Second step of the Terrace Project, setting up a small japanese garden...

Since I only had a few square meters, I chose a tsuboniwa-style garden ("courtyard garden") was necessary. These are very small gardens, integrated into closed spaces insides habitations and temples, using the same constitutive elements as their big-brothers : the chaniwa ("tea garden") and the karesensui ("dry garden", usually named "Zen garden" in occident).
This one will be kind of a reduced version of a "tea garden". These gardens are leading to the little house where takes place the ceremony of... tea, you guessed it right.

Here we go! First step, cutting off the concrete tiles to get a nice round shape. It's easier than it looks actually, using an angle grinder with a segmented diamond disc. You just want to go slowly, tracing the cut line on both sides of the tile, then cutting half-way through only (don't try cutting all the way through, you'd block the disc). Then I put the two big trees that will structure the whole set.

The chaniwa gives me the opportunity to integrate Japanese mapple trees, a tree that I really like a lot, which leaves turn bright red at the autumn.
The taller one is anAcer Palmatum Matsumurae while the smaller one is an Acer Palmatum Dissectum (one can recognize it thanks to its dissected leaves). Mapple trees do not like the clay-ish soil of my garden, therefore I gave them a mix of peaty soil, leaf mould and sand, which they seem to appreciate.

Thanks, by the way, to "Blue Toad", my '88 mk.II Rabbit, that has transported absolutely everything possible those past few years... Next, putting in place the tank for the closed-circuit fountain. It's a tsukubai ; traditionally, the stone basin (chozubachi) is here to allow one to perform his ablutions right before arriving to the tea house. And since the basin is low, it makes everyone, whatever their social rank, putting a knee to the ground, though prompting to humility. Well, in my case, I only wanted to hear the water flowing noise!
In the other hand, I did not want the shishi-odoshi made famous by the movie Kill Bill (remember, the fight between Lucy Liù and Uma Thurman in a Japanese garden : that was the bamboo fountain making a regular tocking noise) : too noisy, I only want a tiny whisper of water flow, not giving my neighbors a reason to call the cops... Traditionally, it was supposed to scare away the deers, but well, they are pretty seldom in my neighborhood these days. For the tank, I used a plastic storage box. Plus, its hadles holes are nice overflow security : in case of rain, the tank won't be overflowed, the water will get out through those holes. The tank is surrounded with stones, gravels and sand, to drain the water away. Beware of the spiky stones anyway, I've broken the bottom of two boxes before I actually could put it in place correctly!
A small aquarium pump pushed the water into the bamboo spout, it flows into the sink, overflows into the tank below... Circuit closed.

Next on the list are the plants.

On the ground, some Helexine (creeping plant originating from Corsica, with very small leaves, looks like moss), some Adiantum Fragrans around the tsukubai, and a fern behind the three stones.

These three stones are yet another traditional element of a japanese garden, named sanzoniwagumi, "Buddhist triad stone ", the biggest one representing Buddha.

The naked soil is first covered with geotextile fabric, to avoid unwanted wild grass to grow.

Above, a layer of Carrare white marble pebbles : a bit too shiny at the beginning, but it tend to take a nice patina through time.

At the foot of the maple trees, and of the basin, black slate flakes bring in some contrast. Here is the result in August, i.e. two month after the original setup : all the plants look fine, the Adiantum Fragrans have exploded,the helexine is creeping away covering everything (I'll have to keep an eye on it), the granite basin got some patina.
The lantern is a ceramic model bought in a garden centre ; it's not the cutest ever, but it will do fine until I find a nicer one (not easy in such a small size)...
Same thing for the basin : I originally wanted something more natural (evoking Noguchi's fountain at the NYC Metropolitan museum), that one will stay here until I find the perfect one. Even I'm more than satisfied with the result, it's not really a "Japanese" garden, but more a "Japanese-inspired" one. I've tried as hard as possible to follow the rules and codes of a traditional Japanese garden (whereas adapting it with the local plants and available space), but I'm very far from the look and feel of the masters in that art!
Anyway, I won't stay at that point, a "cloud-shaped" boxtree will come later behind the angle of the building, the whole set up will be harmonized, the rest of the garden will be landscaped as well... To be continued, so.

I've read a lot on the subject before I actually stepped in, studying the different options... If you're interested, I highly recommend the following web sites (all in French, sorry guys, just watch the pictures!) :

• Fuji-Jardins, made by a true enthusiast, it's complete, detailled, pleasant to read, and, last but tnot least, graphically superb.
• Erik Borja's garden is one of the references in this domain, and his website is brilliant.
• Fullhouse-Niwa, a blog following the creation of a Japanese garden, from its "soul-less square of soil" to the final small piece of Japan.

That's all folks... I'm off, I'm going back to my terrace for some meditation.

Here we go, May 2009, building the wooden fence...
I've used 180x180cm panels made of autoclaved pine, found at the DIY superstore ; these are thick, with a solid a assembly and stainless screws, while the el cheapo models wouldn't resist more than a week...

