Elements of a Japanese Garden

Create tranquility in your garden by borrowing some principles from these timeless spaces

The art and trade of the Japanese garden continues to thrive today after well over 1,300 years in Japan and for the last 150 years in various points Rebecca West and east . It is hard to define one reason for the almost instant endearment of these beautiful distance , but for me , it has always been the Japanese garden ’s ability to enamor the essence of the greater instinctive world as well as its power to accommodate to almost any character of site and topography . Most of us are only intimate with the Nipponese garden in public - parkland preferences , and while beautiful , these gardens would in all likelihood be far out of our range in terms of cost — and perhaps scale — to even be given a second thought as an choice for our own homes . There are , however , component of design within well-nigh all Japanese garden that can be integrate into a non - Japanese garden with outstanding success . The key is not to paint a Japanese face on your garden in an sweat to make it bet or feel authentically Nipponese . Take discriminative stimulus , or else , from Japanese - gardening proficiency to evoke the peace and tranquility that these garden inhale . To do this , we will need to look closely at some of the element of traditional Japanese - garden design .

SEASONALITY

Each season is equally important

Japan is one of the few domain in the creation that places such unattackable ethnic significance on the seasons as they link to casual aliveness and the feelings and mood that they evoke . It ’s easy to understand , then , the importance of the seasons within the garden . The good gardens in Japan , for instance , would rarely , if ever , feature a Japanese - maple cultivar with carmine parting during the growing time of year . The seasonal color change is what is desirable .

Spring is the menstruation of rebirth , so deciduous plants that bloom or go flat into leafage are a desired feature . The destination is a legal brief , subdued color display that is appropriate to the season . Summerin the Japanese garden is the season of green , rather than the degraded presentation of flowering shrub and perennials often seen in western gardens . In the sidereal day before air - conditioning , nothing was more square than retreating to the cat valium of the summertime garden with , perhaps , the sound of trickle water to cool you down .

Fall gives us a chance to look back , and the fall of colorful leaves signals the yr ’s oddment . Winter is a prison term of balance for the garden , but it is also a prison term to see the scaffold of the leafless tree and the way that blow dresses the evergreen plants .

Bringing it home

SPACE

Minimizing distractions lets a garden indoors

Perhaps the primary thing that convert me to using the principles of Japanese garden is the way that the Japanese plate and garden are seamlessly integrate . This is largely due to Nipponese place featuring story - to - ceiling views of the garden , which in effect brings the outside into the family . While many of our rest home feature windows that can only be look through while standing , others have homes with sliding doors and floor plans not unlike the traditional Nipponese plate .

That said , when the garden is intended or has the electric potential to be viewed from a fixed location , such as inside the house , there should n’t be distraction or clutter in between to lessen the experience . Avoid planting the right way outside a window . Not every inch needs to be filled with plant or Harlan Fiske Stone pigeonholing . There needs to be empty infinite — such as a lawn area , a sea of gravel , or a pond — that give the watcher a sense of depth .

Also , legion technique allow us also to trick the eye into believe that the garden is wide of the mark or deeper than it is . A long , minute place , for example , might use sparse plant in the foreground with increasingly heavier plantings in the middle and back to squeeze the rectangular shape of the site and make the viewer look to just one upstage advantage point .

QUALITY

Good materials and deliberate maintenance shine through

Selecting the best possible materials is significant in constructing any garden . Become familiar with the materials available to you before you start . High - quality material can be expensive , and it is good to expect until they fit out your budget than to compromise and go with subscript materials just to get the job done . Consulting with a professional , as well , might be well worth the investing . When it occur to plants , consider species that are well adapted to your expanse , even though they might not be what you would immediately consider typical for a Japanese garden . Likewise , take into account the maintenance that a industrial plant will require in the start to pull through you headache — and an overgrown mess — later . A well - maintained garden of marginal design will far outshine the best - designed garden that is throw no care .

SUBTLETY

Less is more

We have all heard the phrase “ too much of a good thing . ” Overpowering a garden with a miserable architectural choice , ostentatious stone groupings , or too many specimen trees gives the watcher a sense of uneasiness , which is the opposite of our destination . Lanterns and pagoda , for example , have a place in some gardens , but if they are used as the element to delineate the space as a Japanese garden , it would be better to start over and discover a path that did not require their usance for credibleness . directive mark and plant labels should also be avoided because they are unnecessary and clutter the garden .

