Building Your Toolbox

Building Your Toolbox

If you are looking to add a few special Japanese gardening tools to your toolbox, here are a few suggestions to get you started. For information on Japanese Tool Maintenance, see Care and Feeding of Japanese Tools. HAND PRUNERS would surely be the first thing you...

Care & Feeding of Japanese Tools

Quality gardening tools are an investment and a treasure. Here are a few pointers on how to keep them in good shape. For information on tool selection, see Building your Toolbox. CLEANING Clean tools function better and last longer. Plant diseases may also be spread...
Moving Mountains

Moving Mountains

This article describes the stone setting process demonstrated in an Atlanta workshop by Mike Yamakami in 2003. Due to the inherently dangerous nature of moving large boulders, I do not recommend using the following information as a practical guide for the ambitious...
Making a Tripod Ladder

Making a Tripod Ladder

Masanori Yamakami (AKA – Yama or Mike) shared his expertise in building tripod ladders on a cold day in February of 2008. What follows is a description of a 10′ ladder that I built from red oak lumber using Yama’s design concept (as best as I could...