Tsubo-en Zen-garden diary

Late winter or no winter 2011/2012

Karesansui — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 13:09:13 +0000

So far we have not seen any real winter weather. It is more like an extremely long autum.

Last week we had the very first frost of this season on Monday 16th and Tuesday 17nd of January 2012. This is exceptionally late! And it actually lasted only 2 nights, and only just below 0°C.

What [...]

Wisteria sinensis winter pruning

Karesansui — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 11:17:25 +0000

Over winter the Wisteria side shoots need to get pruned back to 6 to 10 cm long (2.5 – 4 inch), leaving only 2 or 3 buds on the side-shoots. These will be the flowering spurs on the Wisteria.

This pruning should be carried out each year. The only shoots to be left untouched [...]

Японский Сад «Цубо-Ен», Japanese garden “Tsubo-en” in Ukraine magazine

Karesansui — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 13:22:38 +0000

An article about our garden written by Olga van Saane has been published in September 2011 issue of the garden-magazine “Neskuchniy Garden” («Нескучный Сад») in Ukraine.

An abstract of the article, in the Russian-language, can also be found on the blog of the article author.

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Most beautiful spot in province of Flevoland nomination

Karesansui — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 20:25:51 +0000

Yes! With 24 other places we have been nominated as “Most beautiful spot in the province of Flevoland“.

The search of this spot is to commemorate the fact that this year our province officially exists 25 year. The inauguration was on 27 Juni 1985 but the work to create this “New land” [...]

Abies procera “Glauca” (Noble Fir) tidy-up

Karesansui — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 10:35:11 +0000

This is part of the activity I discussed in Niwaki-trees annual pruning and trimming for shape and size. Because of the exceptional attributes of this Abies I wanted to show some additional photo’s, and here they are. This is about our Abies procera “Glauca” (Noble Fir or Blue Noble Fir).

In its native [...]

Niwaki-trees annual pruning and trimming for shape and size

Karesansui — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:24:25 +0000

Most of the solitary trees need one major annual treatment of pruning and trimming for shape and size.

After 12 years in our garden, most trees ar some 15 to 17 years of age and have now reached the right size and often the right shape. It is in particular the shape that can [...]

Repairing the bamboo fence (take gaki)

Karesansui — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 22:19:21 +0000

Our small bamboo fence (take gaki) was constructed in the Yotsume-gaki style. Constructed and placed in 2009 the fence now required repair and maintenance.

A bamboo fence or take gaki ( 竹垣 ) is an important object in many Japanese gardens. Like woods bamboo can last for years in the outdoors with proper [...]

Sagina subulata as moss substitute

Karesansui — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:45:24 +0000

Source Donalea plant brokers

Sagina, called ‘pearlworts’ or ‘Irish-Moss’ (Dutch ‘Vetmuur’) can very well serve as a substitute for moss in a Japanese garden. Unfortunately we have a bad experience with it.

In my post ‘Groundcover maintenance’ I wrote about the fact that Sagina is one of our most feared and persistent weeds in [...]

Early start with insecticide

Karesansui — Wed, 18 May 2011 10:58:24 +0000

Depending on the weather conditions and plant growth in the garden we have a first preventive spraying round in mid-April.

This year we had an early and fabulous spring with summer-like temperatures and little, actually far too less, rainfall. Due to this the insects started their activities very early already and it was no [...]

Boxwood psyllid or Cacopsylla buxi

Karesansui — Sun, 15 May 2011 19:55:18 +0000

Depending on the weather conditions and plant growth in the garden we have a first preventive spraying round in mid-April. This year we had an early and fabulous spring with summer-like temperatures and little, actually far too less, rainfall. Due to this I started spraying with insecticide already in early April.

In Nasty [...]