This is a view form a hill-village in Provence.Not entirely sure what's being grown down there, but probably almonds (trees to right of house) and vines (left). I love the way land is managed in the Mediterannean, generally on a small, more intimate scale, with a good variation of crops (often including ornamnetal plant nurseries). Of course the pruning of fruit trees (and the nice straight lines!) adds great character as well. Very similar to Japan.

Mixing my mediteranneans a bit. I think these olives are actually in Tuscany.

Tuscany in sepia.

Found another sepia one.

I came across a bunch of my old 35mm photos scanned into digital format recently: a mixture of things, mostly rather bad quality.
These are 4 Kyoto ones that caught my eye. The Sepia helps, but I suspect they wouldn't look much different if they'd been taken any
time in the last hundred years or so.

Honen-in (above and below)

Nanzen-ji

Imperial Palace ( I think)

We've been away at Tatton Park Flower show, selling our wares. Continuing the theme of Japanese nurseries,
here are 2 fairly typical hatake:



This is another Asuaka zoen hatake with Podocarpus macrophyllus.

This one is tucked into an empty lot in suburban Osaka, pines sharing with vegetables. Both pics show how the rootballed trees
aren't really planted, but 'heeled in' slightly above ground level. The term mizubachi (water basin, or pot) is used to describe
the crater-like resevoir around the trunk.

The lttle keions (see below) aren't large enough for moving big trees. Larger trucks, equipped with long-reach cranes, carry trees like this Podocarpus macrophyllus, at the Asuka Zoen nusery in Asuka, near Nara.



Not the same tree, but another similarly sized podocarpus from the same nusery, ready for collection.

Here's Futoshi Yoshioka of Asuka Zoen, with a collection of trees in one of their hatake (fields)

Plug: If you find all this stuff interesting, and haven't yet got my book, get it!

Most Japanese gardeners and nurserymen, and in fact most craftsmen and handymen, use these little 4x4 keion trucks
with 660cc engines. Perfect for navigating the narrow roads, and just big enough for a tripod ladder. Here in the UK you
can get the same thing, only 2 wheel drive and with a 1.3l engine, so far less handy. We use a massive Ford Ranger with
a ridiculous 2.5l engine, yet the flat bed on these keion is more spacious, lower, and actually flat (no wheel arches).
Looking into importing from Japan, it turns out we're not allowed trucks this small, because they don't conform to
UK or EU standards.
I was interested in the Daihatsu Jumbo: slightly strectched cab, 4x4, air con, choice of automatic, equivalent of £6000 in Japan.

Back from a long week at Hampton Court Palace flower show.

This garden, with Ilex crenata and box slabs, also had a Cardok underground hydraulic parking space, in the rectangle with the reflection. Underneath is a porsche.

photos taken on camera phone

Continuing the chaotic, random, un-seasonal themes, here is the Shokado garden in Yawata, near Kyoto. More famous for the Shokado bento (lunchbox) than its garden, it is a great place to visit, with a lovely tea garden, unusual Podocarpus nagi, and a good bamboo collection. This is the tea garden bit, with a fantastic pine trained along the path. November.

An extraordinary little garden in Hiraizumi, on the way to Chuson-ji. I was taking a picture from the outside,
when the owner saw me, and asked us in. It's a triangular garden, bordered by the house and small concrete
yard (to the right) and on the other two sides a screen of tall thin chabohiba (Chamaecyparis obtusa Nana).
Within the garden is a a low juniper (behind the bridge) and all sorts of other trees.

They were drying out their edamame (soyabeans) in the yard, grown in the hatake (field) opposite. This was November.

TRUNKS

Dai sugi, Kitayama sugi (Cryptomeria japonica var radicans)

Traditionally grown in the Kitayama area north of Kyoto for timber for the tokonoma in family homes.
The trunk is cut back to produce new shoots, rather like coppicing, only a few feet off the ground.
As these new shoots grow into trunks, their lower branches are removed, originally to keep the timber
smooth and knot-free, but now for aesthetics. As individual trunks become too tall, they are cut down,
and new ones allowed up in their place.


Dai mochi (Ilex integra)

Unlike the cryptomeria, this evergren holly uses grafting, not pruning, to accentuate the trunk.
Young, berry-bearing shoots are grafted into big old trunks, and then trained and pruned into shape.


Kusu (Cinnamomum camphora)

This camphor tree in Tokyo was cut down for development, but before the stump was removed,
it sprouted back into life, and has now been turned into a Shinto shrine.