Japanese Garden

2021

Nintingbool

Bush Setting / Maples / Nobedan

A Japanese inspired garden in an Australian bush setting

At the commencement of this landscaping project we were given some directions and idea from the customer for their brief. As landscape designers we were then able to use this information to develop a suitable design for the client. The client requested that they required an area to look out from their newly installed windows on the extension of their home. They were well travelled with frequent visits to Japan and immediately responded well to the idea of a viewing style Japanese garden.

From our past travels to Japan, we were inspired by many famous gardens throughout Kyoto and other areas including The Adachi Museum, Ryoan-ji’s famous rock garden, Kinkaku-ji and many other moss, dry, rock and strolling gardens. Zen style gardens are often relatively small and surrounded by a wall, and is usually meant to be seen while seated from a single viewpoint in the garden. There are certain requirements and features that are required in this style of garden, everything needs to be placed correctly right down to the placement and selection of rocks.

Our ideas solutions for the customer

Our client was looking for a traditional style Japanese garden with consideration to all fundamental elements contained within the garden. There needed to be a heavy emphasis on the view point from a certain window within the home. Once construction works commenced large boulders were brought onto the property to help with the creation of garden beds. Random rocks and pebbles were hand picked and selected for paving areas.

A sea of gravel and a dry stream bed was installed along with a small nobaden styled path using pebbles, rocks and pavers traditional to a Japanese styled garden. Other features including sourcing a tsukabi and rain chain were installed and placed into the garden. When it was time for planting elevated garden beds were constructed to help with the topography and create a scene of depth, this also helped to blend the garden into the native forest surrounding the area.

Stones were selected to create a traditional Tobishi styled stepper path. Around the sea of gravel top soil was shaped and Dycondra lawn was seeded to create a future bed of green lawn. Bespoke hand polished concrete edging was made and installed along the gravel drain. When creating these edging pieces consideration was made on the colours in the current rocks and gravel, and hence the aggregate used in the edging complemented these elements.