Japanese Garden (part 3)

2024 Author: Sebastian Paterson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:47

Japanese garden: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

• Three basic rules of the Japanese garden
• Garden plan
• Making a mini garden
• A sample list of plants for a mini garden

Three basic rules of the Japanese garden

In order to correctly convey the atmosphere of the Japanese garden, which we are going to create with our own hands, and to feel our unity with it, you must adhere to three basic rules.

If the first two rules are clear, then in order to understand the meaning of the third, you need to find out what is hidden behind the words "sin-gio-so". The terms shin, gyo and so are borrowed from calligraphy and are used to describe the formal, semi-formal, and informal design styles of the Japanese garden. The aesthetic concept of the tripartite development of "shing-gio-so" is also found in painting, tea ceremony, serving dishes, placing flowers and other arts in which spatial factors appear. The principles of shing-gio-so can be explained as three degrees of difficulty in applying the canons developed in Japanese aesthetics. Of these, "sin" is the most complete and complex, "gio" is intermediate, and "co" is the simplest and most strict.

All Japanese gardens can be divided into these three large groups.

The Sin Gardens are full-scale and all elements can be displayed in full size. There is no need to invent anything in them: a rock in such a garden is a real rock, and a tree is a tree. These gardens are large in size, and earlier such gardens were created for the emperors and the highest nobility.

Gio gardensconvey the concept that such a garden is not exactly what is seen with the naked eye, but you should also rely on your imagination to complement what you see in it. The Gio Gardens are smaller than the Sin Gardens and are accessible to many more people. Gio gardens are associated with the illusion of the degree to which the impression of depth and capacity is given to compressed spaces. The illusion of size can be obtained by placing stones of different sizes in the garden. Larger stones can be placed closer to the viewer, while smaller stones can be placed farther away to give the impression of a deeper perspective. Or plants with larger leaves are placed closer to the beholder, and plants with smaller leaves are placed further away. Perception is manipulated so that the viewer sees something that is not necessarily there. Small-scale imagery is an integral part of gio gardens. A small pile of stones may represent a large mountain, and a trickle of water may represent a mountain stream. The well-known miniature bonsai tree is a "gio" object and represents a large tree growing in natural conditions, and, acting on the observer's imagination, helps to create the illusion of a distant full-scale picture.

The so garden is the most abstract. It depends entirely on the imagination of the observer to create a complete picture. The so gardens are not specific. These gardens have the ability to be anything for the viewer. So gardens are often located near temples and monasteries, and they are usually conceived for meditation in nature. The random placement of an odd number of stones in an odd number of groups of stones can represent whatever the viewer desires: continents in the ocean, galaxies in the sky, or a tigress with cubs. The possibilities are endless. These gardens create a subtle aura that helps you relax and enter a state of expanded consciousness.

The principles of "sin", "gio" and "so" can also determine the relative degree of formality in the design. A sin-style path is laid out of flat smooth stones of regular shape. The gio path is made of rougher stones and doesn't have to be perfect. The "so" path should be of rough stones, placed in an irregular order, as in nature stones can be located, along which they cross the stream.

Garden plan

Morning Star!

There is no peace among the cherries

Cloud on the mountain.

Takarai Kikaku (1661-1707)

Now that we have a little idea of the principles of creating a Japanese garden and its main elements, we can start designing it.

First, you need to select a "land plot" on which our miniature Japanese garden will be located. In this capacity, you can use a clay or metal tray, dish, container, or you can use a glass aquarium with a flat bottom.

Our "plot" can be of any size and shape, the choice of which depends on the place where our miniature garden will be located. However, the size of the "plot" must be large enough to accommodate all the "structures" and plants that you decide to place in the garden. As a basis for calculations, we will take the size of a round tray with a diameter of 50 cm, while the tray must have sides with a height of at least 3-5 cm.

The next step to create a mini-garden is to build a plan, which you can draw yourself on paper in a cage or use a ready-made drawing presented in the figure next to it. All objects that we want to place in the garden should be noted on the plan, in accordance with the rules and recommendations briefly presented at the beginning of the article.

Making a mini garden

The moon has come up, And the smallest bush is

invited to the holiday.

Issa Kobayashi (1763-1827)

translated by T. Sokolova-Delyusina

When making a mini-garden, you should choose materials that are not toxic. For these purposes, you can use the same materials that are recommended for the creation of aquariums, terrariums or aquaterrariums.

At the bottom of the tray, you will need to place a bonsai tree in a low container, the height of which should not exceed the height of the sides of the tray. If it is not possible to purchase a bonsai tree, then you can use a sprout of a cypress, a jerky tree, a slowly growing tree or bush, or you can start creating a bonsai tree yourself, forming the necessary shape using copper wire. To prevent the trees from growing larger than the desired size, it is necessary to periodically pinch off the apical leaves.

We pour rich nutrient soil on the bottom in a thin layer, form the bottom of the pond, strengthen its banks and add soil of any composition for indoor plants or a mixture of black soil and leaf humus or crushed peat. Before building a pond, you need to decide on a bridge over the pond. You can choose an arched bridge from the aquarium decorations or try to "build" it yourself.

If you choose the second option, then for the bridge you need to bend two thin spruce twigs of the same thickness into equal arcs, which were previously cleaned of bark and were in the water for about one hour, so that they become more flexible and take the desired shape. The twigs that have become flexible from water should be fixed on a prepared form and allowed to dry properly so that they take the desired shape. The form is a semicircle cut out of a plank, nailed to another rectangular plank. The twigs must be wrapped around the semicircle, and the ends must be fixed with nails nailed at the same distance from the semicircle. The distance between the ends of the branches should be slightly greater than the distance between the banks of the pond.

