A Special Visit to a Very Special Garden

In a Japanese garden, every tree is perfectly pruned, without a leaf out of place. Nothing is planted without forethought as to the exact place appropriate to it.

 I want to share with you a little gift Debbie and I were given.  You see we work in a wonderful little restaurant in Kent, Washington.  We meet so many good people and some become such dear friends we look forward to every visit.
And this is no exception.  A dear couple had been coming into the restaurant for quite awhile and we had gotten to know them.  One of the gifts of being a regular is you get a whole set of friends.  We worry about them when we don't see them and cheer on the parts of their lives they share with us.

One day they slipped up and mentioned they had a garden that required lots of attention, being a wanna be gardener and always interested (nosy) I asked about it.  They told me a little bit about the plants and their Koi pond.  And the water wheel.  And away we went.  I told them Debbie and I would love to come and see their place and I would take pictures for them.

Well I took a bazillion pictures.  It took forever to edit them because they were so many great shots.
I am posting so many here because a garden like this just begs to be noticed.
Please enjoy them.

The wheel is so perfectly balanced that just a gentle push makes it turn.

Can you tell our friend is an engineer.... 

he built this himself it camouflages the garage at the

bottom of the garden. 

It is quite large and is a lovely spot to survey the beauty

all around.

 

 One of several pools for the showy Koi.  The cool thing is, the water feature is so large the fish can move about quite freely.

 There are two waterfalls- this one is under the bridge and is kind of like a
grotto.  It looks like it would be nice and cool for the fish on a really sunny day.

 This is the large waterfall, it draws you in and invites a walk across the bridge and a visit to the tea house.

 There are many different flowers featured our friend says she buys plants and he gets to plant them. 

Friendly daisies...

 Pink Lavender...and a bee.

 The rose garden -

 Isn't this a pretty colour?

The centerpiece of the rose garden.

 There are so many things to look at.

Love the simplicity of some of the plants

This green is so refreshing to the eye.

 Lavender

 More grass

Beautiful water lily.

Pictures of the lucky fish that get to live in this most beautiful garden:

 

Feeding the fish.

 Aren't the colors so amazingly beautiful?

 Do you love the whimsy?  

 I think this looks like Hotai  the God of Happiness

 The topiary is so large, their son keeps it trimmed for them.

Nice son I say.

 The stream feeds a pond on the other side of the garden. 

And there is an alligator in there.

 A better view of this amazing specimen.

 So peaceful.

 The view from the garden.  Yes that is Seattle and even the Space Needle

from this lovely garden in Kent.  Who knew?

 This is a picture of our dear friends.

No names please.

This is a private garden, and you have just received the

best gift ever.  An opportunity to visit this friendly retreat.

CHEERS TO HAPPY!!!