Tomie’s Cuisine the Nobonsai

Tomie’s Cuisine the Nobonsai is a garden that supports living together with creatures, including fungi and microorganisms.

Plants surround the space, softly blocking the line of sight from the outside for privacy, and giving the balcony the feel of being another room. The planting is harmonious, creating an aesthetic closer to nature than a container garden.

At a glance:

Who is this garden for? 
A domestic balcony garden for growing and entertaining.
Where is the garden set?  
England.
Who or what is the design inspiration?
Sustainability and Japanese gardens

This is a no-waste, plastic-free balcony garden containing lifestyle tips and sustainable gardening methods. The home compost is the garden centrepiece, helping to feed the plants indirectly and avoiding the need for replanting or relying on chemicals.

Key sustainability points

• The garden’s hard landscapes are made of wood; there are no plastics.
• Cardboard and mulching with pruned twigs almost eliminates the need for watering. In a drought, added water is not wasted, thanks to soil layering methods.
• Reusing cut-back or pruned twigs, stems, leaves and food waste as fertilisers, continues the harvesting without adding soil and feeding.

Relocation

After the show, the garden and the primary plants will go to the sponsor’s private garden, Tomie’s Cuisine garden, as a content source for their blog and courses about sustainable life.