Creating Japanese-Inspired Gardens in Maine with Lee Schneller Sligh of Lee Schneller Fine Gardens

Creating Japanese-Inspired Gardens in Maine is a talk Lee has given many times, always updating it with new material from gardens she has built and gardens she visits in Japan. One of the core principles of Japanese garden design is that the garden should not look exotic in its surroundings, so she generally uses plants that look at home in New England while making use of Japanese design concepts such as ‘Hide and Reveal’, ‘The Beauty of Empty Space’ and ‘Borrowed Views’.

Lee Schneller Sligh majored in Chinese language and literature, lived and traveled extensively in Asia and worked as a Japanese technical translator for ten years before starting her garden design and build business in midcoast Maine in 1995. Specializing in Japanese-inspired gardens gives her the perfect excuse to return to Japan frequently to study gardens, and she takes her whole gardening crew to Japan every two years, the most recent trip being in November 2018.

This program is co-sponsored by the Belfast Free Library and the Belfast Garden Club.