Season's Greetings TravelinaGarden

Famous places in Kyoto: Autumn Leaves at Tsutenkyo Bridge.

In Japan, when autumn comes and maple trees turn their leaves in burning oranges and reds, it's time to go, it's time for momijigari (maple viewing). The word comes from momiji acer and gari hunt, the old tradition to visit spots famous for the beauty and richness of their colours. 

It can become a kind of addiction: red leaves are never enough. Despite the crowd, there is always a new path, a different view or a new tree worth seeing.

Tsutenkyo Bridge at the Tofuku-ji Temple, Kyoto, is one of these beautiful sceneries, and it has been for a long time. The Japanese master of landscape woodblock prints, Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858), included it in one of his famous landscape series dated around 1834. The trees in the print are today a thick, enchanting maple wood that extends below the bridge, a unique, unforgettable view just for a few days. 

Tsutenkyo no momiji,
Utagawa Hiroshige, c. 1834.

 
















Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Tokufu-ji Temple, Kyoto November 2015.

Landscape Print:
Tsutenkyo no momiji, Red Maple Trees at the Tsuten Bridge, from the series "Famous Places in Kyoto (Kyoto meisho no uchi)", c. 1834 - Utagawa Hiroshige (1797-1858).
Tokyo National Museum.

Winter is coming in Japan: Yukitsuri and komo-maki.

Winter is coming in Japan.
In November, while autumn foliage reaches its glorious climax and winners are appointed at chrysanthemum festivals, in gardens, it is time to set up yukitsuri (雪つり), or 'snow suspenders': straw ropes that support branches preventing their breakage in case of heavy and wet snowfalls.

Its origins are unknown but they may be related to the custom of tying the branches of apple trees laden with heavy fruits, developed during the late Edo period (1603-1868).

The work requires a team of highly skilled workmen and begins with the preparation of the ropes and the calculation of the number and length needed for each tree. Then, ropes are fixed at the top of a bamboo pole that is erected near the trunk. From the top of the pole, which in the tallest trees is reached with a bold climbing, a man throws the ropes to other men placed around the tree that knot them to the lowest branches or to bamboo canes arranged around the circumference of the tree. Another man checks that ropes are correctly placed to create the traditional conical structure: balanced, effective and beautiful.

There are different techniques to tie the ropes, according to the type of tree, its size and conditions.

Evergreen trees are usually involved, as the weight of snow on the branches full of leaves is heavier and could easily break them. The ancient pines in the Kenroku-en Gardens, in the Ishikawa Prefecture in Central Japan, are famous examples but, in these gardens, even camellias, azaleas, acers and fruit trees are protected with these unusual umbrellas during the winter months. In Tokyo, this tradition is still carried on even if snowfalls are no more so heavy and dangerous.

Komo-maki, or 'straw mat wrapping' is another tradition related to winter.  A straw mat is tied to the trunk so that insects could enter and find refuge in this warm space but not exit. At the end of winter, before the insects start to move, the mat is removed and burnt.

Useful and beautiful, yukitsuri and komo-maki are expressions of the fine art of Japanese gardens. Recalling the incoming winter.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Tokyo, November 2015.

L'Arbre Bleu - The Blue Tree, Paris.

It was a clear, sunny morning of October and I was looking for a suitable caffè to have breakfast; an important decision when you are on holiday but not a complicated decision when you are in Paris.

I was walking in Rue Descartes just beyond the Pantheon when I saw the Blue Tree for the first time.

The mural was painted in 2000 by the Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky, one of the twelve murals created for the initiative Les Murs de l'An 2000 - Walls of the Year 2000 promoted by the City of Paris. Next to the electric blue tree, the French poet Yves Bonnefoy wrote a short poem entitled 'L'Arbre  Bleu'.
His words are addressed to the passer-by and to the philosophe, to those who look up, above all if they are not on holiday. 

L’Arbre Bleu

                                  Passant,                                    

Regarde ce grand arbre 

                    Et à travers lui                      

Il peut suffire.

Car même déchiré, souillé,  

L’arbre des rues,

C’est toute la nature,

Tout le ciel,

L’oiseau s’y pose,

Le vent y bouge, le soleil

Y dit le même espoir malgré

La mort.

