--garden motif???
What was his name? the previous owner...

Are you sure the bald spots shouldn't be left as they are, bald...?
Is the hired gardener Japanese?
Always, always, always, live in a garden, a home a year, a full cycle of seasons at a minimum before changing anything!!!!!!!!!!!!! to infinity,..
because, any new owner feels the need to 'take ownership' and this involves changing something,.. -to put something in the earth. to create a new boundary, like putting in vertical stones instead of laying them down... or new plants where they ought not to be.

and the empty spaces in a garden are 'the healing' part of the garden, the part that your mind fills in from lack of input,.. = therapy.

do NOT touch a Japanese garden until you understand it. Observe it, maintain it, clean it, sweep it, learn with it, learn about it and you will probably be amply rewarded and pleased you started slowly.

Yes there are Japanese gardeners in SoCal, professionals, who in turn can probably tell you the history of the garden which should be carefully researched before doing anything. What it is about, why what is where, from where the plants came and so on.

Then call a professor to document it, since if it is from the 50's, there were few Japanese allowed back yet from the internment camps, which makes it a cultural property.. and none were allowed to own land, etc...
who owned it before him?
his client?

to which, the SoCaL Federation (of Japanese Gardeners) have just disbanded... members are all too old, no one interested..
or contact the IBC, Internet Bonsai ask for the Golden State Bonsai (? if I remember correctly.. published numerous books through the 50's-70's) and find out who was what from the bonsai angle, ask Ernie Kuo, Walker, or contact Fred Miyahara through www.niwa.org - San Diego Japanese Garden.

This does not mean it will never change?
it will change as all restoration or development into its next phase... and you will change (and it), yet the changes will be sensitive to what was and to you the new owner by changing the tired bald spots with what they should be, when they should be...
which is when the garden asks...

and if the garden has no importance, plant what you want...
congratulations on your purchase.....
edzard

I can understand Edzard's excitement here. As a native SoCal, I grew up with those post internment gardens. Works of art. For myself, the original message is akin to someone finding a '55 Chevy Wagon with 5,000 original miles on it. Heck, even with 205,000 miles it still is a masterpiece.

Additional data is needed fer shur. There is a ton of info/resources at hand here.

Japanese Gardens are all about adaptability. A SoCal Japanese Garden will look different than a PNW Japanese Garden. Books are cool but can be overload. Best to check out local gardens. Heck, ask the aforementioned gardener. He would know the location of other gardens in the area.

Good luck and congrats on your find..... I would love to see some pics.

Michael

Relax Edzard, this is southern Calfornia, dude.

jxbrown,
been there , done that in SoCal.
You see a lot of your type of 'motif' in SoCal and there are plenty of ways to work with it that suits your personality, budget and over all outlook on the whole gardening thang.

I feel the most important aspect about your newly acquired property is to not lose track that this is no longer somebody else's garden , but yours to do with as you wish.

If you choose to keep this garden going as it has been tended to in the past there are plenty of people to assist you in this area.
Go to one of the monthly Cal Hort meetings and bring pictures and information about your garden. There is usually about 60 or so people at the meeting ( plus or minus depending on the topic of the speaker ) and someone there can point you in the right direction in regards to someone located locally who can assist you.

From the sounds of it, ( and from my experience in living in SoCal and seeing this common type 'motif ' ) it does not appear to be any monumental historical work of art that belongs under the conservationship of a Hysterical Historical Society or the Garden Conservancy. If it was, there would already be a committe set up to meet and greet you about your garden.

This style of landscape was and still is very popular with the mid century so. Cal architecture. Alot of people whether they were Japanese or not planned a Japanese inspired looking garden.
Thousands of these gardens exist today and thousands have undergone transformations over the years.
There are a myriad of ethinically diverse gardeners in S. Cal . that can assist you in taking this garden into its next phase.

To wait a full year or 'a full cycle of seasons at a minimum before changing anything!!' is a tad bit over dramatic , especially in a temperate environment such as ours , where in just a couple of months one can lose control over their garden if it is not maintained.

