Japanese Garden Design

Japanese garden design is one of the most elusive of good designs for North American gardeners to grasp. Here's what you need to know to begin.

This style of gardening is all about reducing things to minimums. It is not about adding Japanese-looking ornaments and then blithely going on growing the flowers available in garden centers.

This style of gardening is about eliminating things from your garden and making the garden represent something else.

Usually, a Japanese garden represents a natural surrounding. It can be designed to represent a mountain or a forest or a grass land but it is a minimalist design where a single rock represents a mountain - a single small shrub represents an entire forest - a single flower takes the place of a natural flower meadow. It is minimalist - it is representative and it tells a story if you take the time to listen.

The average western garden seeks to overwhelm the senses with masses of flowers in cottage garden styles. The average Japanese garden seeks to underwhelm the senses and make you sit and think about what the designer intended. Less is better.And there are traditional forms of Japanese garden design where different arrangements of rocks (for example) serve as a garden design shorthand for a style of mountain range. But you have to study the rock placements before you can appreciate the nature of what the designer is telling you - what story is being told.

So the first step in Japanese garden design is to decide what story you're going to tell in your garden.

Once you decide on what you're trying to tell yourself (a garden can be a constant reminder) and your visitors, then the rest will follow as will the other articles in this series.

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