We have lived in our house for 35 years. During that time, our front and back gardens have undergone a number of iterations, making room for children’s play, adjusting for droughts and the inevitable skyrocketing water rates that accompany them, and backfilling when plants didn’t make it.
Our front yard suffered the loss of two mature trees recently, probably due to drought. You just can’t water them enough to make up for no rain. We lost an alder (city tree) and a plum tree. I have to confess I’m not terribly sad to see them go. The alder was messy year round, and the plum sent up suckers many yards away. Still, it’s always sad to lose a mature tree, and the yard looks a bit bare.
What do we have left? The star is a lovely Japanese maple that my husband planted many years ago and nurtured carefully. We also have a pear tree that makes the most amazing fruit. We bought it as an espalier and are gradually training it to droop over one branch of our rocky “river.” That’s not great for fruit, but it’s pretty. We have the bones of a Japanese garden in the form of rock placements as well.
So to renovate, we want to enhance the Japanese theme. My first addition was a little decorative bridge from Wayfair that I painted to match the red of our front door. It isn’t all that sturdy–I wouldn’t walk on it, but I thought it was cute. From an earlier project for the backyard that I had to rethink because of our dogs, I had some cool glow-at-night stones from Vurane. I sprinkled these on the rock “river” under the bridge. They look interesting during the day and rather magical at night.
To replace the big alder in the front corner of our yard, we selected a lovely little Japanese black pine from Muranaka Bonsai in Nipomo. George, who was super helpful, told us to leave the pine in its container until Fall. I’m to let it grow for a year, then if I send him a photo, he’ll tell me where to prune it. It’s really more of a piece of art than a tree. My husband is constructing a mounded area to highlight the tree. We plan to keep it a manageable size. In Japan, these can go up to 100 feet or more. We’re thinking maybe ten.
To replace the plum, we opted for a bloodgood Japanese Maple from Farm Supply in San Luis Obispo. It has joined our pine on the backyard patio awaiting planting. I’ve always loved having a variety of colors in the yard.
Once the major pieces are in, I’m hoping to play around with ground covers, maybe some more azaleas if it gets shady enough, and possibly a water feature.
I’m also going to move a little concrete pagoda from the backyard, where it lives dangerously due to our exuberant Australian shepherds. I’m not sure where to place it yet–I’ll probably wait until the trees are in. My other hope was to find a kitsune statue. Our youngest daughter, who has autism, absolutely loves foxes. Unfortunately, nobody seems to make a replica kitsune garden statue and the real things are collectors’ pieces worth many thousands. Because my husband and daughter are both incredible artists, we’re actually researching making our own. Stay tuned for that!
In the meantime, I’m looking at about a gazillion Pinterest pages and websites for ideas and having a huge amount of fun!
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