It’s not much of a garden, even by Japanese standards, but it’s what we’ve got and it’s there. It’s a patch of dirt which measures 22 feet by 6 feet along the south side of the house, and despite there being a house just inches beyond it, it still gets a respectable amount of sunlight–quite a bit in the summer, in fact. So we wanted to do something with it, make it much more presentable.

When we got the house, it was loose dirt, but after a few rains, became somewhat more caked, and moss and weeds started growing. It would likely soon become a wild mini-weed-field soon enough. Our plan was to add planters and stepping bricks, and then fill the rest with garden stones. The stones are often used in Japan as a security feature–someone prowling around outside will make themselves known by the crunching sounds.

In any case, after scouting a few materials, Sachi sketched out an idea and I took it to InDesign and made a basic layout:

We went to a “Home Center,” the type of store in japan that specializes in this kind of stuff (like a “Home Depot,” I suppose), and found the exact stuff we wanted. We got some Goldcrest conifer shrubs and flower bushes, some low, curved brick enclosures, bricks to use as stepping stones, and a truckload of 10kg bags of the landscaping stones. We needed at least 50 bags of the stones; they were a bit less than ¥300 each. The materials arrived in the middle of the week, and have been sitting there waiting for us since then.

We set aside Saturday to do the work, and fortunately, it was nice weather, if a bit hot. First, we placed the faux-brick enclosures. Since the ground had dried unevenly, I had to dig up the dirt (which smelled uncomfortably like fish parts) and level it out before we could place them.

Next, we placed the stepping bricks as we wanted them to be, but they also sat unevenly, so it was back to churning up and the flattening out the dirt beneath them as well.

Then we were ready to lay out the stones; Sachi opened the bags, and I took them in and spread them out over the area.

We had just about enough for the minimum, but could probably use more–maybe another 20 bags to make the stones deeper where we’d like, and a few more bags to fill in the narrow dirt area on the other side, at least near the front.

When we finished, it looked pretty nice.

Later, I got a view from overhead (after it started to rain and the stones took on more color), and stitched together a few photos to see how close we came to the plan I made at the beginning:

Eventually Sachi wants to get a wire arch for the entryway (at left in the above diagram/image) which will have rosebushes growing over it. Should look nice! Now all we have to do is keep the plants alive…