Known for being minimal, considered and serene, bring the soft, lush elements of Japanese style to your urban haven
When we think of a Japanese garden, tranquil visions of raked shingle, bonsai, mossy rocks and lone pines float past.
While there are many such beautiful and serene gardens to be found, usually around temples and public parks, the reality is very different for most of the country’s gardeners. They have to contend with pocket gardens, small courtyards, tiny balconies and roadside strips.
Grand or humble, Japanese gardens are fascinating and inspirational.
Here are six ways to introduce Japanese style to your garden
Granite lanterns, or Ishidoro date back to the sixth century in Japan. initially adopted to light the precincts of shrines and temples they have become commonplace in gardens across the world.
1. The magic is in the trees
The Japanese love for and veneration of trees is deeply embedded in their culture. Despite being a heavily populated country, more than two-thirds of it is covered in trees. The care lavished on them is astounding and inspiring.
Pruning even the largest trees is an honoured craft, each snip and cut carefully, thoughtfully made. The older the tree, the more cherished it is and great lengths are taken to keep them alive.
Quintessential Japanese trees include the cherry and plum, treasured for their blossom and autumn colours. Small maples, with their bold colours and weeping forms, are popular in small gardens. All are carefully shaped to attain the desired effect.
In smaller gardens, one carefully positioned and cultivated tree may be all that is needed. A single persimmon tree with its lantern-like orange fruit dangling from bare branches outside a dwelling in the grey winter of semi-rural Japan is an iconic sight easily replicated.
2. Embrace bamboo
Bamboo is synonymous with Asia and ubiquitous in Japanese gardens, where it is both an attractive and revered plant; and a building material for much in the garden. Most designs are deceptively simple such as diagonal or square latticing tied together with rope, or hoops as edging for beds and paths.
Bamboo is one of the fastest-growing plants, some are reputed to grow more than a metre a day. To avoid being overtaken by it, make sure to get a clump-forming variety, not a spreading one. One of the many beauties of bamboo is that it can grow in very small spaces yet still achieve a good height.
A popular variety in urban settings is the slender Bambusa textilis ‘Gracilis’ (fairy bamboo), loved for its slender stems and rich, almost fern-like foliage. When the leaves are removed from densely packed lower stems, they resemble a fence, with the top unstripped upper half providing a cool and delicate hedge.
3. Stone lanterns
Originally used as lighting in Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, then later teahouse courtyards, stone lanterns are now commonplace in gardens throughout the country. Coming in a variety of shapes and sizes, many have their own traditional setting.
Yukimi-doro, for example, with its large roof and two to four legs is often found near water. Most desirable are those lanterns weathered, and clad in moss, which is usually an indication of their age.
Consider this conveniently small and perfectly designed Japanese lantern to complete any outdoor space.
Stone lanterns are readily obtainable in New Zealand, with cheaper options available in concrete and other manmade materials. For authenticity (not to mention ease of shifting) they should come in sections and are best placed among shady foliage.
Japanese Solar Pagoda Garden Lantern, $71.76, from Amazon
Encourage moss growth
Remember moss prefers moisture and shade, and is easily destroyed by hot afternoon sun, having shallow filaments that dry up faster than roots. Moss is easily encouraged by applying milk or yoghurt to the damp surface of stone or concrete. Or it may be dug up or removed from another source and pressed onto the damp surface of the lantern.
4. Consider narrow hedging for privacy
Hedges in Japanese gardens and courtyards can be extraordinarily narrow, as little as seven centimetres deep. Just as pretty as their thicker counterparts, these hedges are effective screens, though they may lack some of the sound barrier qualities. Usually, they are grown up and around a bamboo frame.
A wireframe is a suitable substitute for bamboo, a frame being necessary to keep the shape of such a delicate feature. Training needs to begin when the hedging plants are young and continue with regular clipping throughout their lifetime. Easiest to keep narrow are the smaller-leafed species, such as yew, box, box honeysuckle and some pittosporums.
5. Make the most of your space
With more than 90 percent of Japan’s population living in urban areas, most dwelling gardens are small or nonexistent. Often gardeners have to make do with balconies and narrow strips between houses and lanes. But no space is too small for a plant. Flowers burst out of cracks where the road and wall meet. Fences are covered in vines. Pots are massed in shelves, hung up and jammed in.
As if to make up for the paucity of space, the gardener musters an often bewilderingly eclectic assembly. These collections have an urban edginess and plants are shuffled around according to the seasons or their current state.
Matchy-matchy is out and any container is in. Plastic pots, tin cans, buckets, and just about anything a plant can grow in are heaped together, filled with potting mix and planted.
Experimentation is key to capturing this dynamic and gritty megalopolitan vibe.
6. Enjoy the process
The slow-garden movement is alive and thriving in Japan, where it likely never went out of fashion. Much of the gardening is by hand and enjoyed for what it is.
As with the raking of shingles into intricate and preordained patterns, clipping shrubs into geometric shapes, snipping branches, weeding, and sweeping can create a calm Zen state. Getting up close to a plant also engenders better awareness of it, its health and that of the surrounding ecosystem.
Biff the power tools – apart from being noisy, their speed is often counter-productive to finely crafted work – and invest in hand tools. The short-handled, crane-necked sickle has myriad uses for weeding, cultivating soil and as a hatchet. (These are popularly known in New Zealand as Niwashi, which is a brand name.)
Replace your garden broom with a twig broomstick – the swish-swish and side-to-side, back and forward motion is both effective and physically rewarding.
Bonus Tip: Using short-handled tools necessitates much squatting and kneeling, which along with the associated getting up and down, are very good for one’s flexibility and mobility to digestive health.
Photography: Mary Lovell Smith, Getty Images
EXPERT PROJECTS
Create the home of your dreams with Shop Your Home and Garden
SHOP NOW
