Welcome to the Tsubo-en diary. Thanks for stopping by and reading.
If you have any questions feel free to email us or post in the comment sections of one of the posts you'll find here.
Marijke & Piet.
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These two Juniper, Juniperus media "blue" are regarded topiary shrubs, rather then trees, because they are kept so low and form the backdrop for the main garden tsukubai facility.
This photo shows the backside, as seen from the waterfront. The plant in front (right) is still untouched whereas the one in the back has just been trimmed, as shown by the debris.
Unfortunately the shrub closest to the veranda has dead lower parts on the veranda side. We suspect this is caused by spraying cats.
The bottom photo shows the shrubs seen from the house. The Acer palmatum that belongs to the tsukubai on the left.
Whereas we do not use the electric box-trimmer to trim box it is great to trim conifer like these Juniper and Chamaecyparis (post Chamaecyparis Lawsonia trimming). The box-shears with the red grips is also useless to trim box and we only use it to clip flower-stems (see Armeria Maritima flowering, caution ! and Armeria Maritima flowering, continued).
Bottom photo: Left to right hedge-shears, hand pruner (or pruning shears, secateurs scissors), buxus-shears and the electric box/trimmer..
Related: Shrubs, The main garden compartment, Water front (back side) garden compartment, Deciduous trees. Share
Keeping a full grown large-leaved strong grower in shape and within the desired size limits is a challenge in its own right.
This photo was taken halfway through the pollarding-plus topping. In Hako-zukuri style Prunus lusitanica “tree” you can see how it looked a couple of weeks back.
Note that the photo's have been shot in the evening (around 21:00 or 9:00 PM) hence some coloration.
In my post Hako-zukuri style Prunus lusitanica “tree” I wrote about pruning and the fact that this Prunus is a strong grower that needs pollarding. The latter in combination with it being relatively large-leaved now results in a final size that is just too high and the body is just a bit too massive.
I have now pruned back the old thick branches on the top about 20 to 25 cm (7 to 10 inches) so it will develop its new annual growth within our aesthetic boundaries.
This can be regarded as a lesson learned, hence this quote-box.
An additional pragmatic argument, and no more than that, is the fact that the street view from within the kitchen is partly obscured. Marijke wants to be able to see the street from there. Yet an other, more important safety argument is that we do not want to obscure the house from the street so as to retain a clear view from the street.
And yes, the box hakozukuri style shrub in front was trimmed a couple of weeks ago and now has many dead leafs. It will be a matter of time to grow green again (see post: Timing for box-topiary trimming).
Related: Shrubs, Evergreen trees, Training, clipping and pruning, Karikomi and hako-zukuri. Share
This Pleioblastus pygmaeus is one of the visual objects (see the definition in 2 - Design the architecture) of the Main garden tsukubai composition.
Most of the bamboo in our garden only gets the simple version of bamboo pruning. That is the removal of old dead canes and any new ones that are growing out of place and that escaped earlier inspections. One of these inspections was discussed in the post: Bamboo runner alert.
Once a year we remove the old dead canes by cutting them right at ground level, if possible. This is done after the flush of growth in the summer.
Take care not to cut any fresh canes. I take a dead cane or some dead canes between my fingers and follow the it from the top down to the ground or as close as I can get to the ground. There I cut it using my smallest hand pruner thus limiting the risk of cutting too many canes including new once.
Above I stated that this is the easy part of bamboo pruning. With that I refer to the fact that we do not yet apply more advanced pruning to raise the stems by cutting off the lower branches.
The photo above shows the bunch of old dead canes from this one 'harvest' in front of the container. In the container the runners that we found (photo's below) and old leafs and branches that we removed.
 
Related: Miscellaneous plants: Bamboo, The main garden compartment, Main garden tsukubai. Share
The Thuja occidentalis "Braband" hedgerown in the left garden was planted only two years ago, in July 2008.
That first year this 30 meter (100 feet) long hedgerow of 100 evergreen thuja conifers was left alone. Then the following year, in 2009, we have leveled the top twigs and done a first trimming of the side edges.
This formal hedge needs regular pruning to retain its shape. Here the battery operated electric shears (actually a box-shears) is great to trim the sides, after the rought cut is done with a hedge shears. The garden shears and hand pruner are used to clip the top. Some trunks and thick branches where too high and even asked for a saw.
Later, to level the hedge I will place a bamboo stake at both ends of the hedgerow. Attach a string in between the two stakes, so as to level the hedgerow and gain the desired height. For now, as it is not yet perfectly straight, I use my body-length to determine the hight and level, that is the point that I can just reach. As I want to be able to trim the top edge without help of a ladder, this is the desired hight.
