If you're looking for an Asian-inspired garden in San Francisco, Tamate Landscaping is a great option. With over 25 years of experience...
These Japanese garden designs are relaxing and serene. Try our Japanese garden ideas for a peaceful ambiance in your backyard.
Stone, water and plants form the basic structure of a Japanese inspired garden design. Although they often look simple, the highly detailed gardens are know to reflect a natural landscape. Here are six tips to help you design your vision of a low-maintenance Japanese garden.
If you want to create a garden oasis that is based on an oriental style, you will need to carefully select plants that are indicative of Japanese culture and history. Fortunately, many plants that are native to Japan thrive in North American and European climates, so they can be easily incorporated into home gardens. For some of the best plants to give your garden a Japanese style, consider these options:
Are you looking to turn your yard into a zen garden? These Japanese landscaping ideas can be just what your space needs. Number 12 is especially important.
Ideas to create your own Japanese Garden; A Japanese garden is a beautiful addition to any yard or home. Here are tips to create your own!
Image Credits: Houzz
This is the year that we as landscape students learn how to take our knowledge of plants and apply it to a design. For this project we were allowed to pick any theme we wanted and design a garden o…
Discover the best Japanese maples from Japanese-maple aficionados who shared their absolute favorite varieties in several categories.
Considered to be one of the top five most authentic Japanese gardens located outside of Japan, the Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver incorporates every shade of green imaginable. Join me on a virtual tour.
Japanese maples are so varied in size, habit and leaf color, they can go almost anywhere in the garden. Try a few of these ideas!
It’s been almost two months since I’m working in Real Japanese Gardens. Few times per week we spend in the construction sites doing maintenance and planting. In this article I would lik…
When Peter Blum and his wife, Rita, had a modern house built in Irvington, New York, they hired a landscape architect to turn the existing grounds into an
Japanese maples are so varied in size, habit and leaf color, they can go almost anywhere in the garden. Try a few of these ideas!
Discover Australia's most beautiful gardens and landscape design. Inspiration from country estates, small suburban gardens and everything in between.
Much of what I know about Japanese Maples comes from simple observation. They are relatively slow growing. The little green leaf...
Discover the best rocks for Japanese gardens. Enhance tranquility, balance, and natural beauty with our comprehensive guide on rock selection.
This weekend we were lucky enough to have a bit of morning fog here in Portland...well, unless you ask the local weathermen, who seem to find fog more terrifying than flying piranhas armed with assault rifles. While I spent Saturday morning taking photos around the garden, I decided that if it was foggy again the next day, I'd head up to the Japanese Garden. As luck would have it, Sunday was just as (if not more) foggy...so Norm and I left the house at the horrifically early time of 9:30...a time that, on weekends, is generally reserved for coffee, pajamas and episodes of Parks and Rec on Netflix. As we parked and strolled up to the entry gate, I was already enchanted...I've been here many times, but never in the fog, and it lent such an air of mystery to things. Never before had the backdrop of conifers seemed so perfect...as they towered above, disappearing into the mist. There were A LOT of people...more than I've ever seen at one time in the Garden...but the fog seemed to dampen most of the noise. The crane sculpture is always a good photo opp...kudos to whoever was in charge of placing it. While normally I'd have to make sure not to include too much of the sky, with the soft haze of fog, I could pull back further. Koi passed languidly under the Moon Bridge. While beautiful, this is by no means the peak of color...in a week or two, this tunnel through the Maples will be even more intense. This is another shot that normally would have been much tighter, as I'd have to avoid that background area in favor of foreground...but the fog let me pull back for a wider shot, even including some of the overhead canopy. So often, in the Japanese Garden, I'm constantly looking down, constantly scanning the ground for interesting vignettes with fallen leaves, but this day, I found myself looking up more...noticing the knobby colonies of moss amidst the denuding branches. I was looking down the stream at this lantern when I heard movement beneath me. Unbelievably, a photographer had crawled through the garden and was UNDERNEATH the bridge...totally VERBOTEN! An alarmed Garden employee rushed up to chastise her. This was part of a trend for the day...obnoxious photographers. Shaking my head, I continued across the bridge and up a small incline...and was struck by this area, which I've walked past numerous times before. Suddenly, however, like so much of the garden, it was transformed by the fog. The stone lantern from before, looking back at the bridge. It's hard to tell, but this lantern is as big as a person! More glorious, saturated Maple foliage. This is one of my favorite vignettes in the garden...everything here works perfectly together, from the placement of the trees to the undulation of the ground...the carpet of fallen leaves is the proverbial icing on the cake. I guess I couldn't get enough of those Maples! While I usually prefer the water here to be covered in fallen leaves, I have to admit, it's nice having a clearer view of the beautiful koi. Everywhere you look here, there is such beauty. I walked up this path, smitten by the scattering of golden leaves...and when I inhaled I knew... Katsura! There is no mistaking that tell-tale scent of cotton candy! There is just so much detail here...the plants, the hardscaping, every bit so meticulously planned. Further into the garden, a gate beckons you forward. And a twisting stone staircase winds plunges down to a lower area. I had to squeeze my way across a narrow stone bridge here, past a photographer who had decided to set up camp. I needed a little Zen after that...and found it here, at one of the raked gravel gardens...again, the fog adding a perfect note of mysticism to the scene. For some reason, this is the loveliest the upper gravel garden has ever looked, to me. There was just the perfect balance of color, light and structure this day. As I may have mentioned, for some reason, the photographers this day seemed especially oboxious. No where was that more evident than right here...at THE FAMOUS TREE. There was practically a queue of people waiting to take pictures there. The worst was this guy in the foreground...he was camped in that same spot when we got to the garden...and was still there when we left...at least 90 minutes later...RUDE! I'll admit, we photographers can get a little crazy at times...and I nervously asked Norm if I had ever been so annoyingly oblivious...he assured me that I hadn't (although I have a feeling he may be biased)! Either way, I resigned myself that I wasn't going to get "that shot" from under the tree...which is ok...I have quite a few. I settled for taking other photos...details that sometimes go unnoticed. It was kind of fun, in a way...not feeling pressure to get one amazing shot...I was free to explore and look around. It was then that I noticed just how many spiderwebs there were in the garden...and how many leaves seemed to be floating in mid-air because of them! I was kind of obsessed with finding as many as I could...although most were hard to photograph. And, of course, you have to take a moment to appreciate the artistry of the webs. They really are quite beautiful. I was craning up to get a picture of this particular web, above my head when I suddenly realized... ...that the ENTIRE TREE was festooned with webs. I'm such a dork, I grabbed the sleeve of the stranger walking by and exclaimed..."Whoa...look at all those crazy webs". He almost fell into the stream behind us as he started backing up, mouth agape at the spidery spectacle. It was sadly at this point that my camera stopped working...much to my chagrin. I must be getting more mature, because I didn't burst into tears and stomp out of the garden, pushing small children into the pond on my way out. I sighed and continued on, enjoying the day. If you are ever in Portland, especially in the fall...and ESPECIALLY on a foggy day, I recommend you head up to the Japanese Garden for a visit. There's no other place in Portland quite like it...for a brief time, you feel transported, and even with all the hubbub on a busy day, you can still find a moment of Zen.
