Garden Variety Warning

Daley Ranch Rock. (Tomasito photo)

There is a beautiful book in our public library which I have read recently: "Japanese Gardens" by Gunter Nitschke.

The book has excellent photos of some of Japan's finest gardens and interesting commentary regarding the historical development of those very typical Japanese art forms.

I was kind of surprised to see that the gardens of our present era have dropped the living component completely--no more plants or trees or even raked sand--the modern "Japanese Garden" is a construction of concrete, steel, plastic and other man-made products.

But in summary Mr Nitschke says: " With our present knowledge of the catastrophic environmental disasters ahead it is tempting to speculate upon the possible shape of a future garden prototype..." (My italics.) And he suggests some sort of jungle environment might be suitable.

He also suggests that without some profound change in consciousness there will be no future Japanese Gardens and he recommends meditation as the only possible way to avoid annihilation.

A pretty scary note from a Japanese garden specialist!

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