TIEG Monthly Meeting

The  next meeting of Inland Empire Gardeners will be on Thursday, March 5, 2020  at 6:30pm at CenterPlace, 2426 N Discovery Pl, Spokane Valley--across from the YMCA in Mirabeau Park. 

Join us as Sadafumi Uchiyama, Garden Curator of the Portland Japanese Garden, and a third-generation Japanese gardener shares his insight into the influence of the Japanese garden in Pacific Northwest garden design. The Northwest has a long history of cultural exchange with Japan and has taken and embraced various Japanese aesthetics. Japanese Gardens in particular have made a long-lasting imprint on public and private gardens in the Pacific Northwest. We will examine this history and identifying particular elements of the Japanese garden that are visible and commonplaces in the Pacific Northwest. The Japanese garden in the Pacific Northwest flourished after the WWII as a form of “sister city gardens.” The Portland Japanese Garden, born in 1963, as Portland-Sapporo sister city garden has been a close and leading influence on our Pacific Northwest gardens today, providing design inspiration along with insight into Japanese culture and aesthetics. By far the most fundamental influence is the region’s adoption of a spiritual aspect or attitude toward gardens in general, the shift from a horticultural focus to the concept that a garden has something more to offer. 

TIEG Meeting is free and open to the public.