Philosophe,

As-tu chance d’avoir l’arbre

Dans ta rue,

Tes pensées seront moins ardues

Tes yeux plus libres,

Tes mains plus désireuses

De moins de nuit.

The  Blue Tree

Passer-by,

Look at this big tree

And through it  

It may suffice.

For even torn, stained,

The tree of the streets,  

It's all the nature,  

All the sky,  

The bird lands on it,

The wind moves it, the sun  

Tells the same hope despite

The death.

Philosopher,

Have you the chance to have the tree

In your street,  

Your thoughts will be less ardous,

Your eyes freer,

Your hands more eager

Less by night.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Paris, October 2009.

Translation:
TravelinaGarden.

Address:
L'Arbre Bleu - Rue Descartes - 5th arrondissement Paris.

To answer your questions... Margaretha Nilson Quinta do Castanheiro, Colares, Portugal.

I had forgotten the beauty of Portuguese gardens but a short stay near Lisbon in spring made me rediscover them.

The International Spring Conference held by the local branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society proved a perfect opportunity to learn more about the past, present and future of Portuguese gardens and to discover them.

1. Back garden and new terrass recovered from
 rebuilding 2 years ago

Visits included old Botanic Gardens and experimental nurseries, as well as small private paradises such as Quinta do Castanheiro near Sintra.
This beautiful old quinta, Portuguese for farm, is set in a mountainous area featuring thick woods, abundant water and a pleasant mild climate. A romantic scenery that, already during the second half of the eighteenth century, attracted wealthy merchants from Lisbon during the summer, and, at the turn of the century, fascinated famous foreign travelers, Lord Byron among them.

Like many typical Portuguese residences, the house at Quinta do Castanheiro was built next to the road and surrounded by walls. Over the years, the estate has changed form and owners, and, today it is the beloved retreat of Margaretha and Bruno, an energetic and sympathetic Swedish couple who has settled here around two years ago. ‘I was lucky to get an old garden with rooms, walls and a nice carpet' explained Margaretha showing us the garden. The steep hillside is divided into terraces with different planting combinations and schemes but a common natural look and a relaxed pleasant atmosphere. Leaving the large terrace in front of the house, you find a simple green lawn bordered by low perennials and shrubs overlooking the surrounding cultivated fields, a large formal garden stretching along the back of the house, where flowers and herbs are bounded by low trimmed boxwood-edges, and an informal area with fruit trees and shrubs such as Strelitzia, lavender, echium and cistus. The terrace above the formal garden is a simple space for open-air games and receptions with a humorous modern sculpture at the entrance. The last terrace is above it: a small tiled tank with peaceful red fish, old camellias and beautiful views. Portuguese tiles recur in the garden, from steps to low walls, both in colored floral patterns and in the traditional blue Azulejos. Next to the large terrace in front of the house, sheltered by a row of slender cypresses and an embroidery of silver leaf shrubs, there is a little secret swimming pool for the hottest days.
Pots of flowers and herbs, chairs and benches are details of everyday life  for a garden that does not forget the past but live in the present.

I asked Margaretha for details and information and she kindly and generously answered me.

TravelinaGarden: Would you tell us something about the history of Quinta do Castanheiro?

MN: The yard was built approximately 150 years ago and had more houses & areal as well, like a vineyard to the Valley on the other side of the road.

TravelinaGarden: How do you combine modern life in this historical garden? 

MN: I think that we and our neighbors live here of passion to Sintra's rich nature, because of that we take responsibility and pay to keep gardens intact and beautiful. Of course, with space for the modern man facilities like pool, croquet and boules terraces...
Gardens live, dies & change so I'll let the garden dance over time and go to rest during the short winter (+ 5 c). We only control microklimats growing power!

As a garden needs structure, form, and dignity to keep charming. For me & Bruno it's very important that our garden is peaceful. A source of pleasure & less commercial cultivation as needed in ancient times. We are fortunate to have a nice neighbor with an excellent BIO-farm which also has chickens, ducks, sheep, cats and dogs. We & they moved here at the same time 2, 5 years ago. We are excited: The BIO farmers contribute in every way to the atmosphere of that this old village had in ancient times as a producer of BIO-farmed food & organic eggs & meat to large farms & household around. Today transformed from luxurious Summer Palace & yards to tourist attraction, rental of "Secret sites" and B&B.

