SG600: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto with Leslie Buck
Today’s show is a dream come true for me - Leslie Buck is on the show and she's the author of Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto. Cutting Back is Leslie’s charming memoir of her time spent in the gardens of Kyoto, Japan.Now, I read about Leslie and her memoir last year when she was featured in the Washington Post in an article by Adrian Higgins titled: A gardener went to Japan to polish her pruning skills. She found tough love. I was so intrigued by this article and I was absolutely thrilled when Leslie accepted an invitation to be a guest on the Podcast.In her book, Leslie shares the revelations she had during her time working on a pruning-only crew of the centuries-old garden company. In Japan, Leslie found not only tough love, but also resilience and pride - along with a refinement of the skills required to create truly exquisite results in the garden.If you love listening to garden adventures and garden stories, this episode with Leslie is perfect for you.
Imagine... being so fascinated by the ancient Japanese art of pruning, that you drop everything, put your entire life on hold, and fly to the one place on earth where pruning mastery is practiced every single day: Japan.Now imagine doing this with only a handful of connections and a whole lot of hope - praying you’ll manage to secure some sort of apprenticeship opportunity to help you refine your pruning skills. (Btw: Now imagine doing that back in 1999 - without a smart phone.)That’s exactly what Leslie did.In 1999, Leslie was a 35-year-old professional gardener. She owned her own landscaping business. She had worked with a few Japanese Americans and attended conferences to get better at pruning. But, she wanted to learn more and she was very serious about pursing the craft of pruning. So, she bravely followed her heart to Kyoto - where she hoped to sharpen her pruning skills and kindle her love for Japanese culture.During today’s chat, Leslie will read excerpts from many of my favorite parts in the book and she’ll also share design elements, pruning methods and interesting traditional tools from her time in Japan.
There are a few things I’d like to draw your attention to in this Episode:The Natural Beauty of Native Plants.Leslie talks about how we can sometimes mis interpret what Japanese gardens are all about. We shouldn’t be trying to recreate a Kyoto garden smack dab in the middle of wherever we happen to be on planet earth. Instead, we should draw Inspiration from our own forests - and use our own native plants. Leslie describes her own garden as being inspired by California campgrounds - very natural-lookingThe Importance of Attuning to Our Gardens.Leslie poses many thought-provoking questions and insights in her book. In today’s episode, you’ll hear her talk about pruning not to make a tree more beautiful, but to draw out the natural beauty already existing in the tree - even if that means accentuating a dead branch. (Shocking!) Leslie shares what a Garden desires most- which is to be enjoyed and loved. And one of the things she tells her clients is to go and get a comfy garden couch to start that love affair with the garden. So now we have our marching orders for our 2018 garden Shopping list - find a comfy garden couch. StatAttention to Detail.There’s attention to detail and then there’s attention to detail. What I’m hoping you’ll take away from this, is a desire to work a little harder on your focal points or the special plants or features of your garden. My daughter naturally does this. All of the kids have helped me in the garden. But my daughter, Emma, is apparently very Japanese in her approach. From the time she was very little, I learned that I couldn’t give Emma big jobs in the garden - that would overwhelm her and she’d lose interest. But, ask her to focus on a two-foot square area? I remember one time she cleaned debris out of a little strip of garden by my stream and it was immaculate when she was done. I loved it - but I was more focused on the remaining 12 feet that were left to deal with and unimpressed with how long it took her to get that little patch of garden to look so good. I’m revising my assessment - and I’m excited to take a cue from Emma the next time she joins me in the garden.
There’s a point in the interview where Leslie and I talk about how to make a garden shine. Leslie says:“A garden… it has to be loved. As a pruner, I know how to look at a plant and say “Here are the problems.” But, sometimes I have to step back and say, “Hey, what’s beautiful about this?” That’s why I step back and remind myself from time to time: I have to praise my garden."I really liked that.In fact, I especially enjoyed listening to the way Leslie talks about gardens - because that’s where SHE shines.
It’s time to take a little trip back to Japan courtesy of Leslie Buck and her memoir Cutting Back: My Apprenticeship in the Gardens of Kyoto.
P.S. For my signoff today, I leave you with this thought to help you grow...
Spend some time in the natural environment of neighboring parks and forests and see if you can’t find some Inspiration to draw about the natural beauty in your garden - even if that means showing off a dead branch!
Thanks for Listening!
Still Growing,
Guest Update
Sustainability
Continuing Ed
How to / DIY
Plant Spotlight
In the News
Dream Guest
Science
Shopping
Inspiration
Recipes
No recipe posts this week
Tweet This
Carroll Lee
Jody Tiffany Donnelly
Erica Allen
Shawn Gardner
Rebecca Konrade
Susie Dunsmore Rieser
Shelley Lynn
Kimmie N Florida
Lan Nguyen
Rae Oliveira
Help a gardener + their garden grow... Please Share this Episode
“Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
― Robert Louis Stevenson.
What Listeners Are Saying...
I never write reviews but this is the best gardening podcast out there. Jennifer has interesting topics and guests and is not one bit annoying like some others are. I love that she involves her kids at the end of the podcast - usually with poetry or music. Really good podcast.
- Barbcfc, Mar 23, 2016
Still Growing is one of the reliably informative gardening podcasts from North America. The format consists of an intro (personal gardening status chat, seasonal remarks), an extended interview with a guest, and an outro with funny outtakes, side remarks, and some chatter (poems, readings) from the host's children. The podcast is focused on reliable knowledge - the guests are typically experts like academics, master gardeners, gardening entrepreneurs or public garden leaders. The intro and especially the outro give it a homey feel. Given I live in the high northern region, just a little below the Polar Circle, I'm always looking for more cold-weather oriented gardening information. Jennifer Ebeling is in Minnesota, so that's helpful to me! Vegetable gardening (my main interest) gets a good share, but is not predominant. Most topics transcend your specific gardening interest and are applicable to many styles: landscaping principles, vermicomposting, greenhouses. The episodes are typically an hour long, which is just fine for me.
- cwaigl, May 29, 2014
Best gardening podcast out there. Her preparedness leads to a good interaction with the guests and brings out the best in them. Very informative and yet personable.
- Corn bug, June 15, 2016
This is a great podcast. Really well produced and organized with good sound quality. I love the mix of information and personal touches. Jennifer has great guests and asks the best questions. You can tell she really does her homework. I listen to several gardening podcasts and this is my absolute favorite!
- So Cal Gardengirl, June 19,2016
You can always find Still Growing on iTunes or on my favorite app: Stitcher Radio.
Jennifer Ebeling
Latest posts by Jennifer Ebeling (see all)
- Twenty Reasons NOT to Garden and WHY I IGNORE THEM ALL with Garden Humorist Luke Ruggenberg - May 18, 2018
- Stoneleigh: America’s Newest Public Garden, PLUS an in-depth chat with Ethan Kauffman about his vision and the plants he loves most in the garden - May 11, 2018
- Practical Organic Gardening Explained, Plus How to Solve Garden Challenges Naturally with Mark Highland - April 20, 2018