Restoring the Japanese Garden

Every gardener knows that a garden needs maintenance regularly, and sometimes major repair.

This Japanese Garden has been here about 9 years. In the beginning of 2021, a Mulberry tree that was a fixture in the garden decided to bite the dust. To replace it was not a practical option, so I decided to rework that side of the garden to make up for it.

I’ve always toyed with the idea of expanding the area, however the constraints of the hill behind it made that idea difficult. There was an access path behind the garden that was a little wider than it needed to be, I thought, so I proceeded to move the back retaining wall about 2 feet farther back.

This involved taking down the lattice fence first, then adding a retaining wall of logs and rocks. I wanted to use natural looking materials as much as possible. The 2 feet that was gained was not a lot, but it did make room to spread things out a bit, make it not as crowded, and I also had room to add a couple of shrubs.

When deciding where to put elements of a garden, not just this type but any garden, you want to consider color, texture, height and width of all the shrubs, trees and plants. With the statuary and other elements I considered these same principles also.

The new subtle additions to this restored version are: Two light leafed spirea shrubs, 4 pots of calladiums, a reworking of the stone paths throughout, and a pond filled with water lettuce.

The red flowers throughout are predominantly begonias. There are two pots of red impatiens on the left side.

Watch the following video for the visual of the transformation.