We went to visit Hakone gardens, a Japanese garden in Saratoga California, to get some landscaping ideas for our backyard. Most parts of our backyard are still covered in dirt only. We like how Japanese style gardens use rocks, wood decks, and plants to create different vignettes in one garden. We have actually started a deck project already last weekend. It’s almost done (our bodies are aching so much right now after all the dirt-digging and moving heavy woods). I will show you the pictures later once the deck is done. We are very excited about the deck. It’s our first major DIY building project together!