GRESHAM JAPANESE GARDEN

Tsuru Island
James Card:Oh! What a Day
The 2017 Skosh was fantastic. Guests were greeted by volunteers and then ventured to booths that werepresented throughout the day. Things started popping very early when awnings and chairs, food trucks
and vendors displaying their goods for sale. Two tea ceremonies were put on by Grace. An hour longkoto presentation by Nobuko Chalfen of the Oregon Koto-Kai, entertained the crowd. The birds, thewind, the water and music. What a Day!

ISSUE 19

AUGUST 2017 EDITION

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BRIDGE UPDATEThe glue in the wood that wasused
toassemble
thecomponents was effected themost. Only the hand rail,
giboshi and the top layer of thetop beam were affected. Even
after lengthy discussions withthe manufacturer of the glue
and assurances, there wasissues with the glue giving way
to the stress and movement of
the wood.
Over the past year, Tad andToshi are credited for working
with the railings and the topbeam. They first split the joints
to the point that they werestable, cleaned the mating
sections and dressed theparting lines.
A two-partepoxy was applied to bothmating surfaces and thenrejoined together. The sections
were held together with clamps
until they could be bound withzip ties and left to cure for acouple of days. After the joints
were again stable, Tad andToshi decided to bring thewood to its original color byremoval of the exposed surface
with abrasives. The surfaces
were coated with a finish baseand a clear coat of UV
protective,marine
grade
varnish.

Skosh continued:
One of the displays was a presentation of sand art called "bonseki".
This art begins with pouring colored sands and powdered pigmentfrom natural or synthetic sources to make fixed or unfixed sandpainting. In the case of unfixed sand paintings, it can also becalled dry painting and is usually used in cultural, religious andritual ceremonies by many people's around the world. It would be
like going to the beach and building a sand castle, knowing fullwell that the tide was coming in. Sand painting started in Japanas the result of influences by Buddhist Monks from Tibet and has
continued for centuries. Many adaptations are used. Pouring thecolored sands onto a black lacquered board and sometimes in a tray
to produce a display that might contain a bonsai is an amazing
presentation.

The new Giboshi have beenplaced on top of the end posts.
Much thanks to Tad, Toshi,and Jim Buck.
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AUGUST 2017 EDITION

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Changes at the Resource
CenterMany of the plans made for
Tsuru Island have included theResource Center structure andthe areas around it. Several
constructive changes havehappened which include a new
restroom placed alongside thebuilding.

The biggest benefit of thischange is for the Kaz
Kids. They can set up andorganize
thesmallcontainers that will befilled with planting media
and new crop starts can beplanted for the future.

Strategic Partners

Ron Ture is credited for
painting the bathroom the samecolor as the building.
A new irrigation mainline wasinstalled this past month. The
mainline will never be seen but
the benefits of drip irrigation
allows for 100% coverage of all
the plants around the building
and the stored plants that are
maintained by our volunteers.
It is controlled by a timer inside
the building. Wendy is morethan pleased with this addition.
In the next few weeks the spaceon the upper plain of the storageyard will be utilized. Thesecurity fencing will be moved
to the lower level where it canbe more accessible whenneeded. This is the first step inthe long-time plan to propagate
plant material that can be usedin the Garden and marketed at
the plant sales which supports
the garden.

ISSUE 19

The City of Gresham
The Gresham Rotary
Historic Downtown Gresham
Resolutions - Inc.
Gresham High School
Johnson Creek WatershedCouncil
East Metro Soil and Water
Oregon Koto-Kai
Edward Jones - Dino Rocha
Gresham Chamber ofCommerce
Japanese American Citizens
League(Gresham Troutdale)

Corporate Supporters
Bentwood Tree Farm
Kichler lighting
Rainbird
SiteOne
J Frank Schmidt Nursery
Cardscapes
Moxon Hardwoods
Patterson Nursery
Reardon Nursery
Cy Graphics
Quality Woodworking Inc.
PCI Arbor Equipment
Stamp-Connection

AUGUST 2017 EDITION

Those Grand Old Buildings
On August 5th volunteers in thecommunity came together to support
the efforts of the Rotary Club ofGresham, Tsuru Island and theHistorical Society of Gresham, torefurbish the landscapes of the oldlibrary and the old church on MainStreet.
This has been the dream of John
Clark, owner of Stamp-Connection inGresham. John is a member of theHistorical Society and a member of
the Gresham Rotary Club as well as avolunteer at Tsuru Island. John did afine job of enlisting people,
equipment and materials to make thisproject happen.
To accomplish this type of project
without really knowing how many
people would be showing up, takes
hours or planning and organization.
Prior to this work day a few
volunteers helped to clean the parking
lots, prepare hand rails to be painted,
pressure wash hard surfaces and clean
the buildings as needed.
The projects included reorganizing
the plant beds, introducing newplants, drip irrigation installed, longoverdue removal of trees, shrubs
removed, stumps ground down andtall grasses being cut down to theground. The bricks which lined thetree wells were removed and reset
once the ground was cleared of debris
and smoothed. Railings were painted
and the preserved plant materials
were pruned. All of that clean up
accounted for 3 full and compacted
truckloads of debris being hauled off
for disposal.
That last portion will be completed on
August 26th by volunteers from
Tsuru Island who will be spreading
bark dust which was donated by theStamp-Connection. Page 3
Tsuru Island volunteers are honored
to be partnered with the Rotary ClubSHOWCASE GARDEN PLANTS
Gresham Japanese garden is a Japanesestyle garden and not a Botanical garden
where plants are usually identified. The
plant material is not all that unusual to
the Pacific Northwest or even Japan forthat matter.
The plants that were established in thegarden by Kaz and the original
volunteers have been pruned andrefurbished over the last 5 years. Somemay have come from Japan and othersfrom local sources.
Each plant in the garden has its own
story about where it came from, why it
was chosen and placed in that particularspot.
A committee, which includes Sue
Hughes, the web developer, Bill Petersonand Jim Card was formed to answer
questions about plant material.
Bill has taken pictures which include a
broad view and a close up, and placed it
on a digital index card. A description,
including the botanical name, thecommon name and the story of the plantis included. The date, time and theposition that the camera was held isadded. As the cards are completed, Sueadds the information to the website.
These cards will also be kept in a notebook to be presented for onsite use. At
this point a digital record of the originalplants will be kept along with thechanges in future years. This record
gives data about the plant growth, how
it was pruned and how it is affected byother plants and its general progress.
Visit the website at
greshamjapanesegarden.com and see theplants under interactive garden. You may
download the pictures and take it to the garden
as a reference. ISSUE 19

AUGUST 2017 EDITION

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