Nipponese garden are not collections of Japanese plant but , rather , arranging of plants and stuff that suggest landscape painting scene . When we endeavor to create an surface area that makes us believe of the flock , a meadow , or the seashore , we apply the plants that normally grow there . To create a scene where no one part overpowers the residual , avoid merge wildly contrast foliage textures and colors in favor of a more harmonious blend of plants .

PROPORTION

keep things in musical scale helps evoke the good mood

The well - gestate garden should have landforms , plantings , and footpath that touch in scale to the size of the human trunk . This makes the watcher feel intimate with the internet site conditions and , thus , more comfy . Nipponese gardens are created on this human scale , sometimes by using technique of abstract representation or distilling the kernel of the scenic parts of the raw reality to impart their mood to the garden . When using orotund Stone to call forth the feeling of mountains or a water course , for example , it is authoritative to use a multifariousness of sizes and Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe to effectively replicate what we see in nature . Similarly , plants must be selected and maintained at a variety of sizes and shapes in an elbow grease to pop the question a tactile sensation of old and new . This keeps the scene from becoming stagnant with plantings that have grown to a similar sizing and extend niggling mutant for the eye to move up and down naturally through the composing .

If you believe the diversely arranged garden stones and contour of the land as the skeleton of the garden , then it is equally authoritative to consider the idealistic size of the attending plantings ; that ’s because the Oliver Stone and hammock do not get any big , while the plantings do . The result in Japan has been to prune all industrial plant in the garden to keep them in proportion to the layout of the rest of the garden , but this can be accomplished with thrifty plant life choices , as well .

It is rare to see big tone trees in a garden in Japan , simply because they are out of proportion with the rest of the garden . These Tree are reserved for parks and temple garden where their size is honorable in scale with the surrounding space and the architecture . heavy shade trees are a common feature of American gardens , however , and often a necessity for summertime shade . A room to keep these trees is to apply additional plantings of smaller tree that transition the height of the trees back to the solid ground plane so that they are n’t disproportionately with child than everything else in the garden .

DESIGN

It ’s notaboutthe lantern

make a mood similar to one regain in a traditional Japanese garden does n’t think of that you have to have bamboo and Japanese Isidor Feinstein Stone lantern everywhere . Here are some ways to add some serenity to your garden . ( A lantern is optional . )

Go easy on contrast and colour

Color and line are fantastic for make an exciting garden , but the power of a Japanese garden come from its ability to call forth a horse sense of calm from the visitor . This sketch has very few bright colour — and even those are kept small and far away .

stay on in scale

When the size of the element of a garden are too big , a someone feelsinsignificant ; when they are too pocket-size , one can feel clumsy and inapt . By keep this itinerary just the right breadth for a person to walk on and keeping the planting down to a size of it where one can interact with them , this vignette has a ordered series that contributes to the peaceful mood of the blank .

Feel free to have nothing

gardener often have the impetus to put a plant into any open space that they see . But the empty space between plant founder everything room to create its own encroachment . This sketch makes usance of gravel and low reason covers to allow everything to breathe .

John Powell is a designer specializing in Japanese gardens in Weatherford , Texas .

Japanese Garden

Fine Gardening Recommended product

Gardener ’s Log Book from NYBG

hunky-dory Gardening receives a perpetration for items purchased through links on this site , including Amazon Associates and other affiliate advertising programs .

Japanese-garden design

ARS Telescoping Long Reach Pruner

The Crevice Garden : How to make the perfect plate for plant from bouldery place

Get our latest tips , how - to articles , and instructional videos place to your inbox .

Japanese Garden with Statue

bless you up …

Dale’s Japanese Garden

The Elements of Great Garden-Container Design Simplified

Where’s Cherry? Burchart Japanese Garden

Inspired Design: What Are the Basic Elements of a Garden?

Join Fine horticulture for a loose engaging live webinar featuring Dr. Janna Beckerman , a far-famed plant life pathologist as well as prof emerita at Purdue University and the ornamentals technological manager …

When I pick out a fussy sand dollar cactus ( Astrophytum asterias ) at the Philadelphia Flower Show a few months ago , I knew I was in trouble . With a delicious people of colour pattern …

When we only prioritize plants we want over plants our landscape needs , each time of year is filled with a never - ending list of chores : pruning , pinching , watering , treating , amending , and fertilizing , with …

Inside Japanese House

Video

Touring an Eco-friendly, Shady Backyard Retreat

You must be careful when you enter the backyard of garden graphic designer Jeff Epping — not because you ’re likely to trip on something , but because you might be dive - bombed by a brace …