Living with Japanese Gardens

I'm glad I found this book. The authors show an array of Japanese design motifs that can easily be recreated whether you have a large courtyard garden, or a narrow pathway available to landscape. There's a lot you can learn in this book just looking at the many photographs that are offered. For example, I learned that you can create a Japanese garden without a single plant and that even looking at a photograph of a Japanese garden can be a relaxing experience! I particularly recommend this book for anyone who is considering a Japanese Garden but doesn't know where to start.

Aching nostalgia - As evening darkens and every moment grows Longer and longer, I feel ageless as the thousand year pine." ~Kenneth Rexroth, One Hundred More Poems from the Japanese One of the ideas I love from Japanese design books is the luxury of a deep soaking tub. One of the baths in this book is in an open room with glass windows and walls. Of course taking a bath outside seems a dream, but now and then you find those pictures too. Throughout this lovely book you will find quaint bridges, bamboo gardens, Japanese maple trees, waterfalls, sand and stone gardens and romantic stone paths wandering through trees. Inside, you can see how to place a bed near an antique paneled screen or how to bring stone fountains indoors. "An ideal Japanese garden is viewed through a window while on relaxes inside, sipping tea at the kitchen table; soaking in a hot bath; or sitting on a bench on a covered veranda." ~ pg. 11 One of the brilliant ideas is a courtyard garden with a retractable roof. The ponds are especially artistic with lots of lantern designs. There is a teahouse in a forest and a home you can only access if you walk over the pond on a slab stone bridge. ~The Rebecca Review