TravelinaGarden: Each terrace has its own characteristics and vegetation. How do they work?

MN: Our garden is arranged in a sequence of terraces surrounded by Eucalyptus and Mimosa forest bonding the large nature reserve above our surrounding farms. You can only see them from the road above. The garden has nearly 30 m case height with different conditions when it comes to light, water and wind zones. It's a great challenge and, at the same time, a piece of cake ...
There are always flowers throughout the year and these beauties take care of themselves more or less. Thanks to the microklimat here, there is no need for greater care in summer either.

We have an experienced & skilled gardener! No bodiebuilders that devastates & destroys the garden in a short period of time against low payment. Our gardener is trained & has many years' experience. Diseased plants end up in the "incubator", get replanted or composted in a natural cycle.

 

TravelinaGarden: Which flowers are you introducing in the garden?

MN: We love trees & vegetation that's why we fell in love in Sintra. We choose only a few flowers that thrive here and are just as happy as the Green Fund, the walls and the lawn is!

I love the combination of beauty and useful herbs, plants and trees. I like to develop a little more and at other appropriate locations, choose more water wise plants! So You are very welcome back, we will probably go to Algarve to find interesting Mediterranean plants to add a twist of the Mediterranean.

 Checklist new plants:

1. Entre' - Step Up: Palm trees in pots 
2. Big Terrass: Bruno's 300 year old Olive tree and 3 unhappy Clematis
3. Pool terrass: 10 year old lemon tree + the lime trees from neighbors. I love the smell by pool
4. Sloping terrass: Unhappy Portuguese flowers ....
5. Herb terrass:
   Mint, Salvia, Oregano, Dragon, Basilika, RoseMarin, Thyme, Koriander, Lemon Meliss, 
6. Activity Terrass:
   Two Jaqarandan tree  4,5m high, no flowers yet) & lots of happy Hortencia & Vinka. 
7. Fruit terrass:
   Lots of lavender, some raspberries -a test, might need more sun...
8. Top terrass: Mediterranean plants

TravelinaGarden: What are your project for the garden in the near future?

MN: Bruno & I want to grow old with the garden, on generously. Just check it, add wise water plants and play more classic music in our garden to keep our plants happy! And use less noisy machines in the garden, to keep harmony for us, neighbors & the garden. We like the gardens be a different kinds of retreats.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, May 2015.


Links:
Mediterranean Garden Association, Portugal Branch.
http://www.mediterraneangardensociety.org/branches-pt.html

Sussex Prairies Garden, West Sussex.

In a day of mid-August, low grey sky and cool air gave unexpected intensity to the flower borders at Sussex Prairies Garden. After crossing the small bridge at the end of the wood, where a couple of pigs of a rare local breed wallowed happily in the mud, I stopped in front of thousands of flowers and grasses, uncertain which way to go.

Created in 2008 by Pauline and Paul McBride, experienced horticulturists and gardeners, the six-acre garden is designed as a sequence of semicircular beds divided into huge blocks of vigorous perennials and grasses framed by the lawn.

A series of rectangular beds run along the central avenue, flanked on both sides by a row of undulated hornbeam hedges, punctuated by groups of fastigiate trees lined up to three, hornbeams of course.

I discovered the combinations of heights, shapes, textures and colors walking along the borders and crossing them, following the smaller paths that snake through the plants. The two small mounds at the end of the property were a good vantage point to see the garden beyond the clumps of grasses and drifts of flowers: the cutting flower garden, on the left, just after the bridge, farm buildings, the busy tea room and the plant sale area in the center, while the pond and the bee hives were on the right. Actually, most of them were completely hidden by vegetation and just roofs were clearly visible.

