The Slab

In the first half of 2011 I bought this Chinese Juniper from a local nursery and did not initially have any great plans with it - you know just buying stock because you can never have enough container plants. I had it for a couple months and then got the idea: a bonsai seated on a slab of rock with a moss sheet covering its base. I saw this in a bonsai guide I had. The original bonsai was a Pyracantha/firethorn on slate. The idea is so elegant and simple but stunning - especially the combination of red firethorn berries and grey slate. I did not have either of those 2. I only had a Juniper and some orange sandstone rocks. So I bought a masonry drill bit and made 2 drainage holes in my sandstone slab.

I had watered the Juniper thoroughly before hand to make sure its easy to remove from the container. I removed the excess soil carefully and teased out some of the peripheral roots and trimmed it. Unfortunately the space for the roots was fairly limited. This is where this concept gets tricky. There is no margin for a plant like this. Roots cannot go deeper into the soil to look for nutrients and water - everything needs to either be in the root ball or administered by the gardener... It is also important to remember that heat can dry this little landscape out very quickly. The moss cover does provide some protection for the root ball but the moss itself needs moisture - too much moisture can be detrimental for the root ball (rot) and so can too little (moss will also compete for moisture). So back to the build: obviously its important to make sure there are some soil in the root ball. I first placed a little plastic mesh over the holes (preventing dirt from falling through), placed some soil on top and fastened the plant to the slab with some wire. Next I placed a sheet of moss over the root ball. I always have some moss at hand but one can buy this.

I did not initially make any design changes to this Juniper. I let it settle for about 4 months and then tweaked some of the branches a bit. It looked really good. This is was probably my favorite 'bonsai'.

But like I said: it can be challenging to maintain a plant in such a precarious little landscape. And on a weekend away something happened. I think excessive heat cause damage to the plant. It deteriorated after that and eventually died. The frustration was real. This 'miniature landscape' is a really good project and well worth trying out. If you would like to learn more about miniature landscapes and an artist I really enjoy (Kenji Kobayashi), follow these 2 links: Gardenista and Kenji Kobayashi's shop.