Japanese Gardening Asheville

We have spent most of our summer working on this Japanese style garden.
We were chosen, by our clients, to work on this design created by Bud Stuckey. 
The design called for a rather traditional style Japanese Garden in a small backyard.
Although I have only worked on a few Japanese gardens in my career, I felt that I learned a lot and was able to grasp some of the philosophy and patterns in traditional Japanese gardening. The pace, precision and meditation of working with this design, felt very natural to me. It also humbled me and gave me more respect for this type of gardening and stonework itself. I leaned that I have a lot more to learn!

Working with the design, we were able to create some beautiful features that are consistent with traditional Japanese gardening, but had our personal touch.

We installed a Stone Seat at the foot of the stairs to create a place to stop and enjoy the garden and even take of your shoes, if you want.

We also created a Stone Island feature using three hand selected boulders that created a simple triad. This feature was designed to bring a meditative center piece to the garden. 


This garden included a great deal of carpentry to bring a wood element into the space. We installed three Verandas, a deck and some custom planter box benches. 

One of my favorite carpentry features on site is the 'Butterfly Ramada'
that we built over the hot tub deck. It allows our clients some cover and privacy while soaking in the hot tub, and also leaves the sky open for nighttime stargazing. 

Our designer found this beautiful 700 pound slab of 
Cold Water Canyon stone that we used as a bridge from the 'Dry Garden' or Karesansui, to the hot tub deck.
The bridge also gives the illusion that the stream flows under the rock and disappears into the Karenagare, or Dry Stream Bed.  

We finished the project with low voltage landscape lighting throughout, and Japanese style plantings. 

Overall we really enjoyed working on this project, and are thankful to our clients for letting us 'play in their backyard'!

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Pergola in Felton, Ca. #3

Here is the near finished Pergola.

We had to build around the established Wisteria vines in some places.

We also added a Redwood fence and a 6x6 timber retaining wall.

Old Wisteria Vines

As we were building this Pergola, we were able to meet a lot of the neighbors on the street. This is a really friendly neighborhood and everyone seems to know each other. As people walked by with their families or their dogs, we found out that a large percentage of the  neighborhood comes by to see the Wisteria in bloom every year.  Some people say the come by to take pictures even. The people we talked to were very happy that we were taking extra precautions to save this neighborhood heirloom.

I have yet to see this old vine in bloom, but I am happy to be a part of a somewhat historical restoration and plant preservation. 

Working Around the Wisteria

We will come back in a week or two for some final touch ups. We still need to sand and stain the entire structure and tie up some vines that are loose.

Santa Cruz Landscaping: Pergola in Felton, Ca.

We started a new landscaping project today in Felton, which is just outside of Santa Cruz, in the mountains.

My client contacted me to replace his pergola/ carport. This project is unique because the pergola has a very old Wisteria vine growing around it. The pergola itself is probably 50 years old. So the removal and construction will require us to carefully brace the Wisteria vines until we can lay them down onto the new construction. 

As with all the older woodwork that we replace in the Santa Cruz mountains, I like to study the wood that was used to construct the feature. Sometimes it is a fence, a deck, retaining wall or arbor, I always find it interesting that some of the old Redwood lasts for so long.

Some of the wood we removed today was still strong, some of it was rotten to the core. 

We will be replacing the pergola in almost the same footprint as the old one. The fencing around the yard will also be replaced.

So far we are having fun! I will post some more progress pics later.