Japanese Garden Forum

[The Helpful Gardener]

Hi

Lots of forums out there about Japanese gardening, but none offered with more love of the subject than this one. If you feel the same way about Jgardens, then I hope you have found a new home on the Web. I look forward to talking with you...

Scott

[petunialover]

I know the Japanese work on the less is more premise, would it be ok to do just a section of my garden with a Japanese flair, what constitutes a Japanese garden? I have a lovely acer palmatum I am keeping in a large container until we buy a house, what can I do around that that is a Japanese garden?

TIA

PL

[The Helpful Gardener]

As long as that acer is in a container, I wouldn't do a Japanese garden around it; Japanese gardens are representations of nature and Mother doesn't plant in pots

Please read through the Helpful Gardener [url=https://www.helpfulgardener.com/japanese/index.html]Japanese Garden[/url] pages for an oversight on the style; it is too broad a subject to go into here. Here is a link to a great site for viewing the best gardens of Japan; coupled with a little better understanding of the style from my articles, I think you may get some great ideas...

[url]https://academic.bowdoin.edu/zen/[/url]

In the meantime, one of the nicest Japanese gardens I saw was a little doorstep garden in Mike Yamashita's "In the Japanese Garden". It was a maple next to a single boulder (really just a big wallstone), with a shallow basin buried in front of it and filled with water. Incredibly simple, yet it has the plants, rock, and water that constitute most Japanese gardens. SO if you do something in the meantime, less is more...

HG
Enjoy

Scott

[petunialover]

with regard to artificial things in Japanese gardens, all the little idols, Buddhas, and temples aren't like mother either. I was thinking of camophlaging my pot with rocks, and maybe a pebble surround and those nice little 'natural' mounds of greenery, possibly a bit of collected mosses.

The pictures on the Bowdoin site are lovely, and give me a great idea of where to start.

PL

[The Helpful Gardener]

All the "little idols" and such are almost never really found in most J-gardens; we in the West have gotten that impression because that's what sells here, but if you review the gardens on the Bowdoin site, you'll note the chatchkes are few and far between. Buddhas are never found in any garden other than temple gardens; the same can be said of stupas.

However they do recognize man as part of nature and those occasional lanterns and chozubachi are meant to portray that as well as add function to the garden. But to show the tree in the pot would be bad form unless you are displaying it as bonsai, another topic entirely...

Scott

[petunialover]

I'm not so sure my poor tlittle purple maple will make it anyway, the seller, Walmart has never sold me a plant that lived.... I have noticed some new growth on it but... any way I was hoping to get some stone benches that are curved to go around the pot, but it is rather large and I don't have enough room to make an osasis that is barren and open like the dry stream beds or 'waterfall' I had in mind. I wish I could make a small place more.... well less.

PL

[The Helpful Gardener]

And yet you still buy plants at Wally World? If it's not working it's not working. Garden Centers are the place to buy plants. Is it more expensive? Yes. But if everything dies, how much time is wasted? And what does that cost you?

Less takes a real commitment. We in the West want to fill the space; more is more. Think about what can be removed and still convey the big idea...

Scott

[petunialover]

I am an art design major, you sound like my professor, lo these many years ago. I was hoping to just get a few ideas to 'run with'. Often a word or idea will give me enough to begin my own design ideas going. I guess that's not the scope of this forum, sorry

Thank you
PL

[The Helpful Gardener]

Hey, the scope of this forum is whatever you (and everyone else) wants to make it. If you are looking for ideas here's a site that features the best gardens in Japan...


[url]https://rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/bycountry/japan/index1.html[/url]

Remember, boil it down to the fewest possible features and you won't go far wrong...

Scott

[petunialover]

I found the site interesting, I'm thinking a small oval or kidney shape dry pond with maybe a stone 'fountain' in the center I'd love a stone bench but it has to all fit in such a small space I may just go with the dry pond.

PL

[The Helpful Gardener]

Petunia, look through those Japanese gardens again; some benches in the public parks, but none as garden "features"...