Wara-maki, Japanese garden artistic winter protection

It is quite common throughout the world to wrap the plants in straw for cold weather protection, but in Japan this procedure gave birth to art.

To keep their gardens beautiful even during winter, the Japanese gardeners are using various wara-maki ("straw wrapping") techniques, like the one photographed here: the straws are carefully tied with rope and a decorative tassel knot is added on top...