The Wisconsin Gardener

cc We are at Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Illinois one of the most outstanding Japanese gardens in North America. I am with the curator, Tim Gruner. Tim, when I walk through this beautiful space I find it hard to believe this started out as a private garden. It did. As a matter of fact, it was inspired by the feeling that Mr. Anderson had in other Japanese gardens in particular, triggered by a trip to Japan and the Portland Japanese Garden. Boy, this inspired him. Oh, definitely, you know. It was the kind of thing where it felt so good that sense of tranquility and peace he wanted to bring it home to his own property. That was kind of like where the idea was spawned to build this garden. And it kind of grew. It grew wildly, yeah. In 1998, the garden became a public entity a not-for-profit. We've been moving forward ever since. You're open until about the end of October. Yeah, we're open through October to catch the beautiful fall colors. And the beautiful bark, too. It's open to the public, anybody can come? How many acres? Twelve acres. Wow, so it really grew. It's big. It's so incredible and it's such a unique style. I guess my first question has to be what constitutes a Japanese garden? That's a good question. Japanese gardens are not just Japanese plants. Really, a Japanese garden is a collection of patterns and rhythms of nature that inspire the garden's design. Then, with that, with nature, then integrated with humanity because humanity and nature were considered part of the whole, part of one thing. So we have the geometry of the architecture integrated with very natural spaces. The hardness of something like this gorgeous gate and then the softness of the plants and how they contrast and flow together. That's right. It's like a two-way fusion, a two-way osmosis. They kind of flow past each other and into each other. Looking at all of the examples of hard and soft is kind of what we're talking about. Exactly. We can also look at the pruning styles, too, I assume. Because even though this looks like it's very natural and very wild I can tell that that's been pruned quite deliberately. Yeah, it's been pruned a lot over the last 25 years. The idea is to create, kind of the emotional response that you might have to a grand tree in nature in this small space, kind of like the bonsai. But very much controlled and very much manipulated with the idea that it feels natural. Okay, and it's a very formal style. This is more formal in style. So you've got many different places on the 12 acres that we can look at. But you've got another spot that's more rustic where the pruning is completely different, too. That's true. Let's go look at that. Tim, before you say anything, I've been here before. This tea house is one of my favorite spots. Yeah, mine too. This kind of a space is different than a lot of other spaces in the garden in that it's very much less formal. This is a tea house. A tea house is an example of a rustic retreat far off in the mountains. Even though it really isn't far off. It really isn't, but the idea is that the guest would take this journey along the stream, across the river climb up into the mountain past the mountain meadow where there would be this rustic retreat where a tea host would create a very special environment to celebrate a moment of time together over a bowl of tea. It's an illusion created by the plants by the water, by the rocks. I assume in Japanese culture you don't really have to be far away to have this illusion. No, in fact, really, most spaces like this were near or in the middle of a big city. Wow, well you've captured it here. You've also captured one of my favorite new, little vignettes. Behind you the moss garden with the shooting stars and the trillium looks like it's a spot that's been untouched by humans for thousands of years. Yeah, I really love that space, too. The moss is just so vibrant this time of the year. So green. It's wonderful, it has great energy. With those little scattering of ephemeral spring flowers over there, it really has a nice a real nice sense about it. We're talking about, you know, the tea house and how beautiful this is. Tea houses and the whole tea ceremony are also a very important part not just in Japanese gardens, but in the culture itself. That's right. Tea became elemental to training people on how to be good people. Oh, really? In fact in warriors, it was very much a part of the samurai class, the study of tea. So, through tea was found discipline and all sorts of lessons in life. But, at it's core, tea is about a host and his or her guests sharing a moment of time. This beautiful time that we have together. Sharing that moment of time and bringing the best of who they are, both host and guest bringing the best of who they are into the moment. Wow, what a beautiful philosophy. I had no idea. You have another beautiful spot that's a must see for people who come to visit Anderson Gardens. There really are so many places to see. Well, yeah. As far as just a great example of seeing a really nice integration of architecture and the garden the guest house, with it's raked gravel is a fantastic place to see that two-way osmosis between nature and architecture. Again, that concept of soft and hard the whole philosophy of Japanese gardens. That's right, and that human beings and nature were part of the same thing. Well, lots of places and reasons to visit Thank you so much for sharing. I was very happy to.