Website: http://www.cottages-gardens.com/Connecticut-Cottages-Gardens/May-2018/A-Stunning-Japanese-Garden-in-the-Heart-of-Litchfield-County/
The garden is not a typical Japanese garden. There is a fusion between eastern and western elements. There was a great deal of attention to detail and there were specific locations throughout the garden that demonstrated excellent examples of Japanese garden features. I can only imagine the financial costs associated with building and maintaining such a meticulous garden.
The area around the "teahouse" was well thought out with plantings, walkways, and hardscape stones reflecting aspects of Japanese garden features I have seen elsewhere in my travels. It was nicely designed by Chris Zaima, a garden designer who collaborated on the project and was one of my favorite parts of the garden.
Although the pool and hot tub area were nice, I felt that they were a bit out of place for a garden and more inline with a backyard patio area (a lot like the gazebo area next to my own Zen garden). The surrounding plants and trees were nice additions to the pool area, but that particular view, although beautiful, did not seem to reflect a traditional Japanese garden, hence the east-west fusion. I also did not find the other areas of the extensive gardens to be very Japanese. They were no doubt inspired by an Asian ethos, but they were a different style altogether. They reminded me of the esthetic I witnessed at the Innisfree Garden in New York. As a result, the pictures below only show some of the features of the gardens at Cedar Hill, but they are some are the elements that I thought best reflected Japanese traditions.
The garden is a unique example of a fusion garden and if open in the future is well worth a visit.
If you look closely, you can see that the stone work next to the lanter represents a turtle (kame), a symbol of longevity. This is one of two such stone works in the garden, the other a smaller version located within the waterfall behind the teahouse.
