Introduction about Japanese Zen Garden
"Japanese gardens are designed to reflect miniature landscapes. There are various types of Japanese gardens, with their roots in Asian history. Royal gardens for emperors were designed for esthetics and recreation. Temple gardens for monks were created for meditation and contemplation. The Zen style is a meditation garden. It is grounded in symbolism. White sand represents water. Large rocks stand in for mountains or islands. Here are the steps to creating a unique and charming Zen garden"
We begin with creating a Japanese Garden from scratch and we have been lucky to get some guidance and advice from Ramon Smit
who we have been following on Facebook for a while. He has created a
beautiful Japanese inspired garden from a blank canvas. Obviously it
has taken time to produce the final results but his story shows what can
be achieved by either planting up an entire garden or using one-off
Japanese plants to create structure and / or colour in an already
established garden. Here in his own words is Ramon’s story about
creating a Japanese Garden:
Ramon’s stunning Japanese Garden, which he created himself from a blank canvas
Almost 10 Years ago we decided to buy a house with a garden. We were
living in an apartment on the 11th floor at the time and we started
looking for affordable houses with a garden. We found a house in a place
called Gouda an old red brick house from the 1920’s (Yes the place
famous for its cheese) with a very nice backyard ( 20m x 7m and by Dutch
standards, that’s quite large). Even before we signed the contract I
already made a drawing of the garden I had in my mind and was certain it
must be a garden in the Japanese Style. My girlfriend was ok with it
so (after I promised to make her a sunbathing spot) first we did some
work in the house and then I started breaking the old garden down and
started from scratch.
Ramon created his Japanese Garden from a blank canvas
The plants I did not want were dug up and taken by the old owner.
(I only kept the boxwood shrubs). I dug out all of the grass and
started to excavate the stream. I did this all by hand. The grass I
turned upside down to make small hills and added the excavated soil. It
took some time to finish because the stream was to be 30 meters long
and this ends in a small canal behind my garden (lucky me!)
Now it was time to buy some plants. I had done some research in
my collection of Japanese garden books so I knew exactly what to buy –
maples, azaleas, ferns, pine, hosta, Ginkgo and a 2 meter tall yew Cloud
Tree (which I shaped into a garden bonsai) so bought as much as my car
could carry and planted them in the garden. Only to find with all the
plants in the grounds, the garden was still empty. I had only a small
budget so it took a few months of saving before I could buy some!
