It all begins with a tree.
My love for the garden began at an early age. My family’s backyard was split in two by a fence. On one side was a Japanese garden; on the other was a small orchard containing a variety of citrus, nut and stone fruit trees. From high up in their canopy, I’d watch my father prune them, noting later how they would respond to his cuts.
Across the fence, a gardener who had studied at the Imperial Palace in Kyoto shaped and trained select maples and pines. I would climb into the trees he pruned and inspect his work, and it seemed that each branch he pruned had personality.
Later, while studying painting, drawing and performance at California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC), I furthered my love for pruning working as a fine gardener. My first Japanese garden design was for a project at CCAC. After I graduated in 2005, my artwork, pruning, and garden designs became more deeply intertwined. These days I enjoy painting, drawing, and studying the landscapes in which I’ve pruned. I also visit botanical gardens regularly to sketch. My artwork allows me to focus on both the details and the larger picture in the landscape as well as helping me “find the line” of the specimen while pruning.
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I bring to my pruning over twenty five years of gardening, horticulture and garden design, with a focus on Japanese gardens, native gardens, and pollinator gardens.
I am a Certified Aesthetic Pruner with an Aesthetic Pruning Award and a Horticulture Certificate from Merritt College. I have studied aesthetic pruning, Japanese garden design and bonsai with Dennis Makashima and Bill Castellon.
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2021 to date Assisting Earthly Delights landscape design company with aesthetic pruning, design consulting, Japanese garden landscaping, and fine gardening at a Historic Japanese House in Tibouron.
2021 - 2023 Assisted Bill Castellon with various Japanese garden installations and aesthetic pruning of pines and maples in the San Fransisco Bay Area. Notable projects included a Japanese garden with a contemporary karesansui “Stone Wave Garden” designed by Marc Peter Keene. I was Keene’s assistant with the Stone Wave Garden. Work on this job also included installation of boulders, plantings, and aesthetic pruning of the maple grove.
2017 Partnered with 3 Sticks Design to design and install a roji garden for a Japanese tea house project.
2015 to present launched The Branching Path, shifting my business focus to aesthetic pruning and Japanese garden design.
2006- 2008 Assisted Claire Niemieste part-time as a fine gardener in San Fransisco Bay Area. Work included: aesthetic pruning, garden installations and garden maintenance.
2003 to date Established my own business as a fine gardener with focus on aesthetic pruning, garden design and fine gardening in the East San Francisco Bay Area.
2002- 2006 Assisted Priscilla Coffin as a fine gardener in the San Fransisco East Bay. Work included: aesthetic pruning, garden installations and garden maintenance.
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2020 - 2022 Education Chair for the Aesthetic Pruning Association. Producing, hosting & co-hosting most of the online classes; managing the education committee
2007 Volunteered as a fine gardener part time at the Blake Estate in Berkeley, CA.
2007 to date Member of the Merritt College Pruning Club. Tasks included pruning at Lake Merritt Bonsai Garden, Hakone Garden, Lake Merritt Lakeside Japanese Garden, and Berkeley Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple, among other sites.
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2022 Taught “Aesthetic Pruning of Native California Gardens and Mediterranean Gardens” and “Pruning for the Big Picture”, Marin Master Gardeners.
2021 - 2023 Merritt College Pruning Club: co-leader for Japanese pruning of black pines, Buena Vista United Methodist Church, Alameda.
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2019 Certified Aesthetic Pruner with the Aesthetic Pruners Association
2021 Aesthetic Pruning Award from Merritt College
2022 Horticulture Certificate from Merritt College
2020 - 2022 Mentored by Dennis Makashima and Bill Castellon in aesthetic pruning, bonsai pruning care and Japanese landscape design
2005 B.A. in painting and drawing from California College of Arts and Crafts. Classes of note: Japanese Tea Ceremony and Japanese Tea Garden Design.
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Sukiya Living- Journal of Japanese Gardens. May/ June 2022 ,“Secrets of Pruning”
APA Journal. October 2022 , “A Garden Study with Sandi Polyakov at Shofuso House and Garden in Philadelphia”
APA Journal. January 2022, “ What are Your Favorite Trees and Why?”