful garden in Nara, Japan.

Ladder

 

 

Flowers need sun, at least half a day, to look their best.  A plant uses a lot of energy to produce a showy flower and they capture that energy from the sun.  

 

In a shade garden, color can be hard to come by.  Some plants bloom in the early spring before the trees leaf out.  Summer blooming plants often produce flowers that are small or few in number.  Some plants have colorful foliage, but without enough sun, even they revert to green over time.  A shade garden is predominantly green.

 

One way to get color into a shade garden is to use yard art.  I make my own.  

 

Here's my work this summer: 

 

 

 

Title:  Orange Ladder. 

 

I like the way it draws the eye to the back of the yard. 

 

Here the ladder echoes the color of the fritillary butterfly on the abelia.

 

 

 

I decided that a set of 3 orange ladders would be perfect, so I posted a note to our neighborhood email group and a man on Bentwood brought me another old ladder.  

 

I painted the new piece yellow, but I used cheap paint from the sale bin at the hardware store and the finished product did not look good.  So I bought more orange paint. 

 

 

 

I love having a matched set.  This one is taller, thinner and less sturdy than its mate.

 

 

 

Much of the foliage in this area of the garden is blue-green and the orange ladders make a spicy contrast.

 

 

 

Yard art makes me smile.

     

Patience

The neighborhood handyman asked me why I did not plant vines on the trellises that he built for me.

I patiently explained that I already planted two milkweed vines, handfuls of Virginia creeper and -- in desperation -- an abundance of greenbrier.

All eaten.  There is severe deer pressure in my garden, with up to 18 deer in my garden at any one time.

Now it looks like the herd is growing even larger.

This morning I followed these two does and four fawns into the next yard.

It is not easy to be patient with these voracious eaters.  But these are God's hungry creatures and most of the neighborhood is given to the lawn mower. 

Some say that Chinese abelia is more attractive to pollinators than a butterfly bush.  Many years ago, I planted one near the end of the driveway.  But it was only after the neighbors removed their oak trees in 2014 that the abelia bloomed heavily, attracting pollinators.

This morning, the abelia was serious work to bumblebees

and to butterflies. This red admiral on the abelia has a torn wing.  It may have encountered a predator but got away.  Lucky.

The July-blooming plum leaf azalea in the back yard rarely booms, which tries my patience, but this summer there were red-orange tubular flowers with long silky stamens.

This year my patience was rewarded with impatiens. After the hard winter killed a pot of Abundant Maiden Ferns, I waited until they came back.  Instead, these impatiens showed up in their place.  Who knows how many years those seeds were dormant, patiently waiting for a chance to sprout.

Patience is a useful tool in a gardeners belt.

What the dog sees

The backyard wildlife habitat is home of a healthy population of chipmunks.  A housepainter once remarked that he saw more chipmunks at our house than any other house he knew.

Our first dog Sadie caught a chipmunk once and I was aghast.  After that, she never chased another one.  And in all the years that she lived at our house, she never dug a hole.  Not one.

Our dog Shelly is another story. She makes it her business to rid our yard of chipmunks. And that means digging lots of holes.

Here is one at the edge of my backyard rain garden.  The hole is on the lower left.  The roots of the pawpaw tree and daylilies were no match for her tenacity. 

A closeup shows a hole 8 inches deep.  Luckily, the chipmunk lair goes even deeper, maybe a foot.

In one area of the yard, the chipmunk hole goes under the fence in my azalea garden.  Shelly had almost escaped before I dragged her out with the leash.  A cinder block prevented her from more digging there.

I struggle with gardening in one dark corner of the yard.  Oak and hickory trees block the light from reaching the ground level for shrubs and perennials.  I finally got some native Sweet Betsy to thrive here.  This photo was taken at about 10 am on a cloudless summer day and the camera's auto flash came on. 

 

Shelly excavated a deep hole at the base of the healthiest plant.  Sigh.

What goes on in that dog brain?  Hard question.  Easier question: What does the dog see?

When we see this:

The dog sees this:

Don't you feel like running at high speed to the other end of the yard?

When we see this:

The dog sees this:

Don't you feel threated by an insect or small mammal lurking inside the Virginia creeper?

When we see this:

The dog sees this:

I'll bet that something delicious is lurking under the garden shed.

It is enlightening to see the backyard wildlife habitat from an alternate point of view.

Late arrival

After a long cold winter with abundant snow and ice, spring is welcome in the backyard wildlife habitat.  Wildflowers and understory trees bring on the color before the oaks come into leaf.


Bloodroot is one of the earliest wildflowers, but they made a poor showing this spring.  The mayapples did not disappoint.  These are only a few days old.

The golden ragwort is a cheerful spring wildflower.  Tiny yellow aster-ish flowers are pollinated by tiny insects.  Like most early wildflowers, the golden ragwort is short, which makes the oak tree in the background look even taller.

Virginia bluebells along the path to Papa's garden make a good companion to the golden ragwort.  Blue and yellow make a lovely combination.

And the winter flowers of the hellebores near the porch are still blooming in early spring.  

Shelly patrols the backyard every day but the garden does not look worse for wear.  The red buckeye tree, gold and green hostas, and the white and pink azaleas make a colorful spring.

The backyard is a dog's dream.

Maybe it would be a bird's dream too, if it weren't for the dog.

Early days in a late spring in the backyard wildlife habitat.

Garden art

Few people in our neighborhood have garden art of any kind. It is not for lack of space.  My next door neighbor has 2/3 of an acre and she has a single birdbath in that Kelly green sea of lawn.

A few other neighbors have a single piece of pottery in their yards.  Some are daring enough to have placed a bench under a tree.

Maybe they think that no object made by a human could compete with the beauty of nature.

While that is true, it is probably not the reason.  Woodcutters and lawn companies stay busy in our neighborhood.

Would you like to see my garden art?

In a quiet space beside the driveway, there is a reading club. 

This weekend, they called a meeting.  Members of the club are not fast readers but they are persistent. 

Let's see what is happening with this quiet group.

Under the dogwood tree, this sweet pair reads the classic book, Frog and Toad are Friends by Arnold Lobel.

Betty reads a new tale, Flirting with Frogs.  She is such a tease with her cool skin and hot temper.

The Frog that Croaked -- is there really a book by that name?  Yes, there is, a mystery story for middle schoolers.

Jeanne laughs at the Muppet joke book, Frogs are Funny.  Hey, look at her eyes... Is she stoned? 

And the blue copper frog who started the book club 7 years ago.  Still reading Frog Mountain Blues, after all these years.


During the week, part of my professional job is hosting a business book club.  So I do not read much at home.  I much prefer to relax by bathing.

Wouldn't it be great to bathe outdoors?  In the sunshine?  On a lazy weekend afternoon?

Ahhhhh.