Japanese Garden Design Tips

Traditional Japanese garden design is based on centuries of tradition, custom, and messages. What the garden says - or doesn't say - is an important element of Japanese garden design.

There are many intricacies involved in creating traditional Japanese gardens, and we can't begin to cover all of them here, but we can help you to get started with a few tips.

A Japanese garden needs to make sense for instance, and this is part of the yin and yang elements strived for in any good Japanese garden design. You wouldn't for instance, find a pond in the wild that's shaped like a perfect square, so you shouldn't have one in your garden either. If you have a pond in a Japanese garden, is should look just as natural as if nature itself created that pond.

Japanese gardens can be large or small, but one key difference that seems unusual to American gardeners is that all the available space in the garden is not used. In Japanese gardens, it's important to leave some empty space too.

Stones are a very big part of Japanese garden designs. The gardens are not complete - or aren't done properly - without one or more stone elements in place. In fact, many Japanese garden designs start with the layout of the stones and rocks first, because those are said to create the rest of the garden design. True Japanese garden designs incorporate several types of stones such as arches, columns and horizontal stones. Some types of stones are said to be "bad" for the garden and are always avoided. Stone elements can be grouped together into threes or fives, or used as individual garden elements too.

Sometimes stone elements are integrated as functional items too. A stone bridge for instance, can be found in some Japanese garden designs.

Water is also a crucial element of Japanese garden designs, but not all Japanese gardens actually have water in them. Sometimes raked gravel or river stones are used to symbolize water instead.

When true water elements are used in Japanese garden designs, they should be natural water elements. Naturally shaped ponds for instance, or waterfalls fit in nicely. But a square pond or water fountain is not considered natural, and shouldn't be placed into a Japanese garden design.

The types of plants you put into a Japanese garden design are quite important too. Since much of the design revolves around nature and natural elements, it's considered to be bad taste to put showy flowers and plants into a Japanese garden. Native plants, shrubs, trees and vines should be used whenever possible.

Essentially, a well designed Japanese garden will fit well with the gardening site chosen. It will contain only natural elements, and reflect things found in nature. It will also be a place set apart from the rest of the world. It's common to find fences, gates and other borders around Japanese gardens, because they're meant to be sanctuaries for all who enter.