Water Gardens Delight

Over fifty visitors, friends and neighbors visited the ten water gardens on
the neighborhood tour Saturday, September 16. The event was a benefit to
raise funds to reprint Diane Wray's design and history book. Mary Mackey
and KiKi Cannon planned and organized the tour and are to be complimented on
its success.

Likewise, the homeowners who cleaned and prepared their lovely pools and
waterfalls are to be complimented and thanked. Their gardens were truly
beautiful. In all locations, maintenance and regular care is being done by
the owner, a big job.

Visitors began and ended the tour at Landon Jones on Bates Avenue. One
walks through his home to enter a deck along the back which opens up to a
large pool and the rock and ivy water feature. Flower beds and an expanse
of lawn create an inviting scene. At the end of the tour visitors returned
to the Jones' garden to enjoy a tea party with coffee and tea, muffins and
scones and other goodies. The beautiful afternoon added to the pleasure of
neighbors and friends together.

This article will describe and picture gardens on the tour route. Four of
the gardens were designed and built by SKY Landscaping, a Japanese garden
firm. Stanley Yoshimura and his son, Mich, of SKY are responsible for the
Hudgins, Pool and Abbott/Forster gardens done in the early 1960's. Mich
built the Reisch waterfall in 1988. Two of Yoshimura's daughters, Youko
Yamasake and Mabel Googins, attended the tour to the delight of the
Yoshimura garden owners. The daughters were pleased to see their father's
work.

Jimmy Weeks, a relative newcomer on Lafayette Drive, allowed visitors to see
his pool under construction. In the process of being designed and built by
Jimmy himself, the water feature has a pond and a stacked stone wall with a
gravel deck at this point.

At the top of Lafayette Drive a rock waterfall with a small pool designed by
Stanley Yoshimura is in front of the house. An austere Japanese garden of
rocks, evergreens and gravel on the other side of the driveway from the
waterfall compliments Ed Hawkin's first home. Janet and David Hudgins are
the owners today. They have a yard filled with character pines in the back.
(Picture, page 1)

Next door to the Hudgins, Darise and Tom Henritze are still working on a
total redesign of their home and garden. The garden is stark, contemporary
modern with a concrete deck, planters and walls, a long rectangular
reflecting pool and a brick waterfall. Beds of various grasses dominate and
are repeated in the front yard. The back of the house is totally glass which
brings the outside garden in and the inside out to the garden.

A third home visited along the top of the hill is Hawkin's final home, the
long-time residence of Gayle and Don Reisch. Complimenting the Japanese
design of the house is a water feature built by Mich Yoshimura in 1988.
This waterfall fits beautifully in the garden Hawkins designed in1955, and
since since sensitively modified by Don, with concrete and gravel ground and
each plant a separate element. The Reisches have many Japanese artifacts --
lanterns, Buddhas, and a gorgeous gate.

Across the street on the corner is another garden built by Stanley
Yoshirmura which features a large pool with a bridge, a tea house, a stream
and a waterfall. In the Japanese tradition, the garden is dominated by large
rocks. Junipers, bamboo, Japanese maple are trimmed as individuals in the
gravel base. Owner Debby Pool runs the waterfall year round.

A walk down the block on Cornell Avenue leads visitors to Pat and Ken
Fisher's garden which features two rock waterfalls and pools at opposite
corners of he garden. Nancy Eastman of On the Prairie designed and built
the features in 1999. The view from the broad deck along the back of the
home flows to the two waterfalls and integrates the design.

The Ragatzes a few doors south on Cornell Circle have a waterfall in front
of their home designed and built by Mike Wehling in 1992. The waterfall
features a bonsai over 100 years old. John prizes bonsai and has two others
in the garden, one over 250 years old, collected in 1988, and the other 200
years old, collected in 1995.

A few yards to the south on Cornell Circle is the new water garden Beth and
Jim Koustas have designed with the help of Dave Johnson, landscape
architect, and Tom Zingaro of Blue Lotus Designs. The austere rocks
arranged in a circular pattern are authentic Japanese design and include a
rock with water running over it. The circle is repeated in the Colorado
stone deck which is accented by a bright orange sail roof.

On Cornell Place Rick Abbott and Angela Forster, two years ago, began the
restoration of their garden with two water elements built by Yoshimura.
Angela and Hylam Shimoda did amazing trimming to discover the original
features of the garden -- shrubs had been shaped to be individual throughout
the yard. Vital parts of the garden design are a waterfall and pond on the
east and a water feature outside the master bedroom -- truly an original
garden restored.