 
This photo shows the backside of the hedgerow, that is to us. It is taken in the garden of our neighbors and clearly shows the full length.
The strip of soil in which the hedgerow is planted is covered with bark chips mulch. In addition, the front garden part is adjoined by a gravel area. For both these surfaces it is very cumbersome, if not impossible to remove the trimming debris if you just let it fall. Hence, like with most pruning and trimming where we use plastic bags, we cover the ground before we clip. Here we use a few cotton-sheets. This gives an action radius of 5 to 6 meter (16 to 20 feet) per covering. Covering of the ground on the other side is not required as there the debris falls on the lawn from where it is easier to rake to collect it.
Related: The left side garden compartment, Miscellaneous plants Hedgerows, Training, clipping and pruning. Share
Herb garden box-hedge trimming needs to be done twice per year. Depending on the growth-cycle the first time in any year can be limited to partial clipping (post Partial buxus clipping for way through) to ensure the pathway walk-trough and easy access to the different plant-compartments.
Although a herb garden may not be the first thing (landscape-element) you think of when talking about a Japanese-garden, let alone a Zen-garden, we think that we have managed to integrate this in style in the garden as a whole and more specifically in the left side compartment and hence we get the 'right feel', also known as fuzei, about it. With regard to the design of the herb garden we have seen a very interesting development that I will address in a later (winter) post.
Removal of the clipped waste from the boxwood hedges and other objects is most easily done using a soft brush. The surrounding surface is covered with plastic sheets and bags so that the debris can be easily removed and does not fall on the soil, gravel or groundcovering plants.
Related: The left side garden compartment, Training, clipping and pruning, Regular cleaning-up. Share
A previous post was named Ulmus parvifolia, Elm-tree prunning and was about interim pruning.
This post is about the annual pruning, in particular topping and thinning to retain the desired size and shape. This is also called pollarding, the annual removal of all of the previous year’s growth, resulting in a flush of slender shoots and branches [...]
Trimming the Taxus baccata hedgerow (common name yew, or European yew) we mostly do this only once a year.
In general this hedgerow does not perform well. We expect two reasons for that, one being the water household is not okay and secondly, on the other side, there are too many plants too close to it.
The total [...]
Depending on the annual growth-cycle trimming of the O-karikomi in the main garden happens once or twice per annum. Tuning the hako-zukuri part of this O-karikomi box topiary ‘sculpture’ is done at least twice a year.
Because the hako-zukuri and karikomi objects in the center part are much smaller it is important to threat according to a [...]
 Next to our Cryptomeria Japonica (Lawson’s Cypress) “elegans” stands the Chamaecyparis Lawsonia “white spot”. After I had pruned the Cryptomeria ( post: Cryptomeria Japonica “elegans”, fukinaoshi-pruning ) I pruned the Chamaecyparis.
We prune our Chamaecyparis Lawsonia for shape. This pruning is part of a long running fukinaoshi treatment that entails pruning for shape and applies to most [...]
This year for the first time the boxwood topiary across the garden have dead branches. In most cases these are small branches but some instances are more serious and in one case it is a substantial part of a plant that is part of the o-karikomi and is highly visible.
One of four plants that make up [...]
 Cryptomeria is a monotypic genus of conifer. Our Cryptomeria Japonica “elegans” (sugi, 杉) stands in the left side garden compartment. On these photo’s it is shown just after this years pruning. On the left viewed from the waterside and on the right as seen from the front garden that is street side.
The trees need not [...]
 Topping up or replenishing the Turtle-island lakes in the front garden is a semi-automated task. During these hot summer days, due to evaporation and the dozens of birds (and cats aahhh) drinking and bathing, the water level in the lower reservoir can quickly get too low. Too low, not as such an immediate danger to [...]
This is how the Nothofagus antarctica, Antarctic Beech, looked prior to pruning back in 2008.
In the years prior to 2008 we have thinned it consistently every year, to be less compact and open than it would naturally grow.
We prune the Nothofagus antarctica (genus southern beeches) in the left side garden compartment, for shape. This pruning [...]
Cottony maple scale insects (Dutch: wollige dopluis) feasting on our Acer Palmatum what a fun this is. One that has been especially abundant and a frequent visitor of our garden is the soft scale insect known as the cottony maple scale or Pulvinaria innumerabilis.
In our case this is a tree that is a part of the [...]
Although Wisteria is not a tree at all, it is a woody climbing vine, on our website we classify it under Deciduous trees. That is because it is trained to be just that.
A couple of times per season we remove the longest sprouts. These can quickly become 50 or even 100cm (1.6 to 3 [...]
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Lelystad
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