Buckram Road has a new masonry wall in the area of Dogwood Lane. It is an outside expression of more work that has been done inside the John P. Humes Japanese Stroll Garden in Mill Neck.

"The new stone wall defines the borders and muffles the sounds from the busy road outside, while allowing the splashing of the waterfall to more clearly resonate throughout the garden," said Celia Jelley of the Garden Conservancy, of Cold Spring, NY, which manages the garden.

Thanks to a 1997 ten million yen large challenge grant from the Japan World Exposition Commemorative Fund, the two ponds and the watercourse --- key features of the garden --- will flow with renewed vigor to finish their symbolic journey.

The 4-acre Stroll Garden symbolizes a mountain beside the sea, where gravel paths represent mountain streams bubbling through pools and cascades, eventually flowing into the ocean, represented here by a pond.

The reconstruction of the rock ledge and waterfall was a collaboration between curator Stephen Morrell and the noted landscape firm, Emil Kreye & Son, a third-generation company. They brought in huge sections of moss-covered ledge and boulders and reassembled them on the site, creating a dramatic waterfall which looks as if it has been on the property forever.

Dainty primula, new mosses and established rhododendron and hollies have been planted in the crevices of the rocks, enhancing the sense of a natural mountain waterfall. A bog garden has been created at the base of the waterfall.

The hand-built wall with stucco surface has been finished with a coat of chocolate brown paint which makes it nearly invisible against the trees. The construction has been completed swiftly thanks to the mild winter. The garden opens to visitors on April 25.

Through the efforts of the Garden Conservancy, which in 1993 assumed management of the garden, together with the Humes Foundation and the Friends of the Humes Japanese Stroll Garden, the grant was successfully matched for the project to be completed this spring. Additional major support came from The Starr Foundation, The Henry Luce Foundation and the Edwin S. Webster Foundation.

The garden was created by Ambassador and Mrs. John P. Humes following a visit to Japan in 1910. Later that year, inspired by their experience, they purchased the Tea House that still stands in the garden and they secured the services of a Japanese landscape gardener and his wife, Douglas and Joan DeFaya. Over the next four years the Defayas transformed two acres of rolling woodland into the Japanese Stroll Garden.

The Japanese and American climates are similar and so the same types of vegetation grow in both areas, making it possible to create a Japanese garden outdoors in Mill Neck.

In 1981, after being encouraged by landscape designer Francois Goffinet to preserve the garden, Mr. Humes hired Stephen Morrell to rehabilitate the garden with the idea of opening it to the public. Since then, Mr. Morrell has added a new entrance path featuring a collection of Japanese maples and Asian and native woodland wildflowers, increasing the garden's total area to nearly four acres.

Other added features include the wisteria arbor, bamboo groves, rocky shoreline, and a display hut for ikebana and bonsai. In 1986 the garden opened to the public, but after several years of operation, it became clear that more resources were needed to secure its future and so the link with the Garden Conservancy, a national organization working to preserve exceptional American gardens.

The Stroll Garden is similar to ones found in Kyoto, Japan, and reflects a natural approach to garden design by responding directly to existing topography and vegetation. It blends garden elements with the existing native woodland. Much emphasis is placed on the layout of the path where the design principles of "Hide and Reveal" and "Movement along the Diagonal" are employed. Instead of following a straight axis, the path veers right and left, diverting the eye, then revealing a new sequence of scenes as one proceeds through the garden, thereby heightening the effect and exaggerating the sense of space.

There is more: symbolism, and emotion response, a walking meditation, and at the end, the quiet retreat from worldly problems in the Tea Garden where the tea ceremony is performed in the Tea House. It is described as "a spritual exchange between host, guest and environment - a ceremony of friendship."

The Humes Japanese Stroll Garden in Mill Neck is open to the public every Saturday and Sunday from April 25 to Oct. 18, from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Admission is $5 per person; no reservations required.

Guided tours followed by an interpretation of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony will be given at 10 a.m. on the following Saturdays: May 9, 23; June 20; July 11, 25; Aug. 8, 22; Sept. 5; 19 and Oct. 3, 17: the fee is $10.

Tours emphasizing the horticultural aspects of the garden will be given on Sundays: May 17, June 7, Aug. 16 and Sept. 13. The horticultural tours are $8 and will start at 10 a.m. Reservations are required for both tours. Call 676-4486 for more information.

Other activities at the Stroll Garden include horticultural symposia, private guided tours for garden clubs and other civic organizations, Shukuhachi flute meditations and classes in yoga and tai-chi.