Photos of Japanese garden in development

[gibson1971]

Hi all.
I have taken some pics for you to view. The garden has still got a long way to go, as you can see from the photos. I need to finish off the gravel, log roll edging, and the pond, including the surrounding border. The pond will eventually have a filter pump and fish, but towards the end of completion. So far this has taken me over 3 years to do!

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z92/gibson1971/Japanese%20Garden%202009/

[rainbowgardener]

Lovely, a work of art... I especially love the reflecting pool. It must be nice to be starting to see all your work come to fruition (it will ALWAYS be a work in progress! )

[Piet Patings]

Nice job.
Your Japanese Maple (photo 9) may not like it if its roots see too much sun.
I would add an extra inch or so soil and/or mulch just to better protect the roots.

What is the plant between the bamboo and the Buddha (photo 8 ) ?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Very nice Matt...thats a Fatsia japonica by the Buddha, Piet...

I see a tree on the first inside curve; what type is it? I applaud the planting of the tree where it will obscure the rest of the path in a few years; excellent use of hide and reveal. In a smaller garden like yours it shows you have grasped the salient design issue and dealt with it nicely. Kudos.

The one thing that I feel you might be missing is rock; it is the bones of any Japanese garden; in some cases, it's the garden... But a few stones of size help anchor pathways and bridges, draw eyes, and stabilize the visual movement of other elements. Now I know you don't have the ridiculous luxury of having had several Ice Ages deposit loads of stone in your neighborhood, like has in mine; in fact any loose stone in your country has been long turned into Stonehenge or a cathedral or something, but it really can change the feel of a garden, anchoring, stabilizing...

Here's the most famous example...

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/ryoan/ryoan-ji.html

but here's one with some plants as well...few stones, but see how powerful?

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/nanzen/nanzen-ji.html


Here's a quick overview of stone in the garden...

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/elements/stones/stones.html

Can you tell I like this site?

Just some musings...one should not concentrate on any one feature above others. It's a lovely beginning and and a few years will put it in a place you won't recognize. Well done...

HG

[gibson1971]

Very nice Matt...thats a Fatsia japonica by the Buddha, Piet...

I see a tree on the first inside curve; what type is it? I applaud the planting of the tree where it will obscure the rest of the path in a few years; excellent use of hide and reveal. In a smaller garden like yours it shows you have grasped the salient design issue and dealt with it nicely. Kudos.

The one thing that I feel you might be missing is rock; it is the bones of any Japanese garden; in some cases, it's the garden... But a few stones of size help anchor pathways and bridges, draw eyes, and stabilize the visual movement of other elements. Now I know you don't have the ridiculous luxury of having had several Ice Ages deposit loads of stone in your neighborhood, like has in mine; in fact any loose stone in your country has been long turned into Stonehenge or a cathedral or something, but it really can change the feel of a garden, anchoring, stabilizing...

Here's the most famous example...

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/ryoan/ryoan-ji.html

but here's one with some plants as well...few stones, but see how powerful?

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/gardens/nanzen/nanzen-ji.html


Here's a quick overview of stone in the garden...

http://learn.bowdoin.edu/japanesegardens/elements/stones/stones.html

Can you tell I like this site?

Just some musings...one should not concentrate on any one feature above others. It's a lovely beginning and and a few years will put it in a place you won't recognize. Well done...

HG

Hi Scott,
Many thanks for your feedback and everyone else who has replied. When you walk through the archway the first tree on the right is a Victoria Plum and the other three trees further down towards the pond are Twisted Willow. Is this the tree you were referring to? We bought them recently from Homebase as they had a special offer on. We just have to wait now for them to grow and expand.

The lack of rocks in the garden is mainly due to budget and not knowing what to plan next. I have an idea but then I often change it 5 minutes later and cannot always visualise an effect until I have made several adaptations. We are thinking of using either sandstone or York rocks, as they are in or near our geographic location.