Give Cal Hort a try, chances are high that if your garden has some sort of notoriety that someone there will be able to help you by pointing you in the direction that you want to go with it.
You'll also network with a bunch of gardeners who know who's who and what their specialty is, so you'll can interview and choose someone to work with that has the correct skills if that is the direction you choose to make for your new garden.

Mich,..
indeed, it is their garden.
I was always under the impression that you worked with japanese gardens, and yet, now find that the understanding seems not to be what I thought...

and the exuberance, with admonishments, are reflections of what the community has conveyed to the loss of older gardens from controversial periods. Many of the plants are 'mother trees' from which cuttings have been passed through the community,.. etc.

i gather you are not aware of the significance of gardeners associations closing. Nor of the current age of these members, that they will only live about another 5 years before the knowledge of these people is gone, leaving it to be re-invented, by you or I.
No one is interested, nor dedicated to listen practise and learn...

These techniques are evident only in older gardens since it takes about 15 to 20 years to see a technique through, the proof the way it works on the species. A year is what it takes for the entire scenerio to play out, or does time run twice as fast there,.. indeed, I did mention, maintain, sweep,.etc.
Normally in tmaking the decision to change something in a garden, takes about 3 to 5 years to begin to decide to change it to 'what' to do 'what'.. why
-restoration is what I do...
rebuilding is what you seem to do.

this has nothing to do with drama, dear girl, it has to do with lost garden techniques and aging people with no one to share techniques with.

the laxness of this day and age is deplorable..
but, hey, it is theirs to do with as they please.
Mich,.. read, Greenmakers,...
edzard

Edzard,
You assume too little and misunderstand the remainder of what I do for a living as well as under estimate the dedicated population of gardeners who do embrace and actively search out older students of garden craftsmanship.

Much of the reason why I do not participate often on this particular forum is the elitist tenor that elicits a kind of smugness that quite frankly is a bore.

Tenacious bickering and quibbling about how one defines a word rather than embracing and enjoying the action of working in or crafting a garden is wearisome .

Along with the long manifestoes that essentially say, 'if you don't see or do it my way , it is the wrong way' ,also serves to turn life long students off .

>Much of the reason why I do not participate often on this particular forum is the elitist tenor that elicits a kind of smugness that quite frankly is a bore.

Tenacious bickering and quibbling about how one defines a word rather than embracing and enjoying the action of working in or crafting a garden is wearisome .

Along with the long manifestoes that essentially say, 'if you don't see or do it my way , it is the wrong way' ,also serves to turn life long students off . Sounds like the Landscape Design forum.

Mich,
Since jxbrown already professed a desire to "live with it" for the first year, why push for change? It takes a while to get to know a new property, whether it has an established garden or not.

jxbrown,
Figure out where the shadows fall, where the warm pockets are, which birds like to sing outside your window at 4 am and whether you can live with that. And since you're waiting anyway, it can't hurt to follow some of Edzard's advice (although you probably don't need to jump up and down as much as he did :)) and find someone in the area experienced with JG to see if there is a known history to your garden. Something to do in the winter months...oh yeah, I forgot. You don't get winter there. (Kidding, kidding, don't shoot me! It's REALLY cold here in PA and I'm just jealous, that's all.)

-Susan

Indeed Susan we do get seasons in southern California, it's just that they are pretty subtle in their transitions. For instance, the only way that I know for sure that it's winter is when I wake up with a dog on the bed.

The original gardener (who was not Japanese) died several years ago and his wife maintained the garden with the help of a guy named "Juan". She was thrifty and sentimental and planted out Christmas poinsettias plop in the middle of low growing junipers. There are a few other places where things have clearly died and pine seedling have been allowed to run rampant.

However, the "bones" of the garden are good. The irregular shape of the 9000 sq-ft lot (big by SoCal standards, but small compared to my current house) has been used well. There is a dry stream bed angling across the yard and two little, hidden benches resulting in several garden "rooms" in a very compact space. I would never have been that clever in layout. I have never been a fan of bushes that have been clipped into shapes, but somehow the poodle-pines seem to fit and everything is in-scale with the house.

Thanks for the Cal Hort, etc. tips. I'll give them all a try.

Maybe sometime you can post photos for additional comment.