Inner-city atrium with a wisteria at its Heart
You wake up in the morning and make your way downstairs to your oasis. Sitting down with your morning cuppa, a bird flies in to come for a splash in the granite water basin. The native moss is breathing. The strappy branches are painting the air with its leaves. After breakfast, you walk across the floating steps to your small private chapel & office. A gravel garden reveals herself. A wild wisteria tree snaking over a pool of water. The source of life. Come Spring, the Wisteria rains down. Come Summer, the green leaves are in abundance. Come Autumn, the maple begins to turn colour. Come Winter, the Magnolia produce balloons of gigantic wine-red flowers. The hustle and bustle of the city is just outside your door. But here, you might as well be hundreds of miles away.
Fumio: “This garden was made in 2014, and the project took 2 weeks to complete. This was also the first garden I let my son Shinya create from start to finish, providing guidance only when it counted. The client requested us to build a Japanese-inspired garden for his newly acquired home. When we arrived onsite, the renovation was already under way. The house was clean and sharp with lots of lines. The garden beds were pre-allocated and restricted on all four sides. We worked with principle architect Ron Danvers to make minor modifications to the hardscape. A balance had to be made and we knew that evoking a sense of the ‘wild’ was imperative for success in this situation. Like a dandelion growing through the crack in the asphalt, the trees needed to twist their way out of the ‘box’ and towards the light. The trees were going to play the leading role in this garden, so off we went on a wild plant hunt. Later on in 2017 we added a water feature, a modern rain chain imported from Japan and converted into a circulating water cascade. This garden is still in the developmental phase. Once the trees have really settled in, we will begin refining them to preserve a sense of ‘youth’ in the main garden, and elevate the sense of ‘ancient’ in the rear wisteria garden.
Sometimes all that is required is for light and life to come inside the house. Nothing imposing the viewer.
The multi-trunk magnolia (x soulangeana ‘Black Tulip’) was found tucked away at the back of the Advanced Boutique Nursery, neglected in a shady spot for over a decade. Luckily for us, this condition had given the tree the ‘wild’ characteristic we were looking for. As you get closer, the Japanese maple (acer palmatum) reveals itself.
Advanced trees in Australia are grown with straight trunks. Those which are crooked are unfortunately chopped down before they grows bigger. We will make up for the lack of character in this tree by performing an operation to encourage suckering branches. For the time being, we are letting the roots establish themselves for the next several years.
Life attracts life...
The trees are purposely planted to spill over the bed. This makes the tree more engaging.
These varieties of magnolia have beautiful big leaves which are sparsely scattered. This enhances the sense of lightness, while retaining the ‘green’ volume.
We requested the architect to change the steps from a solid path to floating steps with enough depth for groundcovers. The Fukuro-bachi (Owl water basin) with four owls carve on each corner is placed informally. The path leads to the private chapel, so it was placed for ritual purification. Native violet (viola hederacea) flows like a stream to suggest flowing water, mixed with other plants here and there.
Water brings life...
The steps lead up to the private chapel and office.
The wisteria comes into view. The composition is quiet.
This Japanese wisteria (wisteria floribunda macrobotrys) was sourced from wisteria specialist in NSW. With the right pruning techniques, the flowers will cascade down a meter in length. A steel ring was engineered and suspended with cables. Once established, the vine will look as if its floating in the air. The architect covered the wall with steel and we made additional sheet cut outs with a hidden light fitting to bring the silhouette of the moon into the garden.
A local moss rock with quartz imbedded was selected for the rugged ‘ancient’ feel. Several native species of ferns were sourced from a native fern specialist in Mount Lofty.
Crushed speckled blue granite was sourced from VIC. The water bowl was buried to represent a wild spring. The wisteria represents the rain. The two suggest a relationship between the heavens and the earth. A coralberry (ardisia crenata) is regarded in Japan as a symbol of good fortune. It is kept modestly small, but positively healthy.
BEFORE. This was our initial site inspection. The backyard is being converted into a sacred space.
AFTER. Though the garden area was significantly reduced, the garden is certainly not lacking life.
Initial impression drawings of the Wisteria garden by day
Impression drawings of the Wisteria garden by night.
