Hakone Garden

We visited the Hakone Japanese garden in Saratoga today, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco.

But first, I took a picture of the most massive Italian stone pine (Pinus pinea) I've ever seen across from the street from the Starbuck's there.



Hakone Garden dates back to 1918 when a pair of wealthy San Franciscans bought 18 acres of mixed oak-redwood forest on a logged out hillside. They hired Japanese architects and designers to build the garden; construction was completed by 1929. Ownership passed through different hands until 1966 when the city of Saratoga bought the property for $145,000. In 2000, the gardens were turned over to the private Hakone Foundation set up with seed money from the Packards. Admission is $5.







Lots of turtles and fish in the pond.





With all that algae, the water was probably getting slightly anaerobic. There was a lot of action by the waterfall.





















Some of the Japanese maples have massive trunks.







And this wisteria allee was quite something.











Lots of interesting conifer dwarfing going on.



Can you see the bamboo and twine trusses used to shape the plant?



I should like to try that myself one day.



Behind the garden, the landscape reverts back to California.

Thursday morning garden

It feels like Friday, doesn't it?

We're having a little heatwave. It was 85 deg F at 8:30 a.m. this morning. I got hot and sweaty just walking around taking pictures.



It was warm all night too. Hopefully that means some tomato flowers got pollinated, although I don't think we have very many flowers. (For tomato flowers to pollinate successfully, it needs to stay above 60 deg F all night.)



The cuke crop was much larger last summer when it was warmer. These plants appear stunted. (Potatoes coming up on the left.)



A cucumber to pick.



Not overwhelmed by the beans this year either, but the handfull I just picked & ate were sweet and crunchy.



When it became clear we were having a cold summer, I yanked the tomatoes I had in this half-barrel and sowed some super-short season squash seed instead. The tomatoes wouldn't have ripened before November cold, but maybe some squash will.



No grapes yet. Maybe next year? I hope so. The leaves are turning.





I really like the raspberry foliage too.



Fuchsia boliviana 'Alba' makes plump and tasty fruit, but I usually eat them before they reach maximum ripeness.



Nothing else in edible garden news worth discussing right now, and I only have a few new flowery things.

This arctotis is new. I don't remember the cultivar name.





The weedy Amaryllis belladonna is in full bloom, heralding the fall.



Likewise, this crazy zinnia.



And the Epilobium canum my friend Emma gave me.



Behind the scarlet and white fuchsia, this Ceanothus is finishing a summer bloom. For a little while there I had a red, white, and blue thing going on.



Annual tarweed, Madia elegans, is gorgeous in the sun and the fragrance of the foliage is amazing.



Even more amazingly fragrant is the Salvia clevelandii foliage. You should come over and smell it some time.



Yellow things:







Up on the deck, this Senecio Calandrinia is blooming.



I'm going to put it in the garden next year.