How the garden was made.

Residential neighborhood with a modern two-story house, trees, parked cars, and a cloudy sky.
A rural scenery featuring blooming cherry blossom trees, small houses, a mountain range with snow-capped peaks, and a clear blue sky.

After the initial excavation

初期の発掘調査の後

Our new house was overrun with weeds and scattered rocks, so I decided to rent a small digger and clear the lot myself.

新しい家の敷地は雑草が生い茂り、石が転がっていたので、小型のショベルカーを借りて、自分で整地することにしました。

Construction site with a pile of sand, a wheelbarrow, some disturbed soil, a tree, and a sidewalk with residential houses in the background.
A construction site with uneven dirt and rocks, and a small blue and yellow excavator parked on the right. In the background, there are residential houses, trees, a concrete block wall, and power lines.

After that I added about 24 cubic tons of river sand to level and enrich the soil. To smooth the sand and compact it further, I rigged a basic sled to the back of my wife’s car and dragged it across the garden, evening out the surface. Winter arrived soon after, so we had to wait to sow our new Zoysia grass seeds. We had roughly four kilograms of seed — a modest amount for a garden our size — but Zoysia seed is very expensive, so we had to be patient and let it spread slowly over the coming years. Fast forward three years, and it has grown into a thick, lush lawn that completely transformed our outdoor space into something beautiful and inviting.

その後、土壌を平らにし、肥沃にするために、約24立方トンの川砂を投入しました。砂を平らにし、さらに固めるために、妻の車の後ろに簡易的なそりを取り付けて庭を横切り、表面を均しました。その直後に冬が訪れたため、新しいコウライシバの種をまくのはしばらく待たなければなりませんでした。手元にあった種はおよそ4キログラム——私たちの庭の広さからすれば控えめな量ですが——コウライシバの種は非常に高価なため、辛抱強く待ち、今後数年にわたってゆっくりと広げていくことにしました。それから3年が経ち、今では厚く青々とした芝生へと成長し、私たちの屋外スペースを美しく魅力的な空間へと完全に変えてくれました。

After the initial excavation I built a simple contraption to sift through the stones and dirt and separate them into neat piles; amazingly, we ended up with more than 23 tons of rock and stone in the garden. It took roughly two months of solid, backbreaking work to sift the entire area, but in the end we had removed all the rocks and stones, which gave a fantastic sense of accomplishment.

最初の掘削作業の後、石や土をふるいにかけてきれいに分別するための簡単な装置を作りました。驚くべきことに、庭からは23トン以上の岩や石が出てきました。敷地全体をふるいにかけるには、約2ヶ月間の骨の折れる重労働が必要でしたが、最終的にはすべての岩や石を取り除くことができ、素晴らしい達成感を得ることができました。

A construction site with dug-up soil in the foreground, a wheelbarrow, and construction tools. In the background, there are houses, trees, and mountains.
A construction area with freshly poured wet concrete in the foreground, and residential houses and trees in the background.
A small wheelbarrow filled with gardening tools, next to a pile of dirt in a yard with trees and houses.
Close-up of a gravel surface with small green plants sprouting among the stones. Buildings and trees are visible in the blurred background.
Springtime rural scene with a large cherry blossom tree in full bloom, surrounded by green grass, several houses, and power lines under a pale blue sky.
A suburban scene with a modern two-story house on the left, featuring a brown and beige exterior, a car parked in front, and an air conditioning unit attached to the wall. The yard has a well-maintained green lawn and a large leafy tree on the right. In the background, there are other houses, trees, and hills under a partly cloudy sky.
A large cherry blossom tree with pink and white flowers in full bloom on a sunny day in a rural setting, with a small house, a road, and mountains in the background.
A backyard with a well-maintained grassy lawn, a tall tree, some smaller trees, a concrete block wall, and mountains in the background under a cloudy sky.