Decade of Love: I love my bush!

The agency I work for happens to have the Denver Botanic Gardens as a client. This year VGIC offered to have some of our employees volunteer.

I quickly jumped on board, cause man do I LOVE dirt!

Our group had one last opening, so I invited Maura as my guest!

I think the last time I visited this magical place I was in elementary school.

When we walked in I was immediately speechless.

Our instructor for the day was Ebi Kondo. He is the curator for the Japanese gardens. Before we went into the gardens, Ebi took some time talking to us about what we would be doing.

Our destination: The Japanese gardens, its official name is "Shofu-en". Translated it means "Pine Wind Garden." The name was inspired by the Rocky Mountains and the ponderosa pine.

Task #1: Divide into groups. Pull weeds, rake the path & be a threat to wild mushrooms. But they are so darn cute! Do I really have to kill them?!?

While pulling weeds I happened upon the TINIEST cutest, most bestest frog ever!

I love me some frogs, they are totally my spirit animal!

This guy was about the size of a quarter. I named him "Buzz"

We took a small break in one of the newly constructed pagodas. Ebi told us that the wood was oak from a tree in Oregon. It had been struck by lightening and was just going to be tossed aside. The botanic gardens bought it with the hope they could still use the wood. When they cut it open, it was perfect. With his thick Japanese accent he said "This tree has been given a second life." I like that!

He then started instructing us for our next task.

Task #2: Trim the bush.

I wish I got a before photo of our juniper bush.

One of the handouts Ebi gave us says "Amateurs let the shrub grow into a muffin", after that Maura and I couldn't stop making jokes. We also made friends with the elderly volunteers. I love old people!

Carol

Tina

Cindy

Gail

and Sam!!! I love Sam, she's friggin' super rad!

The Japanese pruning technique is called "Tamamono"

In English this means "dome shape".

It's supposed to resemble low dome shaped rocks.

End result... I love my bush!

Maura is a bush hugger!

When we where finished pruning, Ebi and Larry then showed us how they take care of the ponderosa pine's. He said that it took the volunteer group 3 months to get the "a" rated trees into the right shape.

Holy crap!? 3 months! That's crazy!

After that they cut us loose in the gardens.