Planting Ideas for a Japanese garden
Japanese gardens have throughout history set out to provide a tranquil environment around the house. They possess an aura of calm which is rarely matched in western garden styles, and almost every element in their composition is symbolic of some aspect of nature or human life. Today the symbolism is not so strong and many gardens in Japan tend to use these symbolic elements for traditional and aesthetic reasons rather than for their meaning. For a westerner, perhaps the best approach to Japanese gardens is to draw from them the means of arriving at that special stillness and to use it like any other garden tool, instead of trying to produce faithful copies in a foreign land.
Much of that tranquillity derives from an economical, almost minimal use of materials. Each element, whether built or planted, seems heavy upon the ground and settled there. Even water is still or flows gently downwards; you do not find fountains in Japanese gardens. The garden is designed to give the impression of the natural landscape at its most serene. The man-made geometry of some western garden styles is abhorrent to the Japanese.
It is precisely because Japanese gardens discreetly suggest nature, instead of copying it, that they can be created in a space of any size, however small. (At its most extreme, this becomes the miniature landscapes of bonsai.) Western gardeners can learn much from this clever use of small spaces.
The key elements involved are stone, water and a wealth of greenery, arranged in asymmetrical but well-balanced configurations. Flowers, such as irises, peonies, lilies and chrysanthemums, play a relatively unimportant part. Groups of stones or boulders can be used to represent mountains and evergreens are clipped to depict boulders, while flat stones may form a gently weaving path. Straight lines are avoided. Water will be present, either as a waterfall, a pool with islands or simply suggested by flowing white sand. Commonly used plants include trees such as plums, cherries and maples and bamboo. Coniferous trees such as pines and juniper are often clipped to form floating cloud shapes, or they can be encouraged to take on a weatherworn appearance. Most significantly, all these plants are used sparingly and are rarely allowed to rub shoulders with one another.
Fences and screens, of materials such as bamboo or grasses, are more common than walls for dividing the garden. Often a loggia is provided from which to view the garden and a lantern of stone or metal is carefully placed to light the path at night or to offer reflections in the water of a pool.
Essentially, a garden in the Japanese style is intended to offer peace and quiet contemplation to its owner and his or her guests, a designer’s garden rather than a plantsman’s garden. Restraint is everything, with order, harmony and decorum as the guiding principles behind a scheme.
