A Garden For All Seasons
Peter Kendall
Portland, Oregon
Over almost 30 years, a garden employing three common elements, combined with the utmost restraint and simplicity, has evolved into a place of uncommon attraction. With judicious use, first of stone (to lend strength and stability), then water (to impart movement or stillness) and finally plant material (to offer the form and texture of a living substance), a garden of international acclaim has arisen in the city of Portland, Oregon.
That place that so exquisitely integrates the three elements alluded to above is the Japanese Garden of Oregon, located in Washington Park above the city of Portland.* Based upon philosophical and religious underpinnings drawn from Shintoism (native to Japan), Buddhism and Taoism, a visitor to this remarkable setting is induced to escape the turbulence and chaos of the outside world. He or she is immersed in a milieu of tranquility and persuaded to see in every object of nature the universal principle of the unity of all things. Everything is at once evolving into something from nothingness, dissolving into nothingness again, and re-evolving once more. The only differences are surface manifestations; beneath, all is the same.
With five gardens in one (Flat Garden, Strolling Pond Garden, Tea Garden, Natural Garden and Sand and Stone Garden), each garden, though different, aims at the same central theme from season to season.
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Spring
Lower Strolling Pond Garden and the Heavenly Falls. |
Spring
Tree peony in late spring |
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Summer
Stream connecting the Upper and Lower Strolling Pond Garden. |
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Photos and Poems
by Peter Kendall |
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Just in time
The peony unfolds on Boy's Day. |
Such color
in the Japanese maples! ...and tomorrow? |
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Late summer
Bubbles swirl beneath the falls Sun on the riffle. |
Falling snow
Drooping closer to earth the drooping fir. |
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Fall
Strolling Pond Garden with Moon Bridge in background. |
Fall
Tea Garden with Rhododendron yakushimanum above pool in stone. |
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Winter
Weeping willow and Moon Bridge in Upper Strolling Pond Garden. |
* The Japanese Garden of Oregon was featured in the 1995 ARS Annual Convention tour of gardens.
Peter Kendall, a member of the Portland Chapter, authored the article "The Jane Kerr Platt Garden, Portland" in the fall 1994 issue and several poems published in the Journal.