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My Bonsai Land

On top of my bonsai rack, I have also rented a piece of land to grow more bonsai trees.  Teacher Wong always says that one is truly  a bonsai artist only when she knows how to cultivate a seedling or a cutting into a beautiful bonsai tree from ground zero.  And the best way to acquire this knowledge is by doing it herself.

While I have a very packed schedule and know that this is a long-time commitment, I couldn’t resist but rented a piece of land in the bonsai workshop and turned a new page in my bonsai world.

Trees grow much faster when they are rooted in the ground.  By growing the trees in the ground, not only can I  grow my bonsai trees faster, but I can also grow my trees into whatever styles I want them to be in a much shorter time.  And once the tree has grown large enough (around 80% of the size I intend to grow the tree into)  and more or less into the bonsai style I want, I can then pot the bonsai tree into a bonsai pot, and work on the pruning and training of the smaller branches, foliage, and details.

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This is how my 10 ft x 10 ft land looked like before I started.  It is covered with a piece of black cloth to prevent weeds from growing.

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Plowing is tough, laborious work, and I am very happy that I have got Yik to help.

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After all the lifting, turning over, and pulverizing the soil, we add a big block of peat moss and sand for good water retention, high air capacity, and good drainage.

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After more plowing and mixing, we stored the extra soil mix in bags and covered up the land with the black cloth again.

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