Japanese garden Hackney, East london current photos

My current photo's of the garden now the Azalea's have flowered. Apart form the white flowered plants.


The Moss is not doing to well as the birds have been stealing it to build there nests. We will just need to be patient and wait for it to develop. I am trying to grow some for the future but it is not easy!



The garden is based upon the my clients wifes family garden in japan. His wife’s family is a Saki producer and the family business is “Tsuji Honten” and this is in the town of Katsuyama in the prefecture of Okayama. The house and garden have stood on the same site for over 200 years. So our garden has some way to go before it develops the maturity and ‘Sabi’ of the original. The Landscaped area of the garden is 14 x 20 feet and the whole garden is 14 x 36 feet.



I will photograph the garden again after the Azalea's are clipped following flowering. I will also be introducing some Iris "ensata" and hopefully a cloud pruned tree.

South of France

Well we had a hard working holiday in the South of France. The site was heavily overgrown and we had to clear all the wood that I had cut down last year. We took a chipper shredder with us, building tools and items for the client like new doors, pictures, screens and glass. We borrowed a horse box to carry all the materials and tools.
On arrival we were dissapointed to find that the French builders who are in the middle of building an extension adjacent to our clients land had not completed what they had supposed to and this left us unable to work on the terraces adjacent to my clients house. We carried out site clearance, internal repairs, prepared areas for planting and built the seating areas.


My client is going to use the house and grounds to provide workshops for personal development, art and healing. Therfore we are trying to develop areas where people can sit, meet, reflect and take in the views of the site. To this end we created the seat nestled in the rocks at the top of the site and created a quiet area under a pergola to to provide shade.
While in this area and being very close to Anduze we visited the finest Bamboo garden in Europe, La Bambouseraie. We worked for seven days with one day off in the middle of the period for a break.


You can see below how the site looked towards the end of the period


Area using natural rock formation and new introductions to prepare an area for later planting. We were advised at the local nursery to plant in the Autumn as it was now moving in to the hot period.


Cleared area



Seat made out of one piece Beech bench cut to follow the contours of the rock face



Pergola area to provide shade and quite area for treatment


Boys on the bench


On the way to the ferry home

France working in the Languedoc

For the next two weeks I will be away with the team working in the South of France, on a large wild garden that I hope we will bring order to. If i get a chance i will update the site to show the progress or I will just do it on my return.