Chapter 45– Spring Time Gardening

April in Japan marks the beginning of new school and fiscal year. Despite all the tumult, we are getting on with it and continuing on our little projects around the house. For the past 6 weeks we had been treading on a muddy walk-through as we waited for the weather to warm up so we could start putting down a lawn. Not the picture perfect way to move in, but we wanted to save on landscaping fees by doing it ourselves. We had quotes between 12~20K$ and we’re willing to shell out.

I can’t claim any credit for this back breaking work. Lara spent 4 days literally tilling the clay earth and picking old debris and rocks from our soil. She filled about 5 boxes full which we gave back to our builders to dispose of.

Below Lara got some walkway tiles from J-mart which in retrospect we should have sourced ourselves since it was cheaper than what we got from the builders and of equal quality. Extra soil and sand was mixed in with the local earth since we had to make sure it was soft enough for the roots to take hold. You’ll find all sorts of resources online about this.

Thankfully, we had a neighborhood friend who is a certified Japanese landscaper to help us. He came at a very competitive price and Lara could not have done it without him. He even gave us a discount on the total bill because he felt he did not do a perfect job since it was his first time laying Western sod. The type of earnestness you only see in Japan.

The finished result! Some of the brown spots is just top finishing earth. So it’s now a matter of watering it twice a day and not stepping on it for a few weeks. By golden week I should be able to lie down on my own front lawn in Tokyo.

By the way this is where we got our sod. It was the best quality at the right price.
http://482.co.jp/