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Jay Gray’s garden becomes a haven in the Japanese style

The first thing that visitors to the Garden of Gentle Breeze tea garden do is to dip a wooden ladle into a bowl of water and wash their hands — a cleansing ritual. It’s peaceful, and that’s what the place is all about.

While on the meandering stone path through the garden, visitors pass a cherry tree, which blossoms in the spring, and a variety of well-maintained plants. The sound of running water can be heard throughout the garden. Carefully placed rocks provide contrast and definition to the manicured lawn.

“These elements help calm people down, whether they think about it at all,” said Jay Gray, the Japanese-style garden’s owner.

He wants visitors to be in a calm frame of mind as soon as they enter, so they can take in the subtleties of composition and shades of green that distinguish Japanese-style gardens from western gardens.

“All of that takes more time to appreciate than pretty flowers,” he said.

Gray says he spends all day, every day, maintaining the tea garden, which is next to his house, and its larger counterpart on his property, a Japanese-style strolling garden.