Let Japanese Garden Concepts assist you in creating your very own ‘little piece of Japan’ or peaceful meditation garden
I specialise in designing and creating authentic Japanese gardens (traditional or contemporary) of all kinds, oriental and meditation gardens of all genres including healing mandala and labyrinth ‘walking meditation’ gardens. This consultation and design service can be provided in person but can also be done successfully remotely via email, online sessions and video calls. Assessment of the site and measurements can be taken by myself (time and travel would be charged for) or accurate measurements and site photos can be supplied by yourself or your landscaper. Project management of certain installations is also possible depending on your location and budget. If you are creating your own Japanese garden and just need some advice, you can arrange a consultation with me. I can work closely with your landscape gardener or yourself to ensure that your garden is planted and installed true to the design. If you have an existing established garden, it is often a good idea to speak to me first before you start clearing the site or purchasing any items.
In these stressful and hurried times, there is a very real need for a special, quiet, place where one can retreat in order to relax, look within and recharge ones spiritual and physical batteries. Opportunities to achieve this tranquility are few and far between. The key is to create a beautiful meditative area, indoors or outdoors, surrounded by nature and the elements, where a peaceful, harmonious and relaxing atmosphere can be achieved.
These styles of gardens are perfect not just for the private home but also for offices, hotels, restaurants, yoga studios/retreats, dojos, meditation retreats, beauty salons and health spas. My aim is to assist my clients in creating just such a haven whether it is in the domestic or corporate environment.
Why Go Japanese?
There are so many benefits and reasons to go Japanese in your garden. Just some of them are listed below.
Aesthetics
As mainly evergreen plants, shrubs and trees and perennials are used, the picture remains beautiful throughout the year and there is never a time when your garden looks ‘dead’ in the middle of winter. Although deciduous trees (such as Japanese Maples) and shrubs are often used these are always placed carefully so that your garden remains beautiful even in mid-winter. Although the best time is ideally Spring or Summer, a Japanese garden can be planted any time of the year, even in the middle of winter.
Cost
As annuals are not featured in traditional Japanese gardens (unless you choose to include them in pots on a nearby patio) the constant cost of new plants, compost & materials and the time or labour used to constantly re-do garden beds is eliminated. A Japanese garden will pay for itself again and again over the years. Once it is planted, it will just get better with age as it establishes. The average Western garden is generally over-planted and a lot of money can be saved by the more minimalistic Japanese approach.
Low Maintenance
Contrary to popular belief, Japanese gardens do NOT have to be high maintenance. If you want shaped trees and shrubs in your garden, maintenance will of course be higher but there are ways of designing a Japanese garden where there will be almost no maintenance at all apart from watering and the odd bit of weeding. Annuals are not a focus, new plants (often bearing weeds!) are not constantly being introduced. Garden beds are not turned over regularly, soil is not disturbed as much as usual and compost (often bearing weed seeds unless you are careful to buy certified weed-free) is also not being continuously added to the garden. As a result weeding is usually far less! The garden can even be designed so that minimum amount of pruning and shaping (if any) is required which can really set you free from garden maintenance. Lawn is also not a part of a traditional Japanese garden, having been introduced by the West. In Japan lawn is only sometimes featured in very large public areas and parks and possibly the odd very large private garden. In a larger garden, lawn may go up to and be adjacent to the focal Japanese garden area. However many small Japanese gardens are designed with absolutely no lawn present unless the client has asked for a patch of lawn to be incorporated into the design. This low maintenance approach is welcomed by many considering our busy modern lifestyles and general lack of time.
Water-wise
Your garden can be designed to be extremely water-wise! A kare-sansui or ‘Zen’ garden where there may be planting but there is a lot of focus on rocks and gravel, is extremely water-wise. Even more water-wise is a raked ‘Zen’ temple-style garden which is formed entirely from feature rocks and raked gravel thus needing no water at all unless you plant mosses around the bases of the rocks. Planting can also be chosen to be more water-wise.
Therapeutic
Although a beautiful garden of any genre can be wonderful to relax in, if designed correctly your Japanese garden will effortlessly induce a powerful sensation of meditation, relaxation and contemplation. This is achieved not only by adhering to the strict rules of Japanese garden design, ensuring that energy flow (Ki or as the Chinese call it, Chi) is correct but also by minimising or being extremely careful when it comes to the use of colour in the garden to ensure that the mind is not over stimulated. A Japanese garden is the perfect space within which to relax, meditate and contemplate. This can be extremely beneficial both in the home and within a corporate or public space.
Space
The art of Japanese gardens allows us to make the very most of small spaces and to truly make a highly effective statement even when space is limited. Space is at a premium in Japan with those lucky enough to have a view onto a garden often sharing the view of a tsuboniwa (courtyard garden) or gardens created in narrow passages between homes. If you have a bigger garden, Japanese ‘rooms’ or areas can be created within the whole. These dedicated spaces would ideally be positioned in highly visible areas or outside picture windows where they can be viewed from the living area. Traditional bamboo and/or wooden fences and screens can be used to demarcate these areas and create more intimacy if desired.
Timeless
Japanese gardens are not a fad which will blow over and be quickly discarded. This art form is enduring and ageless and will make always make an elegant statement even decades from now.
Symbolic
There is so much symbolism and ancient historical tradition incorporated into a traditional Japanese garden. A western style garden may be beautiful, but it will not have this sense of mystery and deeper meaning embedded at nearly every turn. It is different and usually a talking point when visitors view it – they always want to know more about it.
Versatile
The understated elegance and beauty of the Japanese garden blends with any architectural style – traditional or contemporary. A Japanese garden can be highly traditional in design or Japanese garden design principles can be used to create an extremely modern or abstract garden.