Starting the landscaping on the left hand side of the ryokan

Yesterday and today I worked more on the stone retaining walls and added more "moss" to them. That wasn't interesting enough to take a picture of though, so I didn't post anything until tonight.

This morning, I decided I would make a separate base to go on the left hand side. It won't be permanently attached, because it will take up too much room, and will make it even more difficult to move around when I need to move the whole base. This base will be approximately 18" from back to front and 12" wide. (All my rulers are at the shop, so I'm estimating the size of the rectangle of leftover foam I have).

It will match this base, but will just butt up against it when it's on display in the shop. (We can barely move in our tiny living room right now because the ryokan is taking up so much room already). Anyway, the tea house will be on the new platform. This will give me more room so I can give it it's own garden space like the ones I have been reading about on the internet. I've gotten some really nice ideas. I may even be able to incorporate a bamboo fence on the added platform, since it will be easier to move that piece when I need to without knocking the fence off.

These photos show the path going off to the left. I made that last night and tonight. I started out by trying stepping stones only, but they didn't look right, so I made a matching path for this side of the front to match the one on the other side. At the end of this path will be a torii gate to separate the pebble path from the stepping stones, then stepping stones through the pergola. Next there will be steps down to the lower level, where the teahouse and garden will be. I'm going to try to make the route to the teahouse very interesting and a little bit mysterious!