The first (and so tedious!) step is to brush two layers of wood surface coating (both sides). Autoclaved or not, pine wood outside wouldn't make it through winter without it (even I live in sunny French Riviera). I'm using V33 coating, said to be guaranteed 8 years. That's free advertising, I'm happy with it for now, we'll see later how it turns out. The panels are fixed with four 70 x 70mm posts , made of pine wood as well, surface coated the same way as the panels.
As a small 50cm wall was there, I fixed my posts on it, using four 120mm long bolts ; the leftmost and rightmost posts have an additional long bolt at their top, to fix them on their side wall. Sometimes the are some strong winds at my place, I wanted to be sure nothing would move... And, well, I believe this could take an earthquake.

I only have one single picture of the assembly process : bottom left, you can see the column drill I use to drill down really square into the posts ; in the corner, you can see the bottom of one of the posts, drilled, with its four long bolts in place.

The long bolts heads are not directly in contact with the wood, but with a large washer, unless the pressure would make the head go through the soft wood. The bolt head, and its washer, are in a small 5mm deep hole, made with a 35mm drill... Aesthetic detail!

Here we are! It took me way longer than expected, but I really wanted to make sure it would last long. And some details take a looooong time to achieve, like the modification of the left panel : narrowing and notching to deal with the step... Phewww... Done. Next!

I'm lucky enough, since I moved in (in December 2007), to have a nice terrace, and even a small garden.
But everything here has to be done, nothing has been set up yet.

So, this will be a new topic on ShamWerks : setting up my terrace, this is the "Terrasse Project". (you understood that "terrasse" is the French wording...)
I hope this will give some of you ideas and/or some help.

Inventory :

So, in the beginning, I have a 30m² terrace (4.7m wide per 6.3m long), covered with unskillfully installed concrete tiles (over a sand bed), with a separation from my neighbors' garden made of plastic-reeds-and-wire-mesh-that-fly-away-as-soon-as-there's-some-wind (lovely stuff)...

We get to the terrace via a 5m² loggia, i.e. not enough to make anything of it, specially with its ugly orange shaded tiling...

To plan things, I use Sketchup (as usual - I'm getting good at that soft!), transferring all the measurements, to get an accurate virtual representation of my terrace : To sum it up : nice place, lots of potential, but nothing sexy either.

The Project :

After putting my brain upside-down for quite a while, trying to put up a project that would be coherent, comfy and trendy, but not cold-designed, easy to maintain, and that would blend nicely with the 30's house facade... I ended up with that :

Compare the pictures with the ones on row above for the "before/after" effect.

This involves several sub-projects, that I will write about in detail in as many dedicated articles :

• A wooden fence (to replace the plastic reeds/wire mesh thingy) [edit 20091110 : article is online!]
• A Japanese garden, "tea garden" type (tsuboniwa chaniwa) [edit 20091117 : article is online!]
• A Japanese garden, "dry garden" type (tsuboniwa karesensui). [edit 20101104 : article is online!]
• Two bamboo planters behind the sofa. [edit 20091130 : article is online!]
• A wooden deck in the loggia. [edit 20100509 : article is online!]
• A wooden deck under the sofa, 3m x 3m. [edit 20100624 : article is online!]
• A boardwalk, used as a step to connect the 2 decks. [edit 20100630 : article is online!]

So... Some work to be done, uh?... To be continued!

The little Charlotte was about to turn 5 years old, and her mother, a friend o'mine, had found that old tricycle (70's?) in a trash bin... So I ended up with a week-end project I enjoyed a lot!

Mission : turn an old rusty toy into a fancy birthday gift! I first dismantled it entirely (well, almost, the saddle and handle bar were stuck by the rust, I couldn't remove'em without bending the whole frame). Then, I removed all the rust and paint with a metallic brush on my electric drill, which was statically fixed on a workbench, with a foot switch for ease of use. Only 30 minutes to get it done! Anti-rust primer spray, two layers... Sprayed right after the brushing, unless your bare metal starts rusting again! > No pictures of the actual paint job (spray as well, 2 layers of red, 2 layers of white) cuz the weather was changing and I really wanted to finish before the storm arrived... Therefore I totally forgot to take any further pics!
The color scheme is obviously the same as the famous Radio-Flyers... I could have made it more "girly", but the Mom could not stand any additional pink!

Then final finishing :

• cleansing of the chain and put it back with new grease,
• polishing of the wheels,
• special product on the tires to get them shiny black again,
• covering the saddle with white leather (using spray glue : the result is great!)
• fixing a little vintage headlight, and a vintage-looking horn (the horn was a mandatory part of the original requirements from the mother!)
• cleansing of the handles,
• small pinstripe on the chain carter and front of the frame (not that, t'was my first time!)

Here we are! Perfect gift for a little monster to break the speed limits in the streets of her village! By the way, it was as well the occasion to make a funny picture... Same kid, same tools... Almost the same tricycle. Holy shit, 30 years. Kind of creepy, hum?
"Some things change... Others do not."


edit February 2019 : This article is bitter-weet to me today, almost 10 years after I wrote it. A few days ago, Anna, who had asked me to restore this tricycle for her daughter Charlotte, took her own life. We were not in touch regularly anymore (life, years, tend to do that), but her smile, her laugh, will for ever stay with me. Her two teen daughters will now have to grow up without a mother... I remember them discovering this tricycle and pedaling like crazy accross the place in Valbonne, scaring people around by honking the horn...
I am so sorry you made that choice Anna. I truly hope you don't suffer anymore today, wherever you are.