Customer Reviews

Creating Japanese Gardens

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A great "first book" on the subject of Japanese gardening. Nice color photos (but never enough), and the how-to's are easy to understand. A section on various shaped stones and stone placement. I refer back to mine often.

I got this book from the library and was pleasantly surprised at the details and useful, practical advice on conceiving and executing a japanese garden. The book contains detailed instructions on how to lay out, build, select plans for, and maintain a Japanese-inspired garden. It talks about rocks, rock gardening, ponds, water plants and fish, paths, stepping stones, gates, and plants and plant selections. I found it really helpful in getting ideas to give to our landscape architect. I would recommend this book for anyone that is going to actually build (rather than just enjoy looking at pictures of) a japanese garden.

Creating Japanese Gardens has been a helpful tool in the process of killing my lawn. If you've read my other reviews, you may wonder why a person with a cactus garden would need a book on Japanese gardens? Think hybrid between a Zen garden and a cactus garden. The basic plan for the garden was constructed with the help of this book. Everything I know about Japanese gardens comes from this wonderful little text. Most of the elements of a Japanese garden appear in my front yard, but with heavy substitution of Southwestern icons for Japanese icons. Trade Mexican-style chimneys for Japanese lanterns; trade coyote for Buddha; trade the traditional plants of a cactus garden for the traditional plants of a Japanese garden. The paths use redrock flagstone and the stones in the dry stream and other places in the garden all come from western deserts and mountains. It's been hours and hours of dirty fun. I do have a request-if you buy this wonderful book and intend to put a traditional Japanese garden in your yard with the traditional Japanese elements, please make sure your climate is wet enough to support the garden without excess added water.

I've always wanted to have a Japanese Garden but never got around to doing it. I picked up this book at the library and, WOW, it has really inspired me! Not only am I now drafting up plans to turn a corner of my yard into a Japanese Garden but I showed it to a neighbor and he's thinking of making his backyard into something like the courtyard garden on page 20. I'll probably get a library of books on Japanese Gardening but this book will be the first one I'll buy.

Practical advice. Good illustrations. I would recommend the book, especially for a beginner.

For its small price tag, this book delivers what is promised. I got one solid idea from it for my planned Japanese garden that had not occurred to me before & that made it well worth the price. (The idea was using small stones as ground cover, juxtaposed with larger stones. You need to see the pictures to understand how to do it).
My only negative is I would have liked more pictures & descriptions of small-space, backyard gardens. Many of the pictures showed 300 year old gardens or ones that require a park in your backyard to create them.

Overall I enjoyed the book, and when I want to feel zen-like, I can just pick it up & look at the pictures. :-))

But this has been the most useful of all of them. Simple. A good introduction. I recommend it highly.

Most of the examples shown of gardens look to be from large estates, rather than courtyard gardens. My Japanese garden is small and intimate, so it would have been nice to see more examples of smaller spaces. The background regarding rock selection and placement was very good, as was the section on plant selection. This is a good "basic" book on the Japanese gardens, with many ideas but not a lot of specifics. Further research will probably be needed.

If you are looking for a coffee table book with marvelous photos, you should look elsewhere. But if you want to understand principles and techniques for creating a Japanese garden (or any beautiful landscape,) this book is for you. A few terrific tips: To make your yard look bigger, start with a wide path and make it taper toward the end. It will make the path look longer. Plant larger, well defined plants in the foreground and smaller, fuzzier plants in the background. It will look like a photo where the background is receding and give you an added feeling of depth. To make stepping stones, dig holes and pour concrete right in the ground. After a few hours, play with the texture. Make winding paths with little surprises at every turn that you cannot see from afar. The surprise can be a water feature, a blooming shrub, a statue, you name it. There are many many tips like these on every page in addition to fascinating information on the history and culture of Japanese gardens through the ages.

I'm just now learning about how to create a Japanese garden. I wanted to see what elements go into a garden and also look at some examples of beautiful gardens and plants. Really great book to start out with. I bought several other Japanese Garden books and this one blows the others out of the water.