[ Japanese Gardening Classes ]

The Japanese Gardening Class Series at Hakone Estate and Gardens is coordinated by Peter Thomas Bowyer. Send comments and suggestions for new topics or potential instructors to: P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville, CA 94662, or email to mail@peterthomasbowyer.com or phone 510 658-4941.

Discounts on class fees with advance payment: $35 per person single clas, $30 each for multiple classes/family per check.

Click here for a full class detail.

A Japanese Touch to Native Garden Design

with Peter Bowyer

***Want to bring back the natives? Want to live in nature? Want to go beyond ad-hoc collections of individual plants? Want to create topographic, geologic, hydrologic, climatic, and vegetative garden scenery evoking your favorite natural landscapes? Want to harmonize architecture with its environs? The native garden & dwelling places the world calls Japanese Gardens offer composition principles, materials choices, construction techniques, and maintenance practices you can use in a variety of settings. Learn about these, as well as California's natural landscapes and their Japanese and CA garden analogs, in an introductory survey.

Peter Bowyer, peterthomasbowyer.com, landscape contractor, specializes in scenic creations for people who want to bring nature into their dwelling. He designed the Oakland Sister City Garden in Fukuoka, Japan.

Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010, 10 AM - 1 PM at the Cultural Exchange Center.
Fee: $40 per person
Information: RSVP 510-658-4941 or via peterthomasbowyer.com. Advance discount: mail a $35 check one week in advance, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville, CA 94662.

Pruning Japanese Gardens in Winter

with Peter Bowyer

***Learn Aesthetics and pruning techniques for woody plants used in Japanese-style gardens. Learn species-specific pruning techniques, when and where to use them in Japanese-style garden designs: dry gardens, stroll gardens, hill & pond gardens, tea gardens, and courtyard garden. Learn about Japanese garden design through the lens of aesthetic pruning.

***Peter Bowyer, peterthomasbowyer.com, landscape contractor, specializes in scenic creations for people who want to bring nature into their dwelling. he led volunteers pruning at Hakone for many years.

Date: Saturday, January 9, 2010, 2 PM - 5 PM in the CEC. Lecture, slideshow and discussion.
Fee: $40 per person. Advance discount $35 check one week in advance, payable to Peter Bowyer, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville, CA 94662.

RSVP 510-658-4941 or via peterthomasbowyer.com. Advance discount: mail a $35 check one week in advance, payable to Peter Bowyer, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville CA 94662.

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Japanese Gardens in Kyoto - Northeast.

With Peter Bowyer

***Learn the elements of Japanese garden design, construction and maintenance using inspirational images from the instroctor's study of gardens in japan, lecture, chalk board and your own drawings. Topics include: Human use; site characteristics; artistic expressions; historic architecture & garden styles; indoor-outdoor relationships; structures; enclosure; topography; uses of stone; water features; plants; design devices such as forced perspective, diagonal and triangular movement, borrowed scenery, hide & real; parallels to other traditions; learning resources and more.

Date: Saturday, February 6, 2010, 10 AM - 1 PM.
Place: Meet at the CEC. Slide show & lecture.
Fee: $40 per person
Register with: Peter Bowyer, phone 510-658-4941, or email via his website. mail@peterthomasbowyer.com. Advance discount: mail a $35 check 5 days in advance, payable to Peter Bowyer, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville CA 94662.

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Japanese Maple Aesthetics and Arboriculture

With Peter Bowyer

***An introduction to the character uses, culture, and pruning of Japanese Maples. Learn about the growing environment, physiology, life cycle, varieties, design uses, buying, planting, culture, and problems of Japanese Maples. Learn holistic integration of aesthetics, sound horticulture, and problem solving, especially how to prioritize seemingly contradictory information. Optional: bring hand-shears, container Maples and/or phtos of Maples.

Date: Saturday, February 6, 2010, 2 - 5 PM

Place: Cultural Exchange Center, lecture and hands-on practice with cut branches.

Fee: $40 per person.

RSVP 510-658-4941 or via peterthomasbowyer.com. Advnace discount: mail a $35 check one week in advance, payable to Peter Bowyer, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville CA 94662.

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Pruning Japanese Gardens in Spring

With Peter Bowyer

***Learn aesthetics and pruning techniques for your favorite woody plants used in Japanese-style gardens.

Date: Saturday, March 20, 2 - 5 PM

Place: Cultural Exchange Center, lecture & slideshow

Fee: $40 per person

RSVP 510-658-4941 or via peterthomasbowyer.com. Advance discount: mail a $35 check one week in advbance, payable to Peter Bowyer, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville, CA 94662.

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Japanese Maple Aesthetics and Arboriculture

with Peter Bowyer

***An introduction to the character uses, culture, and pruning of Japanese Maples. Learn about the growing environment, physiology, life cycle, varieties, design uses, buying, planting, culture, and problems of Japanese Maples. Learn holistic integration of aesthetics, sound horticulture, and problem solving, especially how to prioritize seemingly contradictory information. Optional: bring hand-shears, container Maple, and/or photos of Maples.

Date: Saturday April 17, 2010, 2 - 5 PM

Place: CEC craft area, lecture and hands-on practice with cut branches.

Fee: $40 per person

RSVP 510-658-4941 or via peterthomasbowyer.com. Advance discount: mail a $35 check one week in advance, payable to Peter Bowyer, P.O. Box 8031, Emeryville CA 94662

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