Kyoto: No Parking (except for plants)

Only plants may park on this driveway, on a small street of souvenir shops and lunch spots on Kyoto’s famous Philosopher’s Walk, leading to Ginkakuji, the silver temple. The Philosopher’s Walk is full of cherry blossoms in the spring, they say; in winter, there are other plants to be seen.

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Kyoto: Ice cream tree, Japanese variety

Ice cream tree at the Kyoto zoo.

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Kyoto: All that I can see is another yuzu tree

My host in Kyoto has a yuzu tree in her garden. I have tree envy.

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Kyoto: Trees wear New Year’s fortunes

Happy New Year! These trees at Heian shrine are carrying the fortunes and hopes of hundreds of prayerful visitors.

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Kyoto: Houseplants congregating on sidewalks and streets

Fitting nicely with the topic “plants on the ground,” here are more plant photos from Japan recently posted on Flickr by regular UPR contributor Marko. We already posted one picture that he sent from the road, showing a driveway lined with window boxes of houseplants. The new pictures confirm that the ground, sidewalk and streets in front of houses is a common habitat for potted plants in Kyoto. Above, seedlings multiply in repurposed ramen cups, while street-art giraffes look on. Read on for more pictures…

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Nara, Japan: Sweet driveway container garden

UPR reader Marko sent in this lovely photograph of a plant-filled driveway in Japan. I love the neat row of window-boxes lined up along the ground, with one color of flower in each one. Cheers to determined gardeners unfazed by a total lack of soil in their environment! Apropos, I’ll be featuring more container gardens here soon. If you know of any good ones, please  send pictures or tell us about them below.

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