Landscaping Japanese Style Gardens

Japanese Style Gardens are known for their serenity and peaceful surroundings. These gardens use natural features for landscaping like rocks, pebbles, gravel, native plants and trees. Water features are also extensively used in Japanese themed gardens. These are eco- friendly gardens that have a perfect environment for meditation and relaxation. The traditional Japanese gardens are known to be over 1000 years old and they were specifically designed to calm and soothe the senses.

You can easily design a Japanese style garden in your home with the help of specific plant varieties, rock arrangements and water features. The basic elements that are used in these gardens include sand, rocks and bamboo fences and arrangements. You can create a layout incorporating all these elements to design your own Japanese style garden. Place big rocks strategically in the garden to create focal points. You can grow moss or grass around the rocks to get a natural effect.

Bamboo fences can be used around the garden or you can even create a bamboo wall in one corner to get the authentic oriental look. Bamboo plants can also be grown to get the same effect. However, they are known to get invasive so proper care and maintenance is required. Small water features like a stream running between the rocks or a waterfall can be constructed in one of the corners. You can construct a gravel path or place stepping stones to make it more interesting.

Japanese Gardens do not use a lot of plants but they use minimal varieties artistically to accentuate the garden. All the elements are used intelligently to get the best results. You can grow trees and shrubs like Sugar Maple, Maidenhair, Crabapple, Boxwood, Crape Myrtle, Wild Cherry, Willow Tree, Japanese Maple, Wisteria, Azalea, Hydrangea, etc. in your garden.

Ornamental grasses, sedges can be used in specific corners to add a vertical presence to the garden. Moss can be grown on the edge of water features, rocks and boulders to get the desired effect. You can also get a lot of inspiration and ideas from pictures and articles that are available online. Use the different elements in the best possible manner to create your very own Japanese garden.