On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Dan B
Sunday February 6th was sunny and warm. Our friends Justin and Ray asked us to join them at Kubota Garden which is a few miles from our house. It’s a 20 acre city park that my partner and I knew from when it was a slightly grubby nursery with a 5 acre display garden. It’s been completely landscaped. Quite a few of the trees were left in their nursery rows in lines equally spaced. The style is called American Japanese since it is a hybrid and doesnt follow Japanese traditions. Here are some pictures. There are many more online.
There are three ponds on site with Koi and other fish. There are acres of greensward. People were sunning themselves, with sweaters and jackets. It’s early February and maybe 55°.
There are many varieties of trees, especially unusual conifers. There are stone bridges and Chinese style bridges. It is a true hybrid design.
Here’s a small Chinese style bridge. Purists should avert your eyes. This spot has dozens of rhodies that create a blaze of color, also not Japanese garden design. This area is not Zen in springtime.
The hillside to the West has several waterfalls plus a gazebo and large boulders at the top. This was a demonstration of Mr. Kubota’s capabilities.
Mr. Kubota hauled 400 tons of rocks to the garden after the family was released from Camp Minidoka. He perfected rock placement while there. Few plants survived in that landscape.
Several years ago a pavilion was installed near the south of the garden and overlooking one of the ponds and a panorama of the many trees.
A team of Japanese built the pavilion. The stone base is spectacular. The joints in the stones are very tight. It’s a marriage of modern design and ancient technique. Our friends remarked they hadn’t seen as many different types of green – again, not traditional but an exciting hybrid.
Directly to the south of Kubota Garden is a vista of Lake Washington with wuthering the old growth forest of the Seward Park peninsula, and glacier covered Mount Baker almost 100 air miles to the north. It is a few miles from the Canadian border. This is one of the most dazzling views in a city with many.
Dan B
I’m heading back to sleep and probably won’t be up until 11 AM Eastern. Do check the web postings for Kubota Garden. There are many excellent sites with dozens of photos from Spring and Fall.
Barbara
I don’t know the difference between a hybrid and a true Japanese garden, but it looks like a wonderful place to lose yourself for an afternoon. I visited the Abkazi Garden in Victoria and I’m pretty sure you would love that.
JR
I love Kubota Garden, also the Japanese-ish garden in the arboretum. PNW is just such an awesome climate.
pb3550
Thanks to your pictures and commentary I have a new place to visit next time I’m in Seattle.
Betty
Looks like a delightful way to spend an afternoon.
John S.
Thanks for giving me another place to add to my list of places to visit when I move to the area in a few months.
Dan B
@Barbara: Kubota is wonderful. Traditional Japanese gardens are designed for serenity. Foliage is green, flowers are minimal: Azaleas are pruned to minimize bloom, Japanese Iris in early summer and then Fall color are about the extent.
Kubota was a nursery that sold to landscapers and gardeners who wanted showy and unusual things for their clients’ gardens. In many locations you see thirty different foliage colors including silver, blue green, and yellow. It adds American exuberance to the mix. It’s got hybrid vigor.
Dan B
@Betty: They only have port-a-potties. Plan accordingly. No concessions and no nearby stores but there is a big shopping district in Rainier Beach 1/2 – 1 mile away.
debbie
@Dan B:
Pruning azaleas aside ?, this is one very beautiful garden!
Dan B
@debbie: Kubota’s Azaleas ad Rhodies are a Riot of color in Spring.
Dan B
@John S.: Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill is a new favorite of ours with sweeping views and interesting architectural features, a multi acre Food Forest, kids water park, skate park, solar picnic shelters, and a Cricket pitch for the Pacific Islander teams
Views of Elliot Bay and downtown are best from the Lawn Bowling club near the Golf course and driving range clubhouse.
sab
What a lovely garden. That Japanese style bridge looks a lot like our Metropark’s prehap bridges, only painted like a Calder sculpture. I really like it.
OT slightly. I finally asked my little sister (college botany major) to identify my imvasive vine the deer ate. She did on her second guess. Euonymous fortunei ( winter creeper).
WaterGirl
@Dan B: What a gorgeous place! So great that he was a rebel, and it turned out so lovely.
I fixed the misspellings and autocorrects
edit: azaleas are plants of the gods, I cannot understand why one would prune them to have fewer flowers!!!
Dan B
@sab: The bridge is Chinese. Red railings is sooo not Japanese. And the arch is neither. There are traditional Japanese bridges but the Chinese ones are charming.
Euonymous fortunei gets nibbled by root weevils and gets leaf spots in the damp winters and Springs here. Fortunately it’s not invasive.
Dan B
There are great stories about Kubota online. Do check out some. I wish there were more about what the city has done to expand and refine the gardens.
Grumpy Old Railroader
Fantastic. Must visit someday
Mike in Oly
We went in spring several years ago and it was just spectacular. May not be traditional, but it was a pure joy to see.
sab
@Dan B: Oops. Thanks. My sister is the art historian, not me, obviously.
Lyrebird
@Dan B: Late to the party, but THANK YOU! At first I was just thinking, la la la, happy walk in the park w Dan B. Thought the park was there bc maybe the excavator company has HQ in Seattle. Now I read about this Mr. Kubota and I’m shook.
H.E.Wolf
Thank you for the gorgeous photos, and for the glimpse at the internment of US citizens of Japanese ancestry (and naturalized US citizens born in Japan, and Japan-born US residents) during WWII.
My US-born aunt (then a teenager) and her family were interned at Tule Lake CA and Poston AZ, so it was something we grew up knowing about.
Many of my high-school classmates learned of it for the first time when the driver’s ed teacher gave his annual presentation, in American History class, of his internment as a small child along with his family.
Emma
My Chinese is shit, and kanji can have pretty different meanings from their Chinese counterparts, but I’m pretty sure that the inscription on the rock starts with “Remember,” which makes sense given the context. (Someone more fluent than me could say what the third character is.)
Anyway, Kubota Gardens is a great place to walk around and picnic in. I went in spring/summer, and there was a couple taking wedding pictures. It’s also pretty close to the Macadam Winter Garden in Tukwila, which itself is pretty close to some delicious Ethiopian/Somali/Sudanese eateries, so you could make a bit of a daytrip out of it.
stinger
So much color! In February, and without flowers! Thank you for the introduction to this lovely park!
J R in WV
Wonderful photos of a beautiful place. I’m not that much of a believer in “traditional” styling of any sort, whether Japanese / Chinese / French, etc. What counts to me is the beauty of the combinations, and here we have just that. Mt Baker in the distance is icing on the cake.
thanks for sharing!
feebog
Thank you Dan, nice way to start the morning.
JustRuss
Nice. Will have to check it out next time I’m up that way.
Dan B
@Emma: Thanks for the attempt at translation. You’re the first I’ve heard of any idea what the Kanji on the rock means. “Remember” is hauntingly close to what the people I’ve known felt about the internment. Relatives visited their camp every year. Their van had a massive blowout on their way home one year and four of them died instantly.
I remember.