SURF PINES – There’s a little bit of Asia in Surf Pines.

Tucked in between two homes on Manion Drive, a 100-by-100-foot lot has been transformed into an Asian-style garden, and the influence has even spread to the house, where there are vases and antique Asian paintings. Yet homeowner George von Weller has never traveled to Asia.

“I just like gardening,” he said.

Where there was grass in the front yard three years ago, there’s a banana plant; pine trees, pruned Asian-style; and a giant gunnera. Ferns, hostas and bamboo abound.

At least 16 carefully pruned pine trees dominate von Weller’s yard.

“They take a lot of time to prune,” von Weller said. “I cut the branches, stand back, look at it from two or three angles and make sure that I get the look that I want. I just love the way the Oriental trees look. I won’t let them get any bigger.”

Despite the variety and beauty of his garden, von Weller is reluctant to show it off. It’s not as pretty now as it could be, he says. “It has been a bad year for yards. All that wind in December sucks the moisture out of them. There were several pines I had to stake up.”

But the Japanese blood grass and subtle shades of the weeping blue Atlantic cedar and orange sedge lend interest to an already unusual garden among the neighborhood yards of beach grass.

Usually, Japanese gardens don’t have a lot of color, he said. They encourage the use of muted shades of green. There are other rules, too: Plants should be grouped in odd numbers, never in pairs. If rocks or other objects are part of the mix, the resulting display should be in the form of a triangle.

When he worked as a plant manager for Pepsi Cola in Portland, von Weller gardened, even in the forested area around his home. With his own chipper, von Weller makes his own compost. He also propagates plants. He moved to Gearhart 14 years ago.

His banana plant doesn’t have any bananas, but it thrives in his front yard. So does his gunnera, a tropical plant that usually grows in Brazil.

“The leaves get like this,” said von Weller, stretching his arms about 3 feet wide.

A concrete pagoda in the front yard is surrounded by bamboo, the banana plant and the gunnera. Other Asian objects, including concrete Asian lanterns, are tucked in bushes in the backyard. When von Weller wants to relax, he heads for the backyard hot tub, in a wooden Asian-looking enclosure nestled among the plants.

Paths run throughout the garden. The garden in back is bordered by a fence von Weller built of bamboo; he carved the tops of all the posts.

Although he is active with the Boy Scouts, von Weller finds that gardening takes much of his time since his wife died a few years ago.

“Around here, it’s a full-time job keeping the weeds out,” he said.