Japanese gardens-very small ones!

shegirl

My darling gardening fiend,Japan obsessed son has decided that we should have a Japanese front garden.

Need some ideas as in his world he'd like a giant one!

He's got some acers coming and some Japanese flowers (although most Japanese gardens seem quite short on flowers!) and we're looking for a weeping cherry (potted!).

Any ideas or suggestions? Could have a small water feature,not a problem.Just need ideas that I can work with cheaply and on a much much smaller scale than he would like!

Elsewhere

Easy-peasy. A few rocks and some gravel, and voila!

p00hsticks

A traditional Japanese water feature is a deer scarer


http://www.ehow.com/how_5637351_make-japanese-deer-scarer.html

ERICS_MUM

a Buddha statue in a suitable size - they are "fashionable" these days and easily available. Or slightly different, a mock "Toji gate" that you see outside Shinto temples.

Bonsai trees - they are actually outside plants and traditionally displayed on a wooden bench/table. Popular flowering plants in Japan are azaleas - more dainty than rhododendrons.

DomRavioli

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

a Buddha statue in a suitable size - they are "fashionable" these days and easily available. Or slightly different, a mock "Toji gate" that you see outside Shinto temples.

Bonsai trees - they are actually outside plants and traditionally displayed on a wooden bench/table. Popular flowering plants in Japan are azaleas - more dainty than rhododendrons.

Buddha isn't in japanese culture.

ERICS_MUM

DomRavioli wrote: »

Buddha isn't in japanese culture.

many Japanese are Buddhists and I actually attende a Buddhist wedding in Kyoto a few years ago.

(sorry if I've missed the point !)

sobie

Keep it really simple and quite sparse (which is good for budget!)

Flowers should be very sparse, and the same colour (eg any flower should be a shade of white or in your case pink for the weeping cherry).

Prunus kojo no mai is a lovely little tree if you want to change to white fowers

Look for plants with the name X Japonica which basically means the plant has orginated in Japan.

Look for slightly varing leaf shades (but keep in predominately green), and slightly different leaf textures, but so you really have to look for the diference between plants, then use just one really stand out feature plant. this can vary throught the season, so maybe a Camelia is the stand out plant in February, then the weeping cherry, followed by Spiraea Japonica in summer, followed by the foliage of an acer in autumn.

Spreading, arching or mounding foliage works best, cloud trees look fantastic but will really stretch the budget if you buy ready made so look for cheaper alternatives such as goldcrest conifer, choose one with one central straight stem and prune away

Think of Flowing water and white pebbles. There should be a structure to draw the eye too, a pergola, arch, bridge, a lantern, a large rock or a summerhouse are the most obvious.

laurel7172

The thing I really noticed about proper Japanese gardens (as opposed to most imitations here) is that they are *immaculate*.

In Kyoto last summer, every garden had a small army of elderly gardeners picking up every fallen pine needle from the gravel, snipping every dead or errant leaf from every plant.

It's the utter perfection that creates the tranquility IYSWIM.

And from an MSE perspective, keeping it tidy costs nowt

shegirl

Thanks

Just discovered there is a Japanese Garden (and bonsai nursery) in Cornwall that we'll go down to and enjoy while getting some ideas.

Now,if only there was room for a koi pond!

shegirl

sobie wrote: »

Keep it really simple and quite sparse (which is good for budget!)

Flowers should be very sparse, and the same colour (eg any flower should be a shade of white or in your case pink for the weeping cherry).

Prunus kojo no mai is a lovely little tree if you want to change to white fowers

Look for plants with the name X Japonica which basically means the plant has orginated in Japan.

Look for slightly varing leaf shades (but keep in predominately green), and slightly different leaf textures, but so you really have to look for the diference between plants, then use just one really stand out feature plant. this can vary throught the season, so maybe a Camelia is the stand out plant in February, then the weeping cherry, followed by Spiraea Japonica in summer, followed by the foliage of an acer in autumn.

Spreading, arching or mounding foliage works best, cloud trees look fantastic but will really stretch the budget if you buy ready made so look for cheaper alternatives such as goldcrest conifer, choose one with one central straight stem and prune away

Think of Flowing water and white pebbles. There should be a structure to draw the eye too, a pergola, arch, bridge, a lantern, a large rock or a summerhouse are the most obvious.

Fab!

Flowerwise we have Japanese lilies (specosium or whatever it was and toad lilies,both in pink),anemones and some other little pink ones.

Won't use too many (have 30 lilies though-I love lilies!) but am tempted to extend it to the back garden aswell and have a nice feature in the back corner and make the patio area japanesey!

The fruit and veg on th side strip may look out of place though!

Any recommendations for more green?

Mojisola

shegirl wrote: »

My darling gardening fiend,Japan obsessed son has decided that we should have a Japanese front garden.

Be careful what you put out in the front garden in case statues and expensive plants go walkabout.