Japanese Tea Garden - San Francisco

Stone Lantern

My family was in San Francisco for a weekend getaway last week.  Guess what places ranked high on the list of preferred destinations.  Gardens.  January is not the best time to see flowers but it is definitely a great time to see the bones that makes a beautiful landscape.   We toured most of the horticultural points of interest inside the Golden Gate Park.  One of the places we went to see was the Japanese Tea Garden, which is claimed to be the oldest public Japanese garden in the country.  

Stone statue

What is A Tea Garden anyway? Originally, a tea garden was intended to be a serene place to prepare the mind prior to entering the tea house.  In the tea house a tea ceremony (as taught by Sen no Rikyu) is performed.  By design, the tea garden avoids artificiality in an attempt to emphasize the natural appearance of the environment.  According to literature, the stone lantern, stepping stones, clusters of trees and shrubs, and gazebos that are incorporated in modern-day Japanese gardens have their origin in the tea garden.

The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco successfully integrated all the mind-calming elements of a ceremonial garden.  Although they do not offer Tea Ceremonies at this time of the year, they offer an excellent selection of teas at the gazebo.  We tried some of their teas and enjoyed a tray of mochi.  However, with the number of tourists milling around, one can hardly experience the garden-inspired peace and meditation.  Thank goodness we were there for the aesthetics and not the spiritual experience.

Carefully trained trees

The lack of flowers forced me to focus on the characteristics of a Japanese.  I thought about the serene look of the garden and what contribute to all that.  A few things stuck out.  The garden mimics natural landscapes but presented in reduced scale.  The trees are severely clipped and controlled to regulate their size. That is why topiaries are prominent fixtures in Japanese gardens.   Stones, used to mimic larger things in nature, are spread throughout the garden.  I noticed that water is an essential element of the garden. Fountains, ponds, and miniature-falls bring coolness to the garden.

Metal and wood combined give a sense of strength on the gate..

Sound and motion from water fountains contribute to the calming effect of the garden.

Stone-trough and rocks give the impression of permanence while mimicking views of boulders and ponds. 

Intricate details on buildings add elegance to natural construction materials.

Stepping stones suggest a regulated walk in the garden - allowing time to appreciate the surroundings.

Still waters multiply the effects of the garden elements.

Gardens that are mature are a great source of inspiration.  Take the time to stroll them.  

Hort Art: Chain-Guided-Water Fountain

May 26, 2012

Last week my husband updated the fountain that runs the water in the old urn.  The design is inspired by a Japanese-style rain chain.  It is very simple and yet the sound and motion created by the water add so much to the calming effect of the garden especially on a hot summer day.

The sound of trickling water makes a garden seem peaceful and inviting. 

Rocks and Hedges

Fig. 1   Boxwood (Buxus microphylla)



This is the section of our yard which we call 'Down Under'.  Our yard was sloped on one corner and we were determined to use every square inch of it.  Solution - we had this rock wall built for us.  The backyard lawn, an open area for playing, is located behind the hedge.  The second problem arose when our kids started to run and jump into the 'Down Under'.  Mothers would agree with me that this is just too dangerous for tiny people - my youngest at that time was one-year old.   Therefore boxwood (Fig. 1) were planted later to prevent the kids from diving into the lower section of the yard.




Fig. 2  Moss growing on rocks.

  A decade later (Fig.2) the hedge wall continues to grow.  It requires a minimal maintenance which includes trimming twice a year and soaker-hose watering once a week during the hot summer months.  Every other year, Redwood compost is applied over a thin layer of steer manure around the base of the plants.  This process helps increase soil organic matter and earthworm population.  The fertility and water-holding capacity of the soil is improved - both important in our area with hot and dry summers. 



Fig. 3   The combination of the wall and the hedges provides strong lines in the landscape.

 Our yard started out as a rocky piece of land (approximately forty percent rocks).   Every plant that we planted in this yard (except in the vegetable garden) required a crowbar.  Sometimes we just dig out a single piece of rock and  there is a hole enough to hold a five gallon plant.  The rocks used on this wall (Fig. 2 and 3) are serpertine [1], similar to the rocks that are found in our property and the rest of the area.  In fact, some rocks that were mined from our yard during the landscaping process became part of the rock wall.

Fig. 4   'Down Under' in the fall of 2010.

The rock wall and the boxwood hedge are structures in the garden that provide a sense of permanence. When the season brings the rest of the garden into dormancy, they remain green (Fig. 4) providing the garden the needed interest.

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[1]  The Natural History and Environment of El Dorado Hills. 

Permanent structures in a garden are like the eyes, lips and nose on a face.  Design them carefully for timeless beauty in the garden.

Framing a View

Have a nice wonderful Sunday afternoon in your garden today!

Hort Art - Garden Accents

This statue appropriately blends in with the rest of the garden and yet it invites your eyes to look.  The ivy has found its way to become part of the lady's outfit.  This combination gives a sense of connection between the accent statue and its surroundings.  There exists an impression that "she" has been there when the garden began.  The color and scale of the accent piece add to the overall success of this design.

I took this picture from one of the gardens featured in the El Dorado Hills Garden Tour (May 15, 2010).

Hort Art - Hedges

Picture taken at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh

Hedges provide architecture and structure to any garden.  The strong lines that they make provide an anchor for everything else that are added to the garden.   Hedges provide a privacy feature as they can be used as fence and even divide gardens into rooms.

Hedges are shrubs that have been planted closely and allowed to grow into each other's space and trained into a desired shape and size.  Hedges look neat and disciplined but that does not happen without the gardeners intervention.   A good hedge require constant pruning and shaping.  Left alone for a long period of time, hedges will grow on their own way and eventually look wild.  Gardeners need to be ruthless in pruning hedges so that they would maintain their intended shape and size.  My own boxwood  (Buxux microphylla) hedges keep on growing wider and taking too much space into the pathway.  

Commonly Used Evergreen Shrubs for Privacy Hedges:

1.  Japanese Boxwood (Busus microphylla)

2.  Yew (Taxus baccata)

3.  Arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis 'Green Giant')

4.  Holly (Ilex verticillata)

5.  Leyland Cyprus (x Cupressocyparis Leylandii)

6.  Variegated Japanese Laurel (Aucuba japonica ‘Variegata’) aka Gold Dust Tree

7.  Catoneaster (Catoneaster lucidus and Catoneaster divaricatus)

8.  Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica)

9.  Firethorn (Pyacantha coccinea)

10.  Privet (Ligustrum spp.)