I've given many presentations on Ornamental Grasses over the years and always include Japanese forest grass, also called Hakone grass. Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) is native to Japan and prefers partly shaded sites and moist soils. It's important to note that some degree of lighting will allow for the best coloration of certain varieties as seen with the 'All Gold' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) seen above in a beautiful foliage composition with hostas (Hosta sp.) and 'Mocha' coral bells (Heuchera villosa). Moist, well-drained soil is preferred for this perennial grass and while the variegated and golden forms prefer some shading to avoid summer scorching, the greener varieties can tolerate more sun without the "summer burning." I think that Hakone grass has been my most photographed perennial ornamental grass over the last couple of years as it is so valuable for color and texture in the shadier garden setting. There are many options out there and look further down for some more information on this exciting grass and some fun varieties. We had a productive morning both inside and out in the gardens. Today was the warmest at 32 degrees F for the next two weeks. It will be bitter cold by tomorrow. It was perfect weather for Urban, Ron W., Terry, Pat, Larry and Big John to get outside and bring in more lights and other elements from the Holiday Lights Show (HLS). This is a long process, affected by weather, that will continue for months. Vern, Jim and Ron Y. continued work on their carpentry projects. Dr. Gredler came in for painting while Gary B. continued his priming efforts. Maury ran errands, Dick H. helped here and there and we also saw Rollie, Gary S. and many others. Mary W. was in to work on some horticultural therapy fact finding and Janice was in briefly as well. Some members of our Horticultural Therapy Committee met later in the afternoon as well. Notice directly above how nicely the cascading habit of the 'Aureola' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) works to soften the edge of a pathway. While any variety of Hakone grass will lend itself as a textural component as a solitary specimen or in a grouping, the varieties with additional coloration add more visual interest in shadier areas. We use lots of the 'All Gold' variety at RBG for some "illumination" and bright coloration in our shadier garden setting. Keep in mind that some dappled lighting or bright indirect light is essential for the best coloration of the brighter varieties. Hardiness for this grass is usually listed as Z5 but I've heard many examples of this grass in colder climates with some winter protection and/or screening. I've never observed insect or disease problems and struggling specimens have usually been the result of dry soils and/or too much sun. You'll note some varieties below that have summer tinting (red/pinks) that becomes more prominent in fall. These are nice but keep in mind that the best tinting is very late in the season and some of the other varieties ('All Gold' and 'Aureola') will also get some pinkish fall tinting. Regardless, there are about a dozen varieties of Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) out there and I like every one of them. Understand that mature size may vary with the standard green selection getting the largest at 30" tall with a similar width (see directly below) and 'Fubuki' (see below) at only 12" tall and 12" wide or so. I've seen Hakone grass used well as specimens, repeated textural components, container elements and as a mass groundcover with multiple clumps. the standard green Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'Albostriata' variegated Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) a textural carpet of Japanese forest grass 'Aureola' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) compared to the standard green form on the right specimen of 'Aureola' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) at Olbrich Botanical Garden (Madison, WI) 'Aureola' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) same as above in a container 'Aureola' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) repetition clumping groundcover of 'Aureola' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'Stripe It Rich' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'Sunny Delight' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'Fubuki' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'Beni-Kazi' Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) - red tints in late summer (look for 'Nicolas' and 'Naomi' for two other selections with significant tinting) 'All Gold' golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'All Gold' golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) 'All Gold' golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) at RBG same as above in a container clumping groundcover of 'All Gold' golden Hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra) mass planting of above at Chicago Botanical Garden decent winter interest of Hakone grass (until buried by wet snow or ice)
Lowther Castle, Cumbria has had a new lease of life thanks to an ambitious planting project undertaken by James Lowther and a formidable team of garden restoration specialists, including the designer Dan Pearson
Japan elevates gardening to an art form, drawing on zen concepts of peace and harmony. These Japanese plants are long-lived and easy to grow.
Photographer Garry Fabian Miller’s intense observation of the natural world is at the core of his artistic practice. His sculptural approach to his garden on Dartmoor echoes the elemental landscape beyond
