My new Japanese garden

[WandaRichards]

I just did a Japanese Zen/rock garden and am trying to do Niwaki on the berm behind it. Here are my photos:

http://home.nc.rr.com/rueda/garden/1.gif
http://home.nc.rr.com/rueda/garden/2.gif
http://home.nc.rr.com/rueda/garden/3.gif

Any suggestions to make this better are appreciated.

[koiboy01]

Hi,
The last thing that I would want to do would be to upset you, but you asked for suggestions to help you ,my suggestion is that it is far to busy with all those pices of wood across your gravel,
George.

[WandaRichards]

They're actually pieces of slate. I found them at a junkyard and paid $50 for all of them. I got them before I got the rock.

I agree with you that it makes it too busy, but I don't' know what I'd do with the pieces of slate if I took them out. Any suggestions?

I mean I don't' even know where I'd store them.

[koiboy01]

Hi,
I have been thinking long and hard about your pieces of slate and the only idea that I can come up with is to maybe lay them all around the perimeter of your gravel to mark your zen garden from your berm. or if possible swap them for some BIG rocks.
George.

[WandaRichards]

I think most of the paths through the zen gardens are usually round stones.

Maybe I can get some round stepping stones and put the slate pieces around the edges. With adhesive I could make them nice-looking and sort of like a brick wall, a low brick wall. I guess that could look kind of nice.

One day maybe I'll be able to afford a nice bridge instead of the one I have made out of slate.

I am also planning on doing a bonsai with several japanese hollies - the kind that are only about 3 to 5 feet. I was thinking of getting a kid's plastic swimming pool and painting it white, then putting concrete plaster on the edges. Then I want to load it up with dirt so it looks over-stufffed. That will be one of the major features of the zen garden.

The niwaki I'm doing on the pines on the berm is coming along all right on some of the pines and not so well on the others. I've also got maples and oaks that are very small (everything is just stuff that's coming up wild) that I've reshaping with wire.

I'm hoping next year the berm will look really cool.

[koiboy01]

Hi,
what is the swimming pool supposed to be I cannot follow what you said.

[WandaRichards]

Well, I'd like a large low holder for the bonsai. My idea was to get an old kid's pool and make it into a planter for the japanese hollies. I'd like to use paint and concrete to make it look like a nice planter.

Like the types of planters people have for bonsai, but on a grander scale and I thought a kid's pool would be the right size. It will be set on the rock garden.

[chio88]

wow koiboy. that looks nice!