The world famous Butchart Gardens of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada contain the second oldest Japanese Gardens in North America and were constructed in 1906. To say they are spectacular is a gross understatement! In this video, a Nathan Lawrence, a professional arborist and expert Japanese style aesthetic pruner, takes you on a tour with commentary of this world class garden. Enjoy!
Who says you need a lot of space for a Japanese garden? Japanese gardens come in all sizes from many acres to just a few square feet in area as well as many shapes and styles. In this video, we look at one of the smallest Japanese gardens that I have worked in. Our goal is to bring a little peace, joy and beauty to this troubled world wherever we go—even in the smallest garden spaces. Take a look.
This video is not only a tour of Albuquerque’s Japanese garden, but an interview with its head gardener and a behind the scenes look at this unique garden, how it was designed and what it takes to maintain it. At the end of the video, the head gardener talks about the unique challenge of pruning the garden’s pine trees.
Do you have an over-mature landscape that you’re not sure what to do with? Rip it out or repurpose it? How about gradually transforming it into a Japanese style garden? In this video, we encountered a sixty plus year old landscape that has been neglected for years, and we accepted the challenge of refurbishing some very large, old shrubs by pruning them in a Japanese style. From this auspicious beginning, the ecstatic homeowner is planning to add more Japanese-themed aspects (like pines and a moss garden) into the existing landscape to create her dream garden.
The Rome, Italy, Botanical Garden is perhaps Europe’s oldest with the original garden planted in the 1200s. For five Euros admission, one can experience more than a dozen gardens and plant collections in one site including a Japanese garden, a butterfly garden, cactus gardens and greenhouses, a French greenhouse, a conifer garden, a fern garden, a bamboo garden, a rose garden, a Mediterranean garden, an herb garden, a flower garden, a palm tree collection, a grape vine collection, a tropical greenhouse plus numerous fountains and other features dating back to the 1700s. Also see perhaps the largest palm tree in Europe. For plant lovers, this garden is a must-see attraction and is a welcome and quiet oasis in an otherwise busy and noisy city. We ended our five day visit to Rome in this garden—a high point of our trip to this amazing city. Check it out!