It brings to mind a landscape in miniature, but it does not imitate nature, but only draws from its beauty. Perfection and elegance at its best. This is how you can describe a Japanese garden.
Initially, the gardens of Japan, which dates back to the 9th century, were designed only at temples, monasteries and palaces.They were a kind of closed enclave, which was supposed to be conducive to silence and meditation.
Characteristics of Japanese gardens
The assumption was to present a piece of the world to man with its most important elements: stones symbolizing the durability of nature, plants and water, which were supposed to bring life and strength to mind. This combination meant that the person who was or was just looking at the garden was able to transfer his thoughts to the bosom of nature.
Over time, elements of small architecture and many valuable varieties of ornamental plants were introduced to the gardens. Thus, there were stone roads, bridges, light pavilions, lanterns carved out of stone, flower pots and piers. Unfortunately, Japanese gardens, due to the insular and mountainous nature of the country and the large population, are small or even very small.
A garden of several dozen square meters is considered large, and gardens the size of a small room, balcony or even a window sill are standard.For obvious reasons, no rustling streams can be designed in such areas nor to plant any pine trees.
This is not a problem for the Japanese, however. Ponds and streams were replaced with white gravel, mountains and hills with stones, and trees and shrubs with their bonsai versions. The pinnacle of a Japanese garden is an area covered with sand on which a stone is placed.
It would seem that this composition can only be an element of interior design, but according to the philosophy of the Japanese, it is a garden.Gravel symbolizes the sea, and the stone is a rock protruding from the depths. Such a garden is called karesansui.
Karesansui garden
Karesansui dominate the art of gardening today in Japan. Although they require a lot of attention, they can be designed in virtually any place: in front of houses, in parking lots, on roofs, in the corner of the room, bathroom, in the yard or even on the windowsill.Vegetation in such gardens may appear, but is not required.Usually these are dwarf plant varieties or bonsai forms planted in flat pots. They are placed on stones, rocks or directly next to "artificial water".
Tsukiyama: Garden of the Hills
The opposite of dry gardens are hill gardens, called tsukiyama, in which there should be water reservoirs. Water is very important to the Japanese, and real or only symbolic water must be present in any form of assumption.Tsukiyama gardens should mimic the Japanese landscape.So green hills are formed, between which natural stones are placed and plants are planted. The streams and gentle watercourses symbolize the woman, and the waterfalls symbolize the man.
Their waters should merge together in a pond that symbolizes their union.These ponds with watercourses, hills, stones and plants bring to mind the landscape of Japan: islands immersed in the sea, on which the windswept crooked trees grow.
Green above everything
There is only one strict rule that dictates the choice of plant species and varieties in Japanese gardens.Green, preferably evergreen, symbolizing longevity. Therefore, if we want to plant plants in Japanese gardens, we should choose plants that are decorative all year round.Therefore, it does not matter if a species is characterized by beautiful flowers or not.
The color other than green in Japanese gardens is only an addition, a slight accent. It should not dominate the green and should not overwhelm it, or, worse, overwhelm it. In Japanese gardens, you can find colorful plants: magnolias, Japanese and palm maples, azaleas, Hakuro Nishiki willows, rhododendrons, peonies and, occasionally, tawułki, iris, ornamental cherries and anemones.
The green base consists of: conifers (common juniper, intermediate juniper, Japanese pine, Scots pine, mountain pine, Japanese pine), ginkgo, Far Eastern willow, Japanese viburnum, boxwood, privet, jasmine, holly, grasses, including bamboos, ferns and moss. Most of the plants listed prefer positions with sufficient humidity, therefore, in dry Polish summer conditions, they must be watered daily.
