Yeah. Plain, Jane.

Above, the problem. Our house comes with this lovely, untouched, completely new yard.

Whaddya mean, new? You may ask.

Welll....it was a corner, right? And it had a sloping side yard instead of a back yard. Where there might have been a back yard there was, instead, a garage. So the previous owners built a retaining wall, fenced in the side yard, and created that wonder of green you see above.

BUT.

Charles observed today that the view from the kitchen window (or anywhere else back there) is kinda boring. The yard feels blank, and it would be nice to do something more appealing. So we're thinking Japanese, of course, since that's one of our favorite garden cultures. Something like this?

Karesansui garden at Tofuku-ji in Kyoto, thank you Wikipedia

What? Too serious? Not enough play space? How about this:

Above and below, examples from Bowdoin College's fantastic website on Japanese gardens. Both illustrate the use of trees in landscape.

As we walk around the neighborhood, we've observed a number of twisty, silver pine trees that would be a pleasure to look at and would retain their beauty in all the seasons. So now all we have to do is decide what we want. I'm for a quiet nook with a water feature, some seating, and a couple of these twisty trees for visual interest. Maybe one pine and an espaliered fruit tree. Charles is still thinking about it, but has a lot of ideas.

So stay tuned. Our blank, blindingly green side yard might just turn into something interesting one of these days. Not today, of course. Or tomorrow. But maybe next year. Or the one after that.