The ends of the twigs must be nailed with 4 pairs of small nails without heads to a block of wood 12.5 cm long, 1.5-2 cm wide and 2.5-3 cm thick. To cover the bridge, it is necessary to cut thin wood chips into equal lengths imitating planks. The finished coating should be glued to the bridge arches, leaving the upper parts of the planks clean, which will then need to be painted with brown varnish. When the whole structure is dry, it will be necessary to saw off the twigs with a thin hacksaw at the height where the distance between the ends of the twigs is about 12.5-13 cm.

Form the bottom of the pond of the desired shape from waterproof cement and lay it out with small pebbles, pressing it into cement or aquarium sealant. Another solution would be to place a plastic container, preferably of an irregular shape, in the intended place, fixing it to the bottom of the “area” with a waterproof glue. Its side walls are covered with walls made of waterproof cement, from which sides are formed, on which it will be necessary, after the cement has hardened, to fix the stones with the help of the same aquarium sealant to make a "shore".

In the not yet hardened cement, the ends of the bridge rods should be installed in the appropriate places. While the cement hardens, it should be kept moist. After half an hour, you will need to cover it with a damp cloth and periodically sprinkle water on top of it to keep the cloth damp. The water in the finished pond will need to be changed more often at first to clear the pond. You can plant a tiny aquatic plant called duckweed in a pond, or a slightly larger one called floating salvinia.

Next, you will need to fill up the earth to the level of the sides and spray it with water so that the earth is slightly compacted. Then you should place stones, and between them, plant tiny, low plants with small leaves. Dwarf ferns can be planted around the pond by choosing frost-resistant varieties. You can use forest moss as turf.

If desired, a larger tall stone can be placed on the site, and a "mountain" can be formed from the ground, smaller stones and cement. If the top is flat, then the teahouse can be installed on it. Then on the slope of the "hill" it will be necessary to form a path from small pebbles to the teahouse. It is easier to find a house among the aquarium decorations, if possible, removing unnecessary details, for example, an artificial palm tree located on the side of the ceramic hut.

From a set of aquarium decorations, you can also pick up a waterfall, a bench and even a Buddha figurine. If it is impossible to find ready-made miniature Japanese lanterns (oki-gata, tachi-gata, yukimi-gata or ikkomi-gata), their parts can be made of clay using a penknife, cutting out the lower part (for example, for small lanterns "yukimi-gata" - tripod) and forming the upper roof and the middle hollow part. When the parts have hardened, they will need to be glued and varnished. While the varnish has not yet dried, the outer surfaces of the lamp should be lightly powdered with sand and cement, which will give the lamps a "wabi" - "old" feeling.

From two thin bars, matches (without sulfur heads) and twigs, you can make a simple hiramon gate (a U-shaped gate made of two posts and a gable roof) and finish with varnish. The gate will need to be installed at the beginning of the path to the house at the side of the tray. Now our miniature Japanese garden is almost ready. It remains to place, according to our plan, a bench by the gate or by the pond, stones and, if desired, other elements characteristic of a Japanese garden (tsukubai, shikaodoshi, pagoda). If you wish, you can release two unpretentious brightly colored fish into the pond, the size of which does not exceed 5-10 cm. Then our garden will be inhabited, and these inhabitants will also need our attention and care.

Since our Japanese garden of this size is quite heavy, and it will be difficult to move it often, a stable stand or stationary place should be selected for it. Such a "garden" can be placed on a round stone table with a stone countertop - natural or artificial. If you place it in front of a window, then the view from the window will be perceived as a continuation of our garden. If the garden will be located against the wall, then on the wall you can stick photo wallpaper with the image of mountains, rocks, a lake or other landscape, which will create the effect of perspective and visually increase the volume of the room.

A sample list of plants for a mini garden

• Aeonium Tabuliforme - tiered aeonium.
• Ajania pacifica - Ajania or Pacific chrysanthemum.
• Biophytum sensitivum is a sensitive biophytum.
• Crassula marnieriana "Hottentot" - Crassula (fat woman) Marnier "Hottentot".
• Crassula ovate - oval crassula.
• Dwarf Rex Begonias - dwarf Rex begonias.
• Ficus pumila "Minima" - dwarf ficus (tiny) "Minima".
• Ficus pumila "Snowflake" - dwarf ficus (tiny) "Snowflake".
• Haworthia cooperi - Cooper's Haworthia.
• Kalanchoe thrysiflora - Paniculate Kalanchoe.
• Mini Oakleaf Creeping Fig - dwarf ficus Climbing fig tree.
• Peperomia columella - columnar peperomia.
• Peperomia prostrate - creeping peperomia.
• Quercifelix zeylanica (Tectaria zeylanica (Oak leaf fern) - tectaria zeylanica (oakleaf fern.)
• Saxifraga stolonifera variegata - plaited saxifrage variegate.
• Sedum brevifolium - short-leaved sedum (stonecrop short-leaved).
• Sedum x rubrotinctum "Aurora" - red-colored sedum (sedum red-colored) "Aurora".
• Selaginella kraussiana "Aurea" - Selaginella Kraussa "Aurea".
• Selaginella kraussiana "Brownii" - Selaginella Kraussa "Brownii".
• Sempervivum "Rubin" - tenacious, dubrovka, sempervivum, "Rubin" was young.
• Sempervivum ballsii - sempervivum ballsi.i
• Sempervivum calcareum "Monstrosum" - Sempervivum calcareum "Monstrosum".
• Soleirolia soleirolii - Soleirolia soleirolii.
• Cotoneaster horizontalis - horizontal cotoneaster.