Comments (0) Best Backyard Inspirations - 2010
Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery
The Japanese garden district on Sawtelle Boulevard in West Los Angeles features three nurseries side by side, companion planted, as it were, for mutual benefit. Of them, Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery is the most artistic. As the name implies, bonsai is their specialty. But someone here has a keen eye for plant arrangements of all types — for the way in which dainty alyssum blossoms, say, complement a hefty profusion of petunias, mints and marjoram. Can a lowly house cactus inspire? It can here, jumbled into a pretty glazed clay pot with a squadron of weird little succulents. The place feels like nothing so much as someone’s wonderful backyard. Everything in tight spaces. Life bursting out of every corner. Yamaguchi’s is a great place for wandering, and it helps that the plants are happy, fat and healthy. The abundance of beneficial insects — ladybugs, bees, lacewings — zipping about is a good sign, too. Sales ladies Michiko and Kate won’t mince words about which plants will thrive in shade and which require hours of blazing sun. Lest we forget, gardening is science as much as it is art. To some, it’s practically religion. If she’s in good humor (and detects that you have a sense of humor), Michiko may even offer to whisper a blessing over your newly purchased plants. 1905 Sawtelle Blvd., W.L.A. (310) 473-5444. —Gendy Alimurung