Our next project will hopefully be a bamboo archway next to the twisted willow, leading to the pond and large bamboo poles that will eventually become low fencing.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Ah a plum. Very Japanese, the first flower of spring. The three friends of Winter, plum, bamboo and pine are often depicted in paintings...

Here's sort of a primer on stone setting I wrote a while back...

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/japanese/2003/garden.html

When we as Westerners tend to think of Japanese gardens, we often tend to think in terms of chotchkes; lanterns and Buddhas and basins, oh my! But the if Japanese garden shows the hand of man it generally does it in a subservient or unobtrusive manner (pruning, edging, a lantern here or there). The Chinese are far more anthrocentric in the garden, setting pavilions and walkways on top of Nature, and that occasionally spills into Japanese gardening (I am thinking of the Momoyama period, sometimes known as Japanese roccoco), but the usual paradigm is to keep the focus on Nature. I think your time and money would be best spent on natural features to avoid the appearance of parody. That said, you are making a British garden in a Japanese style, so who is to say what is right for Matt's garden other than Matt?

HG

[gibson1971]

Ah a plum. Very Japanese, the first flower of spring. The three friends of Winter, plum, bamboo and pine are often depicted in paintings...

Here's sort of a primer on stone setting I wrote a while back...

http://www.helpfulgardener.com/japanese/2003/garden.html

When we as Westerners tend to think of Japanese gardens, we often tend to think in terms of chotchkes; lanterns and Buddhas and basins, oh my! But the if Japanese garden shows the hand of man it generally does it in a subservient or unobtrusive manner (pruning, edging, a lantern here or there). The Chinese are far more anthrocentric in the garden, setting pavilions and walkways on top of Nature, and that occasionally spills into Japanese gardening (I am thinking of the Momoyama period, sometimes known as Japanese roccoco), but the usual paradigm is to keep the focus on Nature. I think your time and money would be best spent on natural features to avoid the appearance of parody. That said, you are making a British garden in a Japanese style, so who is to say what is right for Matt's garden other than Matt?

HG

Hi Scott,

Do you have any pictures of your garden as I can't see any on the site.

Matt

[The Helpful Gardener]

Sorry I am out a camera right now... (and the garden is a mess right now, anyway) I will try and rectify that this weekend if I can find time...

HG

[mimi100]

Hi all.
I have taken some pics for you to view. The garden has still got a long way to go, as you can see from the photos. I need to finish off the gravel, log roll edging, and the pond, including the surrounding border. The pond will eventually have a filter pump and fish, but towards the end of completion. So far this has taken me over 3 years to do!

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z92/gibson1971/Japanese%20Garden%202009/

Your garden looks beautiful. I have a question for you. Are you planting with the pot in the ground? My backyard looks similar to yours and I see some of the same gray looking element and cannot tell what this is and if I can plant in it. Can you take a look at the picture and tell me if it looks like the same thing you've planted in and if so how did you go about it? I was told that I will have to plant the actual pot into the ground to make this work.

[The Helpful Gardener]

Hi Mimi,

That is what we call stone dust and while it does have SOME nutritive values, it is primarily used to make a concrete like surface that packs hard and won't budge, hardly the friable sort of soil we want for planting...it would take a LOT of compost to get that back to good...

HG

[mimi100]

Hi Mimi,

That is what we call stone dust and while it does have SOME nutritive values, it is primarily used to make a concrete like surface that packs hard and won't budge, hardly the friable sort of soil we want for planting...it would take a LOT of compost to get that back to good...

HG

Thanks. I was scared of that. Ok so would that leave me with the option to simply plant the actual pot into the ground?

[The Helpful Gardener]

Not really, beacuse the drainage is so poor in stonedust your pot would just back up. Plus it was compacted down at installation, so the soil underneath will be compacted also;you would have to dig down a few feet to be sure of good drainage. Adding compost 2:1 and rototilling to a foot or so of depth would work for a lot of plants...

HG

[mimi100]

makes total sense. Thanks