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Feature Garden

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The Oriental Garden: Feature Garden

In all Oriental gardens, immaculate maintenance is called for: no fallen leaves and definitely no weeds!

For all its apparent naturalness, the Oriental style garden, especially the Japanese, is an austere one: simplicity is everything. A sense of perfect, tranquil harmony is what Japanese gardeners regard as the signature of a true artist.

Shrubs such as azaleas are shaped to harmonise with rocks and pines are thinned to expose their gnarled, ancient-looking branches. (Those seemingly natural trees are often as carefully disciplined as any topiary.) Horticultural interest is not the focal point.

There might be flowers in season such as azaleas, wisteria, irises or cherry blossoms, or there might be a flash of coloured leaves in autumn, but the important elements are rocks, water and trees, arranged to give the feeling that you are sitting by a mountain stream. If the garden is too tiny for a real stream, it can be simulated by one with rocks and raked white gravel.

Get the look: Go for a mixture of Asian styles with simple paving, lush semitropical planting, and accessories - a Balinese sculpture or a Japanese lantern. The lantern is of the kind the Japanese call a `snow-viewing' lantern (it is designed to allow the snow to drift between its legs rather than pile up all over it) but will look quite at home in a garden where it never snows.

Try a Japanese gate made of bamboo which allows you to see into the garden beyond.

Frame a figure of the Buddha by the branches of say, a white camellia. Place a water basin at the entrance to the garden so you can purify your fingers and thoughts before proceeding further. The arrangement of bamboo water pipes is traditional and beautifully done, but you could omit it if you wanted to. The lantern serves to light the basin should you visit the garden by night, and the whole is framed by the dwarf azalea (to be admired as you bend down to the water) and the camellia.

For a true Japanese garden you'll need to add a goldfish pond and a pagoda!