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| JAPANESE GARDEN ENTRANCE GATE |
On a beautiful spring day in Fort Worth, the members and a few friends of the Westmont Garden Club enjoyed a tour of the Japanese Garden.
The tour was lead by docents Linda and Marty Winn. And just to enhance the experience of touring the gardens, they each wore a beautiful silk kimono jacket that Linda had made for them The jacket material had pink cherry blossoms in the design. Also Marty was carrying a walking stick made from a piece of bamboo that he found on the property.
The Fort Worth Japanese Garden was built in 1973 as part of the larger property of the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens. The Japanese Garden consists of 7.5 acres and was opened in 1975.
The original property was at one time a gravel pit and the gravel from the pit was used to pave the roads of the city of Fort Worth. During WW I, Camp Bowie, a military installation, was one of the training centers for horses and mules sent overseas to war. The camp soon became swamped with "poop" and needed somewhere else to dump it. The city invited the military staff to dump all the excess manure in the old gravel pit where it sat for a number of years nourishing the land.
Scott Fikes, Botanical Garden Director, had the idea to create a Japanese Garden in the fallow land and was finally able to secure the property for the garden. The garden was established by local funds and garden clubs from Texas and Oklahoma, who generously provided extra plants for it. This is truly a garden built by gardeners for us all to enjoy.
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| Top Picture Bridge and Buddhist Pagoda 2nd Picture Stepping Stones and Moon Bridge |
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| Top Picture Home to over 250 varieties of plants 2nd Picture Zig-Zag Bridge |
Marty and Linda shared the 5 elements that make up any Japanese Garden:
EARTH
FIRE
STONE
WOOD
WATER
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| Top Picture Bridge over one of the Ponds 2nd Picture Entrance Gate |
Marty also shared the story about how Koi became so loved in Japan. Koi are not native to Japan but are actually from Iran. The story is that the royal family in Iran presented some Koi to the royal family in Japan who then began to breed them. Now you know this factoid so when the answer comes up on Jeopardy,you will know the question to ask!
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| Top Picture Koi in one of the Ponds 2nd Picture Autumn in the Garden |
The day we were there on our tour, the cherry trees were in fill bloom and very beautiful The blossoms we saw were white with a tiny pink center.
The paths are easy to walk on or to push a wheelchair or stroller. Kids of all ages will love to feed the Koi. Turtles and ducks also live in and around the ponds.
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| MAP OF JAPANESE GARDEN |
This garden is a Fort Worth treasure. Go see it if you have not or go see it again if you have. As the seasons change so does the garden.
Fort Worth Botanic Garden
Fort Worth Japanese Garden
Facebook - Japanese Gardens
Facebook Japanese Garden - Raking Mediation Garden
1 comment:
Good post. The gardens were indeed lovely.
Ann
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