The joy of Japan
INSPIRED BY THE OLYMPICS? WHY NOT CHANNEL SOME OF THE HOST COUNTRY’S SIGNATURE STYLE INTO YOUR OWN PLOT
AS the world’s eyes turn to Japan, host to the Toyko 2020 Olympics, we are enjoying the spectacle of great athletes competing for gold and diving duo Tom Daley and Matty Lee have already bagged gold for synchronised diving.
I had the honour of learning the basics about diving by Tom in a reality diving programme called Splash!
It’s definitely even harder than it looks and I was happy to retire from the diving boards and get back to my terra firma, the garden.
Japan is a country rich in art, culture, and tradition and they excel in design and style.
Nowhere is this more evident than the extraordinary gardens that you will find across Japan. It’s a unique garden style that is revered and there are many attempts to reproduce it outside of Japan. There’s nothing wrong with imitation once you remember that your version can only be a pastiche of the real thing.
Choose what is meaningful and enjoyable for you. In traditional Japanese gardens, natural materials such as stone and wood combine with predominantly green plants to form the basis of a landscape that is based on oriental principles, philosophy and religion.
The carefully selected planting is continually pruned and clipped while the placing of stone, gravel or ornamentation has hugely symbolic meaning and representation.
Though we might not grasp the deeper symbolism, this type of garden is perfect for small, enclosed plots or courtyards.
There are many elements of the classic Japanese garden that we can acknowledge and incorporate in our own plot – an appreciation of nature, simplicity, tranquility and serenity, water including koi ponds, evergreen plants, rocks and stone statuary.
With our temperate climate we can easily grow most of the plants that are quintessential to gardens of this type, and many are now familiar in suburbia
The Japanese garden has a definite balance of colour all year round with structural plants such as the pine and bamboo retaining a steady presence after the maples have lost their showy autumnal leaves. Cercidiphyllum japonicum, the Katsura, makes an elegant and delicate specimen tree, while cherries, azaleas, camellias and rhododendrons offer wonderful bursts of colour and fleeting beauty. It’s even possible to grow the iconic lotus flower if you live in the south, though they may be hard to get hold of – current waiting times in a leading water plant specialist are two years!
So rather than trying to emulate a true Japanese garden, it’s probably better to recreate its most appealing elements simply as a pleasing and harmonious picture, and go for a serene space to commune with nature away from our hectic, fast-paced world.