When I called my friend Robin Diamond a couple of weeks ago to arrange a time to visit the Japanese-style garden that she and her husband, Ted, have created at their house in Amherst, she suggested 4 o’clock. “There’s going to be a wedding at 5:30,” she explained.
I was taken aback. How could she be so matter-of-fact about giving a tour of the garden the same afternoon that she was hosting a wedding there?
When I arrived at their house Robin and Ted greeted me and took me into the garden. “What’s this about a wedding?” I asked tentatively.
Robin told me that as a Justice of the Peace she often performed weddings. “If it’s nice weather, we have the ceremony under the arbor,” she said, pointing to a lovely vine-covered arch that frames the view of the lower garden and tea house.
The idea for the garden started more than 30 years ago when Ted and Robin would visit Robin’s parents in Florida, near the Morikami Gardens in Delray Beach. They toured the gardens often and became interested in the design and cultivation of Japanese-style gardens. Seven years ago they went to Japan and visited many acclaimed gardens, including Adachi in western Japan, one of the country’s most spectacular gardens. Back home, they decided to create a garden along the same lines.
Then the Covid pandemic hit and suddenly they had more time on their hands and more reason to be outdoors. They hired Bjorn Muten and his partner George Louro of StoneScapes in Hadley to work on the first phase, the uppermost tier of the garden. This is what the Japanese call a “dry garden” consisting of stones carefully placed on raked gravel meant to invoke water. These stones represent a turtle, a crane and the Buddha with two disciples, representing the sea, the heavens, and earth, respectively.
Bill Rock, a local builder with a keen aesthetic sense, created a Japanese-style bamboo fence that gives a sense of shelter and privacy.
Ted is quick to say, “This isn’t a Japanese garden, it’s a Japanese-style garden. The only true Japanese gardens are in Japan.”
As Ted and Robin expanded the garden in phases, they incorporated stone, water, plants, structures and open space, elements of that are found in traditional Japanese gardens.
Beyond the water garden is a traditional Japanese-style “stroll garden,” featuring a winding path that begins as a spiraling serpent’s tail and ends at the tea house with the serpent’s head with two round eyes and a stone slab mouth. Next to the path a dry river bed of smooth gray Mexican river stone meanders into a moss garden that’s meant to represent hills and flowing streams.
Just beyond the arbor several steps lead into a separate garden space presided over by a stone Buddha. Beyond that a waterfall spills into a stone basin for ritual purification and cleansing of the hands, a common feature in Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. The water flows over the rim of the basin down a second waterfall into the Koi pond filled with goldfish and koi that is deep enough for the fish to live all year round. When the waterfall freezes in winter, said Ted, “It makes beautiful ice sculptures.” A tall aluminum great blue heron, the gift of a friend, watches over the pond.
The tea house, at the lowest level of the garden, is the ultimate focal point of the garden. It was designed and built by Bill Rock and completed last fall. The structure has a striking Japanese-inspired roofline, with a prominent copper gutter that runs across the front. The interior is simply but comfortably furnished; Robin and Ted use it for meditation, reading and other quiet pastimes.
From the tea house is a view of the five tiers of the garden. Behind the tea house are woods. Ted calls this “borrowed landscape,” a Japanese concept that refers to scenery beyond the garden that enhances its appearance.
The hardscape, all crafted by StoneScapes, is the framework of the garden, but equally important are the artful plantings that add texture, color and shape. Ted said that he and Robin chose plants they were confident would grow well there, such as rhododendrons and hemlocks since there were already mature rhododendrons and hemlock surrounding the property. There are several Andromeda, including one in the dry garden that is pruned in the traditional Japanese “cloud” formation with branching “clouds” of foliage emanating from a central trunk. In the Buddha garden, a cloud-pruned juniper bush is underplanted with European ginger, whose shiny green leaves make a pleasing contrast with the feathery blue-gray juniper foliage. Japanese maples appear throughout.
Painted ferns have happily filled in spaces throughout the garden. “We planted six at first,” said Robin, “Now there are sixty! We give lots of them away.”
A special feature of the garden are the many varieties of moss that Ted and Robin have collected from lots of different places.
“Bare space is important,” said Ted, “it’s an element of the garden, it gives a feeling of calm. I don’t want too many plants, or to use too many different kinds of plants. I like repetition.” He said he’s trying to resist adding too much decoration but he has strategically placed a gong, lanterns and statues throughout the garden. He is learning the art of bonsai and plans to have a couple of bonsai trees outside the tea house.
“Maintaining a state of naturalized perfection is hard,” said Ted. “It’s nature perfected but it still looks natural. You have to adapt to what grows naturally.” Weeding is a constant occupation. “You need to catch the weeds,” he said, “you can’t afford sloppiness.” Extracting weeds from patches of moss is tricky. “You need to hold the moss in place with one hand while you weed with the other,” he said. “It takes a lot of attention.”
Ted calls the garden Komorebi, meaning “light through the trees,” a reference to the morning light that shines through the trees bathing the stones in dappled sun and shade. It’s a fitting name for this piece of subtly curated nature.
As I left the garden, the couple to be married arrived. I congratulated them and told them they’d chosen the perfect place for their wedding.
Mickey Rathbun is an Amherst-based writer. Her latest book, “The Real Gatsby: George Gordon Moore, A Granddaughter’s Memoir,” was published in 2024 by White River Press.