The prodigious clay soil, dutifully improved, perfectly suits these herbaceous perennials and grasses that reach their full development in a couple of years. There is no room for weeds among the thick groups of monarda, echinacea, helenium and veronicastrum. There is no room for tiny flowers either, little things would get lost among towering sanguisorba and rudbeckia.
At the end of the winter, a controlled bonfire eliminates the remains of the vegetation in the borders, mulch is applied and, between February and June, plants are patiently divided to be sold in the nursery or used in the gardens that the couple creates around the globe. New plants are experimented every year. Inspiration comes from visits to other people's gardens or to flower shows, exchanges with other gardens and friends or suggestions from passionate customers and visitors.

The massive use of perennials and grasses was inspired by their work with Piet Oudolf, the renowned Dutch plantsman and garden designer whose ideas are shaping the contemporary naturalistic-garden.

A herd of bisons peacefully grazes in this English prairie recalling the inhabitants that, long time ago, populated the flat and seemingly endless landscape made of grasses, perennials and low shrubs evoked by this garden: the American prairie. 
At Sussex Prairies, the bisons are steel shapes, the horizontal line is soon broken by the surrounding agricultural landscape and the flowers are not native species but cultivars. But perhaps, even Jens Jensen, the Danish immigrant that, at the beginning of the twentieth century, created the first gardens in the prairies style in Chicago, would understand our desire to recreate the beauty and energy of those expanses of wild flowers.

Photos:

TravelinaGarden, Sussex Prairies, August 2015.

Links:

Sussex Prairies Garden,
http://www.sussexprairies.co.uk

The Long Border, Garden Museum, London.

The Garden Museum in London was closed when I went there for a walk a couple of weeks ago. It was too late in the afternoon, but the gates were still opened, and I was captured by the quiet atmosphere of the external garden. It was interesting too because, under the shade of the plane trees, I discovered the Long Border. Designed by Dan Pearson next to the deconsecrated church of St. Mary's-at-Lambeth, seat of the Garden Museum, in 2013, this rich composition was an initiative that accompanied the exhibition Green Fuse dedicated to his activity. 

The Long Border, inspired by his work at the Tokachi Millennium Forest in Japan, is a strip of woodland in central London. It is a special woodland indeed, with Vitis and Parthenocissus that climb long poles, the 'trees', and a rich tapestry of perennials and ornamental grasses that combines refreshing green shades and delicate colours with a careful arrangements of textures, heights and shapes. 

There were the unusual flowers of the Aralia, the bottlebrush white spikes of the Cimicifuga, the pink plumes of the Sanguisorba, solitary white flowers of the Houttunyia cordata, the arching waxed stems of the Rubus, the soft leaves of Selenium and then, ... surprise, surprise.... the starry white flowers of the Aster divaricatus. A colony of this American aster, in fact, had gracefully accomodated itself in the rigorous Asian palette of the Border, and generously flowered in the front.

The Aster divaricatus is not the only American plant in the list, and its origin is not really important, but it reminded me of the Tradescants, the men who inspired the creation of the Garden Museum. John Tradescant the Elder and John Tradescant the Younger, his son, gardeners, naturalists, travelers and collectors, are buried in the churchyard surrounded by a beautiful knot garden and a lot of flowers. In 1637, John Tradescant the Younger left London for the first of his three travels to Virginia, an activity in which his father had already indulged twenty before visiting Russia, Paris and Algiers. The young Tradescant returned with interesting seeds, such as Magnolias, Liriodendron tulipifera, Taxodium ascendens and Acer rubrum, but also asters and the Virginia creeper, Parthenocissus quinquefolia.

The plants in the Long Border would certainly fascinate these dynamic and adventurous men, something special for their next garden.

“... These famous Antiquarians that had been 
  Both gardeners to the Rose and Lily Queen
  Transplanted now themselves, sleep here, and when
  Angels shall with their trumpets waken men
  And fire shall purge the world, these hence shall rise
  And change this garden for a Paradise.”
(Epitaph on the Tradescants' tomb)

Full Plant List:
(22.08.2013 Garden Museum Border - Dan Pearson Studio)
Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’
Aralia cordata
Aster divaricatus
Astilbe rivularis
Briza nedia
Cimicifuga ‘Brunette’
Disproum longistylum
Dryopteris wallichiana
Filipendula camtschatica
Gilennia trifoliata
Hakonechloa macra
Houttunyia cordata
Iris chrysographes
Lysimachia clethroides
Molinia 'Edith Dudzus'
Parthenocissus quinquefolia
Persicaria amplexicaule 'Alba'
Rubus thibetanus 'Silver Fern'
Sanguisorba hakusanensis
Selinum wallichianum
Thalictrum 'Elin'
Vitis coignettiae

