Finally gardening

As a child I was completely fascinated by a rock garden of my neighbor. I remember I just loved the alpine plans organized between rocks and the whole look of the garden. We had mainly carrots, tomatoes and potatoes in ours which I like to eat, but not so much to plant and care for, so I started to create my own tiny rock garden in a corner of the garden surrounded by vegetables.

If I think about it now that was exactly the moment when my passion for a landscape design started. My mother used to say that I have green fingers after my grandmother. Unfortunately with all the relocating and living mainly in apartments, I didn't have much opportunity to create many garden designs. Instead I turned to indoor plants ( WOW label - "house plants" in American English ) which I love as well.
Many years ago I also got my first Bonsai and I was hooked. I can't help myself, I love these mini plants and from there comes my interest in Japanese/Zen gardens. I find these arrangements so calming, peaceful and a feast for your eyes. At least for me it is, so it is no surprise that I would love to bring a bit of Japan in my own garden :-)

To be honest a tropical garden would be also on my list, I was in heaven when visiting my husband's family in South Africa and couldn't take my eyes off all the flora there, but I could hardly recreate any type of tropics here in Chicago. Well, at least not in winter. It is July now and the last week's temperatures were hovering near 35 C with the humidity around 70%. Definitely not for me, so I will stay with my Japanese ideas for now.

Last year I visited Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois which is about 1 hour and a half from my place. The 14 acre gardens were established in 1978 by John Anderson and landscape architect Hoichi Kurisu.

 

 

 

I took many pictures there and have been researching more about the design and plants I can use.

My first load of plants arrived last week and I can't wait to enjoy them in my garden. I just have to wait for all the utilities to be marked on the property.