Product Description

Colour photographs and step-by-step instructions aim to help the reader create an intimate, tranquil oasis suited to their personal taste - in or outside the home. The book includes layout plans and notes on plant care.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #202879 in Books
• Published on: 1993-02
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

The Water Gardener,March 2001
"A super reference and source of inspiration, generously illustrated with many colour photographs."

South Wales Echo, 26 February 2000
"A good specialist book on the subject."

From the Back Cover
With this book, you can bring a touch of Oriental magic into your own backyard. All the basic components of a Japanese garden and their functions are explained and illustrated: stepping stones, paving stones, stone lanterns, signs, and statues; streams, waterfalls, and ponds: bamboo fences, gates, and walls. The authors are eminent authorities on architectural design, botany and landscape design. INSIDE FLAP: Here is a concise introduction to the practical aspects of making a Japanese garden. Whether your garden is a spacious suburban lot, an office courtyard, or a tiny inner-city backyard, you will find here hundreds of creative but time-honoured ways to make maximum use of the space you have. You will learn how to lay stones and pathways and how to create intriguing sand patterns like the ones in Zen temple gardens. You will learn about Japanese lanterns, miniature pagodas, water basins, gates and walls, and will be shown step by step how to make bamboo lattice fence. Notes on the care of bamboo, moss and grass are provided. Schematic lay-out plans, detailed how-to explanations and over 130 colour photographs of Japanese gardens old and new give you ideas for endless variations.

Customer Reviews

Japanvisitor.com Review
Ever since Japan was "discovered" by the West in the late 19th century, Japanese gardens have fascinated westerners. They are unlike gardens anywhere else, and garden design in Japan is considered an artform, being a subject of study in Art Schools. To the western eye, the philosophy behind Japanese garden design can seem elusive. This book, through copious full-color photographs and numerous plans, shows the underlying concepts that can be utilized by gardeners, even within a very limited space. The first 3 sections cover courtyard gardens, stone gardens, and trees and water. These sections are mostly full-color photos, with captions that point the reader to design elements within each garden. The fourth and largest section is called Grammar and Vocabulary: The language of the Japanese garden, and is the meat of the book, with practical advice on designing and constructing elements of gardens such as fences, walls, paths, streams, waterfalls, stepping stones, etc. This section is amply illustrated with diagrams, plans, and color photos. For those who enjoy looking at Japanese gardens, this book would not be out of place on your coffee table. For those who want to build gardens, this book gives you more than enough to think about, and plenty of practical advice. There is even a section of suppliers (in the U.S.) for plants and materials, and a list of Japanese gardens in the U.S. to visit.

A thorough introduction to Japanese gardening
Plans and photographs of gardens in Japan are featured on almost every page along with instruction on the meaning of each feature. Chapters include: Layout: Where do I Put the Rock? Stone Groupings, Tsukubai, Shishi Odoshi and so on. Pitfalls are often explained i.e. stepping stones must be laid withways not lengthways and should be odd in number; water features do not include fountains because fountains are not found in nature - instead ponds, streams and waterfalls can be incorporated.

Bamboo is used in many ways, both as a plant with many varieties and as a building material for fences. Trees can be pruned to improve visual effect. Pebbles, stones and rocks are valued.

I found it a very instructive introduction to the world of Japanese Gardening and have determined to attempt to create my own as a result!

Japanese Garden Design
I purchased this book to learn the best way to design a Japanese garden, the book has plenty of ready made garden design plans, as well as tons of really helpful close up colour photographs. The book gives indepth instructions of how to obtain a realistic Japanese look for your garden with practical instructions on making bamboo fences, zen gardens, bridges and the like.

I would recommend this book to anybody in the mental thoes of designing a Japanese garden.