Photos:
Garden Museum, London, 2015.
Except: Aster tradescantii, (current name: Aster lateriflorus), Species Plantarum, Carl Linnaeus, 1753.
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/

Links:
Garden Museum, Lambeth Palace Rd, London, SE1 7LB.
http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk/
Dan Pearson Studio, The Nursery, The Chandlery, London,
SE1 7QY SE1 7QY.
http://www.danpearsonstudio.com/#/journal/garden-museum-border/

La Vigna di Leonardo, Milan.

Back in 1498, Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, donated to Leonardo da Vinci a plot near the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Leonardo appreciated the gift, not to mention that ownership of land was a necessary element to obtain the citizenship in Milan. The vineyard, a rectangular plot of around 8.000mq, was surrounded by the vegetable gardens and vineyards of the nearby religious communities. Here, Leonardo could have built a small house or a laboratory, very convenient while he was working to the fresco of 'The Last Supper' in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, on the opposite side of the street. But, this would be his last important work for the Sforza family. French troops invaded Milan in October 1499, forcing the Sforza to leave, and, after eighteen years in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci also left the town, eventually returning in his native Tuscany.
He moved again to Milan in 1507, accepting the invitation of King Louis XII of France. Leonardo reclaimed its property and was soon busy with different activities. It is still not sure whether he built a house or other buildings here, but he was really interested in and affectionated to the vineyard and included it in his will.

The vineyard we see today is the result of meticulous, long and passionate studies, excavations and researches. The location, the grape variety, identified in the white Malvasia di Candia Aromatica from the DNA of the remains of the roots, the scheme of paths and rows emerged from the ground and confirmed by drawings of the vineyard sketched by Leonardo; each element has been analyzed and faithfully recreated in the vineyard planted at the bottom of the peaceful, shady garden of the Casa degli Atellani.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, Milan, July 2015.

Links:
La Vigna di Leonardo, Milan.
http://www.vignadileonardo.com/?setlang=en

Apricots and Almonds.

I would like to thank Mr. Rowley Leigh for his 'Apricot and almond tarte fine': a simple preparation for a tasty summer cake, glossy golden and elegant.

But, the combination of apricots and almonds doesn't work well just in the kitchen. 'Rare grafts', including 'almond on apricot', are reported in ancient Egypt. They certainly added something special to the incredible variety of fruit already available in Islamic gardens in Medieval times, such as apples, quinces, pears, figs, peaches and grapes. Agricultural treaties, written in Sanskrit, translated into Arabic, copied into Persian and read in India, gave all the necessary information to cultivate, harvest and store them. In these ancient books, brave gardeners could find sophisticated techniques to experiment multi-coloured fruits on the same plant,  to obtain redder apples and peaches by adding rose thorns to the plant roots or to have sweeter grapes by irrigating the plants with extract of dates. They decorated citrons and pears with inscribed letters and almond seeds with calligraphy. Gardens were special places.

Fruit trees travelled as fast as words. Under the Mughal Emperor Akbar, apricots were introduced in Kashmir from Kabul, and then imported in India. Things have not changed much.

Mr. Leigh suggests to visit the Hunza Valley in Pakistan, or the Loire Valley in France, to taste velvety apricots at their best. 

P.S.:
The 'Apricot and almond tarte fine' concluded a relaxed summer Sunday lunch with home-made vitello tonnato [sliced veal with tuna sauce] and tomato salad.

Photos:
TravelinaGarden, 2015.


Further reading:
Scent in the Islamic Garden. A Study of Deccani Urdu Literary Sources, Ali Akbar Husain, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2000.

The Anatomy of Dessert: with a few Notes on Wine, Edward Bunyard, New York, Modern Library, 2006. Originally published: London, Dulau, 1929.

Links:
Ripe for the picking, Rowley Leigh, FT Magazine June 20/21 2015
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/fc12fb14-146d-11e5-ad6e-00144feabdc0.html