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Immerse Yourself!
by Mary Jasch
The John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden in Mill Neck impresses at first sight, the moment you step from your car. Flamboyant Petasites japonicus, Japanese butterbur, flanks the parking lot beneath a deep green, feathery forest of 40-foot tall Chinese bamboo -- a high maintenance forest, says Stephen Morrel, director of the garden.
English yew and American holly welcome the visitor through the first gate where you'll leave your worldly affairs behind and immerse yourself in nature. A soft path curves down through black walnut, maples, and other deciduous natives. Splashy evergreens line the path with handsome form and spiffy foliage and enfold you as you walk. This native woodland and natural topography is Morrel's pallet for a respectful blend with Japanese plants and the philosophic design of a stroll garden. “We left a largely native canopy. I feel character is within intimate spaces -- even here. I think that engages you more."¯ - Morrel
This four-acre garden was designed with meandering paths and lots of little nooks and private spaces, each one individual, yet connected. Each turn of the path brings a new, private vista that first touches the senses, then the spirit. The Garden is a union of the symbolic and tactile, and native and Japanese counterpart floras.
Spicebush, a scented treat is on the left, just before the bridge. Squash a leaf and enjoy its fragrance. The bridge leads to a small hillside covered with what grows here naturally. Leucothoe spills downhill above the rising path with small rhododendron on the right. Black locust water bars help pace the walker in order to take note of the garden's offerings. The slight uphill suggests embarking on a spiritual journey.
At a grand American beech, a stone bench awaits the visitor's pause. Ferns grow among its gnarly surface roots. Boulders are set in moss. “Moss is the linking plant in the horizontal plane," Morrel says. He planted eleven species. Attention to detail.
Pass under Japanese maples, whose leaves sprinkle through the understory of red oak and birch like stars. Morrel planted many including the vibrant red 'Osaka Suki,' an understory plant in Northeast Asia. He was hired to restore and rejuvenate the garden in 1982 (click here to read more of the story and the garden's future).
Small, tidy areas of stone set in moss are offset by perfect shrubs. Along the way, stones are placed to give visual direction, like cairns on a trail. The path expands and contracts to affect the stroller's movement through the garden. People tend to pause in wider areas, and move quickly through narrow ones, Morrel explains.
But whoa! What is this? Art or technology in a Japanese garden? CDs dangle from Cryptomeria, spinning light with the slightest breeze to scare moss-pecking birds away. Deep greens of box, yellow-green Cryptomeria, bright green Liriope -- a study of green serenity and texture.
Reach the top of the trail (symbolically a mountain peak) at the second gateway. The slight climb is a metaphor for transcending attachment to self; that is, seeing things clearly. “In order to realize freedom, you have to let go," says Morrel. “You can't be attached and always seeing things your way." The second gate also delineates the start of the older part of the garden where the path changes to crushed limestone with stepping stones.
Stepping Stones:
- first used by Tea Masters to help people get to the tea house without getting their clothing soiled.
- articulate movement of the path
- enhance the sense of the journey
- give visual direction
- slow down movement “A Zen sort of thing," says Morrel.
- large stones let people pause and look up
The stone sea spreads and flows downhill, washing against Japanese Stewartia and more shapes, colors and textures of green. Sparkling Japanese holly accompanies the stroller to a stone bench and concrete lantern. Here one can contemplate opposites of smooth-textured, solid-piecemeal, light-dark, hard-soft, perfect and not so. Ying-yang?
Downward, paired stepping stones stay to the outside of the curved, widening, boulder-lined path. A flat rock serves as woodland table to a small forest critter. To the left, a moss path leads past a mossy temple-like nook with carefully-placed boulders. Rocks, bejeweled with mica and blue lichen, glitter.
At a ferny fork, go left under an arching Fragrant Snowbell. The scent and sound of water filter through the pines. Soon, the best wisteria arbor this writer has ever seen appears in front of a grove of bamboo. The wisteria is well-behaved, trimmed like a marine's hairdo. Step out onto a river rock shore line and immediately feel the coolness of the falls and the pond. Cardinal flower, asters, wild impatiens bloom among the many native and Japanese wildflowers.
One suddenly comes upon a tea house, perhaps the perfect living space, devoid of clutter and distraction, yet filled with opportunity for contemplation, acceptance, encouragement and energy. Here, Morrel presides at tea ceremonies with occasional bamboo flute accompaniment. A water stone,“tsukubai," stands just inside the tea house's yard to demonstrate rinsing water for hands and mouth. This tea house was made in Japan and shipped here.
Across the gravel yard a wondrous display hut stands. Yoshii Takahaski, a volunteer for over a decade, comes almost every Friday to place flowers or bonsai there. Today, Ikebana arrangements are spare, yet somehow enough.
Despite the nearby sounds of fast society, life slows its pace in this garden. Here, the temperature is perfect. The senses are filled and tantalized -- a gift to the visitor beribboned by the scent of a Katsura tree. (Get one for your yard! They grow fast, have scented leaves and interesting surface roots.)
Look across to the pond. The waterfall was placed to be seen from here. Morrel planted Phyllostachys decora, beautiful bamboo, and P. aureosulcata, yellow groove bamboo, to give depth. Eastern painted turtles, kingfishers, great blue and small green herons, and white egrets visit the water and marsh.
On the way back, shrubesque Fargesia (get that one, too) and another small bamboo now make me want to rush home and figure out where they'll look best in my garden.
The Four Styles of Japanese Gardens
Hill & Pond - old style
Temple Garden - for viewing only
Tea Garden - path to tea house
Strolling Garden - combination, but mostly an expansion of tea garden
To become a member or get more info: The Garden Conservancy: Preservation Projects
Tours and volunteering: 516-676-4486
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published October 11, 2007
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