The Story
of a Gardens Story.
One of the most exciting, and
sometimes daunting, aspects of my job is the anticipation of what I will see
when I make that first visit to meet a new client. I say sometime daunting, as
over the years I have come across some very challenging and unanticipated difficult conditions, from severe slopes, one of my most often presented
challenges, to very badly neglected and unloved spaces. Let’s face it you are
not going to call a garden designer if you have a beautiful garden to begin. This story though, of the story of a garden, must surely stand as one of the
most intriguing I have yet come across.
I got an email inquiry from a
lady, let’s say her name is Angela, as she wishes to remain anonymous, and
attached to the email a couple of pictures of a garden space with a large
quantity of boulders and the remains of what looked like quite a bit of tree
surgery. Angela’s inquiry, did I know of anyone who might like to have the
stone, or indeed, could I possibly use the stone on one of my projects and
could I potentially help with the redesign of the space. On reading the email
further it transpired that both Angela and her husband had recently purchased a
property, the garden to which they assumed was just badly overgrown. When they
said overgrown it turned out they meant overgrown in the sense of a number of
very large and dense conifers virtually filling the entire rear garden area. No
problem they thought, just get the trees cut down clear the space and return a
normal and usable garden. However, nothing quite prepared them for the
discovery that lay hidden amongst the dense undergrowth. On clearing the space
they revealed the remains of an authentic Japanese garden complete with a mini
version of Mount Fuji to one corner. Given there had been no mention of this,
either by the estate agent, or in the property particulars, they were somewhat
confounded, confused, panicked and not particularly happy, as they did not want
a Japanese garden.
On making further inquiry from
the vendor, daughter of the deceased, the story of the gardens creation was
even more intriguing. The 1980s detached house built in a pretty normal, if
somewhat leafy, suburban area of Cheshire had somehow inspired the owner to
commission a designer based in California to design and install an authentic
Japanese garden, replete with mount Fuji replica, Buddha stone, a very large
Koi pond, subsequently filled in, ornate bridge over the pond, a water fall,
along with various paths through the space.
Unfortunately the instigator and owner of the garden had died at the
very young age of 61 and his wife, having no interest in the garden, donated
the fish to another Japanese garden, had the pond filled in, and promptly forgot about the garden as she
sadly descended into a deep mourning loss of her husband. Having passed away
quite recently the house was put on the market by their only surviving
daughter.
I duly made an initial
appointment for a consultation visit with Angela and her husband to discuss possibilities, with an initial view to suggesting they sell the stone to a salvage reclamation
yard. The day of my visit was alas another of the all too frequent wet, damp,
miserable ones. Even on a wet day though I was intrigued by what I saw, as
looking out the window my eyes drawn to the wonderful form colour and texture
of the stone, it dawned on me that I just might have a place for some of the
larger pieces in one of my other projects that had just completed in Worsley, in Salford, Greater Manchester. Not
wanting to pre-empt, I said nothing during that first meeting about possibly using
some of the stone, but instead set about discussing and enthusing the
possibility of retaining some elements of the Japanese garden in a re imagined
configuration, and in particular mount Fuji, which I felt could once again gain
significance within this new space.
Meeting with the client in
Worsley during the week that followed I shared the story of the Japanese garden, along with my thoughts on 3 of the feature stone, with the proviso I was not at all sure, given
the very restricted access, that it would be feasible to get the stone into
position, but that I would ask our ever enduring landscaper Kris what his
thoughts were. Kris as usual was full of enthusiasm and had replied, as he usually does
when confronted with challenge, we will find a way. I joked they would have to
do an Egyptian with poles and sacking to carry the boulders, prescient as it
turned out.
True to form he did find a
way, and the bodies, and the poles, and the sacking, and a brief dry spell, and
yesterday, Saturday 21st May 2016 we spent the day both collecting,
and then positioning, the boulders in their new home. The uncanny, they look
like they have always been there.
Below are a few pictures to
visually carry the story of the boulders.
The boulder that first caught
my eye and gave me an idea.
Mount Fuji laid bare
The narrowest door presents
the trickiest task, how to get over half ton of boulder through it.
The rain poured down shortly
after the job of moving and installing the boulders was completed, good and
lucky timing. The lads are still smiling, but probably because they have earned
a cold beer!
The garden with new boulders
insitu. The wonderful Orange Azeala mentioned in previous post now in full and
glorious flower to the foreground. On first sight it quite literally takes your
breath away.
