Many Choices
Different Styles in Japanese Miniature Garden Designs
- There is a wide variety of styles from which to choose when designing your Japanese Garden:
- Level: This usually includes formal styles like Rose, Sunk, Paved, Old World, Courts and Woodland Glades.
- Undulating: This informal style includes water, alpines, bogs and terraces.
- Landscape: This is done with the help of artificially created hills, woodlands, moraines, talus and valleys.
- Model: This includes the construction of smaller scale models or versions of gardens at famous monuments.
Rock and Alpine Japanese Miniature Gardens
Alpine gardens are suitable for sinks and troughs. They are usually designed to camouflage drainage pipes. Drainage conditions, rough rock and soil surface, minimum surface moisture and loam earth all encourage substantial growth of alpines. However, it is necessary to plant only slow growing species of alpines. Select alpines keeping in mind the color scheme and proportions of other features.
Alpine Japanese gardens can be produced on varying ground levels, usually on flat surfaces. Ensure any use of stones are secured firmly into the ground. Provide ample space for the plants to grow and thrive in the crevices. In order to enhance the background, use a large rock or slab of limestone. Use smaller stones and pebbles to make outcrops on hilly and mountainous slopes. Two very common forms used when embedding rocks into Japanese gardens are interruptions and avalanches. Careful selection of rocks is a must to achieve the desired effect. They must be placed correctly in the appropriate directions.
Window-Box Styles
Window-box Japanese gardens can be designed with dwarf trees and Japanese maple. You can also alter the soil level and lay out rocks, design clefts and pockets for the plants.
Garden Ornaments and Accessories
Human figures, houses, courtyards, fountains, pools, gates, lanterns and bridges are all a part of designing exquisite and elegant Japanese miniature gardens.
Informal Gardens
Informal Japanese gardens can be constructed with lakes, fountains and cascades. You can design glades set in the background of woods, a lush carpet of evergreen herbs and shrubs with a bubbling brook near a hut or a temple.
Formal Gardens
Formal designs can be based on the following patterns:
1) A centerpiece of any shape, like a pool or statue from which diverse paths can unwind.
2) A design with a background of climbers, fences, hedges or groves. This can be centered on gateways, courts or fountains.
3) A Japanese mini-garden can be designed in geometrical pattern, with colorful trees and plants trailing the borders.
Novelty Japanese Gardens
Novelty Japanese mini-gardens embrace everything outside the scope of nature. There are no specific rules or principles to follow while assembling these gardens. Pursue your fantasies. Although, they cannot be termed as Japanese miniature gardens in the real sense, they certainly are a source of great pleasure and delight.