EXPRESSING CREATIVITY: the Garden

[Cooperix]

Thank you Krissydear for posting. The tiniest of gardens can offer a place of respite.
And Jinyo, a beautiful garden thank you for sharing it with us. Nothing like an English garden! I especially love the arch.

gassho
Anne

~st~

[Doshin]

krissydear....

NIce. I know nothing of Auqaponic gardens but they look interesting!!

Doshin
st

[Meitou]

Jinyo, yes a beautiful and very English garden, a calming and restful space, and a lot of work too I imagine.
Krissy dear, I'm so pleased you posted your small gardens, so much can be created on a table, window ledge or a balcony. We are currently enjoying fresh basil, rosemary lemon thyme, chives, and the real challenge - coriander, which is almost impossible here. And we're waiting for cherry tomatoes and French beans. All grown in pots in a tiny space.
I don't know anything about aquaponic growing either,, maybe you could tell us a little more.
Thank you everyone for bringing so many lovely gifts to this thread, allowing it to be a place of peace and reminding us of our interconnectedness with the earth and all growing/living things. Let it grow!
Gassho
Meitou
Sattoday lah
Meitou
Sattoday lah

[Shoki]

Allium, Bleeding Heart and Lantern.

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Gassho
STlah
James

[Jundo]

I have to share one more photo with you folks, and especially with Kotai and his tiny little ladder.

Today happened to be the day when, every couple of years, the gardener (Mr. Ikeda) and his team come in to do the big trees. That's him on the very top (no safety belts, by the way), and his apprentice on the ladder.

I don't care, despite all the Zen training in the world, you are not getting me up there!

dlt tree.jpgdlt tree2.jpg

Gassho, J

STLah

[Jundo]

One more, a video of Mr. Ikeda's apprentice in the treetops which I filmed ... safely from the ground. Of course, the only "safety equipment" is his pair of split toed shoes worn by Japanese gardeners, roofers, high-rise carpenters and the like ...



This is the real "Treeleaf" Zen, not what I teach. Seriously. You should all become Japanese gardeners!

Please watch this whole dance right through, wide screen ...

https://youtu.be/aF0fOHYu2m4

Gassho, J

STLah

[krissydear]

krissydear....

NIce. I know nothing of Auqaponic gardens but they look interesting!!

Doshin
st

Thank you, Doshin, Anne, and Meitou!

I didn't either until my brother, who is studying to be a park ranger and loves aquaculture/fishing/anything with water and aquatic animals, set it up for us. Basically, he said that the difference between hydroponics and aquaponics is the substrate that feeds the plants. In aquaponics, there are fish in the water, and their byproducts and whatnot nourish the plants. In hydroponics, there is another thing (I'm not sure what, another food) that is added to the water to help nourish the plants.

Here's an updated picture with some of the herbs really flourishing.

Gassho
krissy
Sat today

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[Kotei]

This is the real "Treeleaf" Zen, not what I teach. Seriously. You should all become Japanese gardeners!

Thank you!
Fascinating, watching these workers. When balancing high on the ladder and leaning out for pruning the pine candles,
there is quite some concentration and calmness involved. Of course, days of pruning and weed picking involves some 'staying in the moment', too. Imho, it teaches you such a state of mind; it's a very unpleasant, exhausting work, when not experienced as such.

Of course, I studied my Sakuteiki translation and it's comments. (said to be the first book about garden design and making from the 11th century).

... This kind of work [garden design and making], however, was not done professionally and there was no professional gardening class during the Heian period that would be the complement of the uekiya and niwashi of later years. By the mid to late Heian period there were also Buddhist priests involved in garden building, known collectively as ishitateso, literally stone-setting priests, though in fact the expression "stone-setting" was simply a euphemism for "garden making". Many of these priests, though not all of them, were associated with Ninnaji temple, and they may have been involved in both the design and construction of gardens, depending on their rank.

I like those shoes, btw.. When working on the ladder, you quickly notice, that your lower shinbone hurts from bumping against the steps and you want to 'wrap' your big toe around the side of the ladder for additional hold.
And I like that ladder, too. Mine has only the single leg adjustable in height and your's all three, which is much better on uneven ground.
Agreed, your's is bigger .

Oh, and real Zen masters don't need a ladder ;-)
This is one of the guys, working once a year with the large trees. This photo was taken some 100m around the corner:
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Gassho,
Kotei sat/lah today.

[Cooperix]

Hey! I like those shoes too! Maybe not for tree climbing though. A fashion statement in the art world, I assure you!

Thanks everyone for your interesting and beautiful input into this thread. Keep the images coming as your gardens grow. (thanks Krissy!) Summer is almost here and gardens must be thriving.

Here in the SW U.S. there is little rain this year and today we awoke to smoky skies. Somewhere nearby is a forest fire. Or maybe not so near, often fires raging in Arizona affect us here many hundreds of miles away. Fire season comes with the droughts.

Again, if so moved keep us up with what's happening in your little gardening corner.

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~

[Doshin]

Ladders, don’t like them as much as I did.

Krissy I am even more intrigued about adding fish!

In addition to our native landscaping we have an edible portion of our place. It is beginning to feed us...and the Rock squirrel who gets to the ripe tomatoes first, the pollinator larvae that browse our greens, and the deer who helps with pruning.

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Doshin
St

[Doshin]

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One area of the edible landscape that produced the cauliflower ..

My wife gets all the credit.

Doshin
St

[Cooperix]

Doshin,
I do love an edible garden and such a beautiful cauliflower! Is that Spanish broom behind your wife? Ocotillo in bloom behind that? Desert in bloom. Thanks for posting and your wife for gardening the vegetables.

I have been picking Russian red kale to make kale chips.

red kale.jpg

Gassho
Anne
~lahst~

[Doshin]

Doshin,
I do love an edible garden and such a beautiful cauliflower! Is that Spanish broom behind your wife? Ocotillo in bloom behind that? Desert in bloom. Thanks for posting and your wife for gardening the vegetables.

I have been picking Russian red kale to make kale chips.

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Gassho
Anne
~lahst~

The yellow flowers are a native called Paper Flower. They are long bloomers. Yes Ocotillo behind.

Doahin
St

[Jinyo]

Thanks for the updates - love the pics of edibles.
So we have created our first vegetable patch - it is very small but a start (usually just grow flowers).
I've reclaimed the greenhouse which has been used as a model train depot the past few years - so growing tomatoes
once more - love the smell of the leaves!
Been busy in the garden which is getting a lot of loving attention during lockdown.
Will try to post some pics.

Happy gardening everyone,

Jinyo

[Cooperix]

I couldn't help posting this image of these dwarf sunflowers in their blue pot. They make me smile each time I look at them.
Nice to have something so consistently to smile about!


sunflower.jpg

Gassho
Anne

~lahst~