Here are some Japanese landscaping ideas for your backyard that’ll add a touch of cool greenery to the home and enhance your sense of well-being and calm when you walk in your garden.
Water gardens in Japan are popularly known as koi ponds. Before you build one of them, it is necessary to ponder on the materials used for the garden. Bamboo screens, weathered wood, high stone walls are some of the building materials which you could use to give your garden a pleasant look. Apart from these, you can go for miniature gardening which includes water elements like ponds and bonsai trees.
Foliage Garden
A flowerless garden is said to be a foliage garden. Have you ever realized that it is not just the flowers that bring color to a backyard? People always keep talking about the rose garden, the wildflower meadow, the dahlia bed when they think about a garden, but they don’t ever seem to talk about the leaves. But, in summers, if you take a look at the woodland garden, you won’t find any flowers. All you find is heuchera and ferns and other leafy things. In fact, a foliage garden can be an alternative to a garden which has flowers.
Asian, Japanese and Oriental gardens have several design elements which include borrowed scenery, reduced scale, enclosure and symbolism. Japanese gardens build the whole world in small areas. Oriental and Japanese gardens try to represent nature in miniature, and symmetry is not given much attention as in the western gardens. That’s a uniquely Japanese landscaping idea.
Freedom of Imagination
Design elements like stones, plants, water and other structural pieces are implanted in such a way that a Japanese garden communicates a meaning. There is freedom, and a monochromatic scheme is followed with browns, blacks and greens. In a Japanese garden, rocks are always present, but while choosing them much care is taken, like dark tones are generally preferred to add an air of mystery. The stones are buried deeply.
Asymmetry
Japanese gardens are so planned that they are asymmetrical. The different elements are arranged in odd numbers of three, seven or five. There is also a contrast between the large and the small, between the vertical and the horizontal and between the rough and the smooth. This cautious imbalance is to generate inspiration for the mind so as to find its own way to perfection.
Simplicity
Japanese gardens are simple as the people assign a high level of sensitivity to simple elements. The simplicity of Japanese landscaping ideas is attained by spending a lot of time in creating an ultimate atmosphere which gives you the feeling of tranquility and naturalness. For example, a bamboo fence is not just a bamboo fence, but it is combined with twine to build an attractive and strong geometric grid. When a stone lantern is used, it is placed deliberately in such fashion that it illuminates two branches of a path.
Sentinel Stone
Japanese gardens often make use of sentinel stones in their landscape. The sentinel stone is a standing one, which symbolizes heroes, guardians, deities and warriors. This stone is usually placed at the garden’s entrance or at some other principal point in the landscape. The presence of the stone enhances the atmosphere of the garden.
