New Bonsai Garden Display Progression Thread

MACH5 said:

Fun and exciting Lars! Congrats on the new house and future bonsai garden. All the hard work will be well worth it as you'll be able to appreciate you trees even more so. I would try and go simple with some landscaping, rocks, water features, etc. to accentuate and add interest. Not a lot is needed. After all you want your trees to be the focal point. Definitely lay down weed fabric whether you go with all mulch or gravel or combo like I did. From experience the gravel is easier to keep in terms of weeds but requires clean up and once in a while a good raking to keep it looking its best. Try and design your garden as a whole with visual flow so that it leads the eye from one place to the next.

I regret not having a greenhouse. I used to have one 15 years ago in my old house when I wasn't pursuing bonsai all that seriously. It just figures that now I don't have one when I need it the most. But hopefully I will get one eventually.

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I am planning on a second parallel display row that will include some more interesting landscape features. I have access to a place that sells old reclaimed wood from tobacco barns as well as those very large wood beams they use for railroads.

For a Southern version of a water feature, I was thinking of using a half whiskey barrel with a plastic liner and then some carnivorous plants. I found a local plant nursery that propagates everything from seed.

Arcto said:

26’ x 10’.

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Good to know. With our milder climate, several of my trees really don't need extra protection but I might end up building a potting shed/greenhouse that shares a wall with the shed in the future.

Nice area to work with, i will 2nd the greenhouse idea. I wish i had your space to play with, mine is more like a bonsai corner
This year i will install new benches and few other things, will show photos once done(this might be end of summer )

Lars Grimm said:

I am planning on a second parallel display row that will include some more interesting landscape features. I have access to a place that sells old reclaimed wood from tobacco barns as well as those very large wood beams they use for railroads.

For a Southern version of a water feature, I was thinking of using a half whiskey barrel with a plastic liner and then some carnivorous plants. I found a local plant nursery that propagates everything from seed.

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Yes I like the whiskey barrel water feature idea. I like how they look in Bjorn's garden. My Yankee touch is a bench at the back of the garden where I used a bluestone slab that was a piece of sidewalk from NYC from the 1800's.

MACH5 said:

Yes I like the whiskey barrel water feature idea. I like how they look in Bjorn's garden. My Yankee touch is a bench at the back of the garden where I used a bluestone slab that was a piece of sidewalk from NYC from the 1800's.

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I do like that bench of yours. I have an old granite slab that I converted to a bench at my old house. It was an old street curb from my neighborhood from the early 1900s.

Well, this week was a staycation so I have been hard at work. After many iterations and recuts, I think I have settled on the following design. I used two 2x12 for the top level which is at 36" on the uphill side and then one 2x12 for the lower level which is about 8" lower. This gives some nice space for the bigger trees on the top level but I can still reach them. The lower level can be for shohin but also chuhin sized trees. I put four 2x4s on the bottom to store pots and add some stability since I didn't sink them in concrete. This setup is extremely heavy but very solid. I also left about 2 feet behind the back side in order to allow air flow and so I can easily get back there. I have problems in NC with fungus so wanted to do whatever I could to help prevent it in the future.

Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated. Now I just need to build two more...

All 3 benches are now complete. I still need to include some more decorative features and other more unique features on the near side of the pathway, but this will serve as my main functional display area. I also need to stain the fence and the benches, but that is for another day...

Looks great!

That looks great Lars!!

Looking good! You’ll quickly come to appreciate that fence behind the bench, good wind protection, and an instant photography backdrop!

Great job with the whole project!

Brian Van Fleet said:

Looking good! You’ll quickly come to appreciate that fence behind the bench, good wind protection, and an instant photography backdrop!

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I agree. I am still very much on the fence (pun intended) on what colors to stain the fence and bench. I was leaning towards a medium brown for the fence and then a dark brown for the benches. I know a darker color makes for a better photography backdrop, but I don't want the fence to be too dark. Any suggestions?

I like the natural look. Let it weather.

I agree with letting it weather. We stained our fence with a semi-transparent stain, mostly because it was already stained with a redwood color. I can’t remember what color my wife picked, but it’s close to the weathered wood look.

I just installed a cool garden feature. This is a Jack Daniel's half barrel with a plastic tub inside and some drainage holes. I filled the bottom half with rocks and then the top half with a mixture of peat moss, long fiber sphagnum moss, and play sand. I planted a couple different sized pitcher plants which are native to NC and can survive the winter without protection as well as some horsetails. I might see about adding some smaller ferns as well. I then covered with a layer of sphagnum, although this may be overkill. This is my Southern mosquito free version of a water feature =)

Lars Grimm said:

All 3 benches are now complete. I still need to include some more decorative features and other more unique features on the near side of the pathway, but this will serve as my main functional display area. I also need to stain the fence and the benches, but that is for another day...

View attachment 233634

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Really nice job on the benches and bluestone. That stuff is not light. I have a piece of old sidewalk bluestone that I would like to make a bench out of, but it will take 4 guys to lift it. You have a lot of room in the foreground for some more benches as Brian suggested. Make a nice border with some decorative bricks, mulch it in, and add some nice border plants. It might also be fun to set up a big water barrel for a Japanese-style hand watering system.

Lazylightningny said:

Really nice job on the benches and bluestone. That stuff is not light. I have a piece of old sidewalk bluestone that I would like to make a bench out of, but it will take 4 guys to lift it. You have a lot of room in the foreground for some more benches as Brian suggested. Make a nice border with some decorative bricks, mulch it in, and add some nice border plants. It might also be fun to set up a big water barrel for a Japanese-style hand watering system.

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I hear ya when it comes to the bluestone. I lifted and placed every stone by myself by hand. I have the sore back to attest to it.

I got the six monkey poles put up on the other side of the path. I used 4x6s for the posts and the tops are two 2x10s cut so that the tops are 15"x20". They each have 50lbs of concrete to hold them in place. They are at alternating heights of 24" and 32". These are purposefully low because I wanted them to be lower than the benches to accommodate looking at the bonsai display from across the backyard. The staggered heights also allow me to accommodate larger trees that I am allowing to grow out to thickening primary branches.

I am debating putting two more poles at the bottom of the path (you can see them laying on the ground in the photo). Overall I am pretty pleased with my setup. I have a lot more room and varying types of displays to accommodate bigger and smaller trees. My goal is to reduce the size of my collection both in terms of numbers in order to focus on better quality trees and size of individual trees as I eventually move things out of large grow boxes/Anderson flats and into pots.

I am currently struggling with how to provide protection for some of my trees in the NC summer. I previously used a shade cloth, but I would like a setup that looks more established and not temporary. I am considering building a pergola to cover part of the grow area. I'll follow up with a later post on a few ideas.

Looks great! Just a suggestion, but I personally think it looks really nice when there is some ground cover between the flagstone pavers:

I actually think the flagstones in this example are too spaced out. And the options for groundcover are expansive.

Anyway, just an idea!

Colorado said:

Looks great! Just a suggestion, but I personally think it looks really nice when there is some ground cover between the flagstone pavers:
View attachment 240655
I actually think the flagstones in this example are too spaced out. And the options for groundcover are expansive.

Anyway, just an idea!

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I have been trying to figure out the right spacing. I want it to be smooth enough that I can walk without worrying about tripping as I often go out there at night to work on trees in the shed. Right now the stones are a little uneven and I need to settle them better with some soil. Elsewhere I have put some fine dirt between the stones and transplanted moss to let it start growing. I may also make the sides a little bit more irregular in order to give a more natural feel. Right now they are pretty straight.