The entertainment of relaxation by gardening.

These are some pictures of things I have noticed around my neighborhood. The reason I chose to take photos of these gardens is because gardening is very enteretaining to many people. These pictures are taken all within the range of around one block. There are several more, but I felt that I would be being too intrusive if I looked over people's fences into their private yards to take some photos.
This first photo is of a garden that to me looks entertaining in three different ways. First off the if you look at the house in the background you can see that it is an older style Japanese house, so someone had a good time planning the layout of this garden. To the right where the photo ends is a normal front door. This is just the view from the gate to walk through the garden.
Second, this garden is very well kept. If you look closely at the bushes they are trimmed very neatly. There is also the statues that have no dirt on them. They are cleaned regularly. If you look at the rocks in the middle of the path way you can see that the grass srrounding them doesn't cover them at all. some people do gardening just to have it look good but people with gardens this neat take some enjoyment from it.
The last bit of enjoyment that I see here is the fact that the owners look at it and can see how beautiful and relaxing it is. I was told by my old host family's mother that when she sits in her garden it brings a cettain calmness over her like a meditation. She can just stand or sit there and she can feel stress being lifted from her. Her garden was different from this one, but maybe the people can feel the same effect from theirs.
This next picture is of a house around the corner from the last one. It is a different style of garden which is obvious because most of these plants are in pots(the strangest plant is the big red one with lights and drinks in it). Where the plants are has little to do with the entertainment of the garden though. I looked at these plants to see what kinds of plants there were to compare with the garden at my house in America. These are only plants. What I mean by that is that the plants grown here are not for food or something like that. They are just grown for the fun of gardening. They are
still well kept all the same. I see the owner of this garden outside watering and maintaining them regularly.

This is another picture of a well kept garden. Again if you look at the hedges you can see that they get trimmed often to keep the lines even and neat looking. When I looked at this garden I of course had to notice this gate that is sometimes part of a garden. This could be considered part of the garden since there is a design on the gate and the handles to the gate have designs also. The design is of a lion's head. If you look closely though you can see that the left side is the exact same gate as the right. meaning the head is upside down. I did ask some people passing by if there was a reason and they said they had no idea. I think it is just because the design of the gate is cool so they got the same to make it wider. There is another garden type I would like to show a picture of but I couldn't find one in time, but is known as Zen Gardens. Here is a link to one that you can get a portable garden to calm your stresses http://www.zengarden.co.za/. But the one I really like is http://www.ppsimages.com/spj/pix_pages/07GARDENS/garden_04.html. This shows several pictures of different types of these fantastic gardens and other types as well. For me all kinds of gardens are good but they prodause diffferent feelings for me. These pictures I have of the gardens with plants make me feel calm and relaxed, but the rock gardens make me feel calm but very secure. I also think of being in an ocean.
I hope this sparks some interest for someone!