Cherry blossom

I visited Inuyama castle last weekend. It was windy and a little bit cold day,but cherry blossom was in bloom. Now , almost full bloom around here.

There are three national treasure castles in Japan. Inuyama castle is the one of it.

It is populer spot, but so close from my home. The traditional festival that has 400 years past take place this weekend. Of course I'm going to visit it.

There is a unique family in my relative's home.

This dog? Not her.

Wow. The correct answer is a Elephant tortoise. This tortoise is so powerful.

He break a fence easily and escape from here sometimes.

Wow, So messy. Whose home is this? ...mine. I and my father are professional landscaper, but,, our garden is so wild and messy. That's why, I started pruning trees.

and I found a good old wall for baseball which my father made for me long time ago( maybe 20 years ago. This wall was under the tree branches , but came out now .

I used to played with this when I was child.

The apple was going bad, so I put apple on the dead branch for birds.

The bird is waiting me go away. This apple was gone in the evening of the day.

Last week, we had lot of rain. so I made a bamboo fence of narrow width under the garage.

When it is done, I'm going to bring this to my custmer's home and set it.

I'm very busy these days. There are a lot of thing to do other than usual work.

I have to wake up early. but it's not easy for me to go out from warm bed ,eventhough I set the alarm for 5:00 every morning..

Have a good day.

The lesson of Ikebana

I go to take a lesson of Ikebana(Kado) a couple times a month. I bring some branches in bloom which I cut by myself in my garden. This season, Cornus Officinalis is in bloom beautifully in my garden . It is happy time to think what branches I bring for the lesson. She is Ikebana and Tea ceremony instructor. She teaches me how to arrange the branches using it.

'Ikebana' is the Japanese art of flower arrangement also known as 'Kado'. Ikebana is a creatibe expression ,but it has certain rules and types of shape . At first, I choose the proper line branches for center ,left behind side and right front side. And she show me how to set .

I take a lesson very politely sitting straight on tatami.

Finished. This is typical shape of Ikebana.

We also take a lesson of Tea ceremony.

It was raining last week, so I tried to combine Ikebana into container garden

.

Spiraea cantoniensis Lour and,, I forgot the the name of pink one.

I planted a cup into other plants. and arranged the branches in it.

Look, I planted Leaf lettuce with flowers.

Another one. I was cleaning up the shed, and I made this one for a change.

Peaceful coloｒ combination.

This is my Box Lunch my mother made. I always have lunch outside sitiing on stones or terrace or lawn. It's like, , I always enjoy picnic everyday when it is nice weather especially this season.

I packed my box lunch in every morning,when I worked as gardener in Vancouner last year.

But now, I don't need to cook anymore. So easy and pretty yummy than the one I cook by myself. but, I cook only soup for box lunch and breakfast every morning.

That's why, you know,the soup looks so simple.

An expert on the stone

We asked Professional Stone craftsman to install flagstone under the arbor.

His work is awesome! His career is more than 50 years.

Looking his work is good study for me.

My father also has more than 30 years experiences as a landscaper.

He is loud my work ,but good teacher for me .

Stone arrangement is unique technique of Japanese garden.

There are some type of it. My father is good at Natural style stone arrangement.

My work is piling stones. I'm not expert yet.

I need more experiences and practices..

My father is so loud about my work. Hang in there! me!

Our New Landscaping Work

I turned 29 years old on February 16th.

My younger sister bought some cakes and cute candles for me on her way home from work.

I'm so glad that I still have one more year up to 30.

Last year was so great. I hope this year will be a great year ,too.

We started new landscaping construction 2 weeks ago. This is the first work for me after I came back Japan from Vancouver. I`m really enjoying my work. I like this creative work .

I bought in a Japanese dog wood . We choosed this good shaped tree among a lot of same trees.

Japanese dog wood　is popular tree because of that beautiful green and soft atmosphere.

'Bonsai' like a pine tree with good shaped branchs is well known as Japanese traditional style and very popular all over the world. However, Bonsai has no popularity any more in Japan. Young generation people tend to prefer more natural shape of tree as is to Bonsai style trees.

We planted a unique Pine trees and a Japanese dog wood.

and,, We bought in a lot of stones. 　

The view of garden changes everyday. We set stones carefully to make the garden more natural.

This technique is very important as Japanese landscaper. But it needs aesthetic sense and lots of experiences.

It is still difficult for me.. 　　

Work with my father is good chance for me to master the skill .

Rocks and Clouds in the Blue Sky

I went to the Stone quarry to get good shape stones to use in the garden we are constructing　with my father. Beautiful blew sky, interesting clouds, stones mountain.. The view was awesome!

What a nice view! I couldn't stop taking a lots of photos, even though my father told me 'what for did you come here ?'.

We were able to get good stones which suit our new garden .and We carried them.

It should be good Japanese natural style garden with them.

Creating new garden is so exciting for us.

I love the rural scene with rice fields.　 So peaceful.

Spring is coming soon

Hello. I'm Ryotaro.

I'm Japanese landscaping gardener.

I started this new blog as a English version of Ume's Green Journal(Japanese).

If you are Japanese, click here.

http://apricotgarden.blogspot.com/

I'm going to report about my work and daily life here.

I lived in Vancouver for a year in 2009 .

I was so glad that I met a lot of nice people from different countries and made friends with them.

I have kept my Japanese blog for my family and friends in Japan ,while I lived in Vancouver.

Now I came back to Japan and decided to start this blog to let them know about my life in my hometown .

Ok.then I'll explain about above photos.

My father and I went to a restaurant which we made natural style garden before.

We go there once or twice a month and change flower pot and all in the house.

This time we decorated with red and white Camellia and a rare Christmas rose.

This is the design of our new landscaping work we are making now.

We carried this Japanese pine tree to our customer.

It was pretty bigger than the carrier of truck.

These flat stones are used for terrace.

This is import from Indonesia.

After work, I stopped by near homecenter and found this weeding tool.

I often used this type tool when I was working as gardener in Vancouver.

VERY USEFUL. I was glad to find it and bought it soon.

I was so surprised that I noticed the price list in the supermarket all went digital!

cool! Ok, Have a great week.