Kubota Dreams

So we’ve made tremendous progress on the pond. Isn’t it amazing how everything grows in North Carolina?

Actually, this photo is from a wordless post in 2010 on the Kubota Garden in Seattle. I visited again the following year and came up with a few words about this soul-stirring space.

In making my own pond, I realize how strongly memories of those visits are guiding my decisions.
The last pond was full of plants: eastern skunk cabbage, native arrowhead, louisiana iris, variegated flag iris, pots of calla lilies crowded the water’s surface.
This time around, I’d like to leave the water mostly open, as at the Kubota, with lots of planting right up to the edge.
Of course it’s easy to be restrained in January. March will be the test.

Here’s the tiny waterfall at the far edge. Noisy water features are not for me. You can see a clump of variegated dianella tasmanica peeking out from behind the rock.

I want to name the pond Froggy Bottom, but not to jinx it, so until the first frogs come, it’s the Primordial Soup.
Fingers crossed it doesn’t become Snake Lake.
Mulch covers the new dirt around the pond, and was also used to lay out paths from the house and driveway down the hillside.
From the driveway entrance here’s what you see.

I’m hoping eventually to populate the open spaces completely with shrubs and small trees, easier to maintain than perennials and restful to the eye.
Here’s a late winter bloomer pondside, viburnum tinus ‘Compactum’ recommended by the confident Helen Yoest.

The Platonic Steps have been decorated with nature’s mascara, lovely green moss.

Three white-flowered compact Encore azaleas, ‘Autumn Angel’ have been added along the way. A slab has been set on edge and backfilled with dirt to simulate a boulder.

The inspiration for a rocky hillside comes from a lovely book, Serene Gardens by Yoko Kawaguchi.

Certainly what happens on my hillside will be different, but I love the idea of a hillside planted with moss, trees and rocks.
It’s a compelling starting  point for Kubota daydreaming on a warm day in January, resting on the old purple bench.

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