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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Serene Gardens: Creating Japanese Design and Detail in the Western Garden

Serene Gardens: Creating Japanese Design and Detail in the Western Garden
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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

120 of 121 people found the following review helpful.
5Serene Gardens - exquisitely presented!
By Nelis Willers
Kawaguchi captures the essential elements of serenity and beauty in near perfect balance with the `how-to' hinted at in the subtitle.

The author succeeds in creating a book that is first and foremost a beautiful book, but also raises awareness as to the deeper consciousness of Japanese garden design. This is not a Readers Digest Gardening Guide, with silly pictures and numbered steps. Instead she takes you on journey, leading you to discover and to appreciate, as she unfolds the finer art with sensitivity. The book is beautifully illustrated, well designed and well constructed.

Serene Gardens first introduces the reader to the traditional Japanese garden, and then proceeds to demonstrate how plants, rocks, water and sand should be used in the garden. She discusses paths, bridges, and constructions like pergolas en fences - and provides clear instructions on how to construct these. In conclusion, the book ends with a brief plant directory, listing suitable plants, ranging from trees, grasses/bamboos, berries and aquatic plants. The list includes alternative, non-traditional plants.

'Serene Gardens' works on the coffee table as well as in the garden. It is a book that can be enjoyed, as the garden itself is enjoyed.

70 of 75 people found the following review helpful.
5Exceptional photos, great text
By A Customer
I have checked out many books on Japanese gardening in the past ten years and this is my favorite. Includes design details and plant lists and the photos are gorgeous. You won't be sorry.

106 of 132 people found the following review helpful.
4Not a Real "How-to" Manual, But Good Anyway
By J. Storey
. There basically seems to be two types of Japanese-gardening books that are commonly available to English-speaking folks. The first type is your typical coffee-table book, usually large in size with many nice full-color photographs and not a lot of text. Whatever text is included is usually breezy and not intended to be any deep discussion of principles or techniques. The main purpose of these types of books is clearly enjoyment; everyone fascinated with Japanese gardens always enjoys wading through a large picture-book of (famous) Japanese gardens...their tranquility and appeal comes across especially well in a large-size photo format. The famous gardens in Japan are truly visually staggering, and a wide-angle large pic from a professional Japanese photographer does more justice to the entire scope of a setting than a mere quarter-page photo, of course. However, regardless of size, most Western books on Japanese gardens, unwittingly or not, tend to fall into this category of being little more than "picture books"...the actual amount of detailed "how-to" material is very small, or worse, actually misleading. While these (English-language) picture books are enjoyable to peruse, they are of limited help to the gardener who wants more detailed "how-to" material.The second type of English-language Japanese garden book attempts to present more of the history, culture, philosophies, and perhaps even techniques of Japanese gardening. While nice pictures are also usually common in this format, the emphasis is perhaps more on instruction and practical tips. Yoko Kawaguchi here (I'll use Western first-name-first custom here) has written an excellent book in this latter cagegory, a book that tries to educate the reader on some of the aesthetics behind Japanese gardening, including suggestions for specific plants for various "styles" of gardens. The pictures in the book are especially nice, probably securing a place for this book on the list of most folks' Japanese-gardening favorites... And that brings up a curious point. I assume most anyone reading this already has pretty much every English book on Japanese gardening already, and you're probably still puzzled by what to do with your own plot of land. Which, alas, doesn't seem to look nearly as nice as the pics you see, inevitably...Why the usual disparity between one's own garden and the beautiful pics one tries so hard to emulate? Well, there are several good reasons, one being that there still isn't- in English- an adequate, rigorous textbook on Japanese pruning techniques. Japanese pruning technique is the heart and soul of Japanese gardening (along with skills in rock placement, which is also part keen observation and part long experience). Ms. Kawaguchi's book, make no mistake, is NOT a "how-to" book at this level of detail, sorry folks. As much as books like hers attempt to educate readers on picking appropriate plants and so on, that is only a small part of skills needed to duplicate the Japanese style. The basic problem here, alas, is that skills such as cloud-pruning need to be taught "hands-on"- no book can really substitute. That is why it is always a good suggestion for folks to learn some bonsai techniques from a local teacher. Wait just a minute- I can already hear the protests from Japanese gardeners telling me that bonsai is NOT the same as Japanese gardening. Complaints noted. But partially ignored here :-). While I grant that bonsai is NOT Japanese gardening, and techniques like wiring branches really aren't appropriate for larger specimens, and typical bonsai pruning isn't as broad as large-scale garden concerns, nonetheless the fact remains...NO OTHER skill-set comes close to bonsai pruning for matching the pruning skills you'll need for Japanese gardening. It's that simple. So, all you folks lamenting the lack of good books on pruning or lack of a suitable instructor in your area, go find a local bonsai club and get involved. Most of the members of these clubs are closely involved trimming the trees and shrubs in your local botanic Japanese gardens anyway (usually as volunteers who do not get paid much or at all, it is a labor of love), so you might as well get on board in your local botanical garden (if circumstances allow) and learn to trim from those who have experience in this manner of pruning.Of course, Japanese gardening is much more than just pruning. One of the main crucial elements is appropriate rock arranging, and this also takes experience and keen observation of how the pros arrange rocks to look natural. Not to mention a lot of trial-and-error :-). How do the pros do it? Many of them have had special training, either formally in Japan or through a long line of family members skilled at such techniques. Or they learned from traditional teachers. You and I, however, may not be so lucky. So how can we begin? Perhaps the best way, if you want to, say, emulate a stream or a pond arrangment, is to sharpen your observation of how Mother Nature does it. Nature is always our best teacher. Take some long hikes in the mountains, or walk along a winding river-bed and really observe. The better your observational skills of natural settings, the better you'll get at imitating what Mother Nature does.Fortunately, there is some written help along the way. There have been some welcome recent books specifically on Japanese pruning, such as Jake Hobson's "Niwaki: Pruning, Training and Shaping Japanese Garden Trees" (his more recent book, "Art of Creative Pruning" is excellent too). We can also hope at some point garden experts in Japan will make available to the Western world some type of detailed manual of Japanese pruning techniques for all manner of plants. Meanwhile, one should check out the on-going series of pruning articles in the Journal of Japanese Gardening (now called "Sukiya Living Magazine"). Although the publisher of JOJG (Douglas Roth) is a somewhat controversial figure in some internet garden forums, the fact is the instructional material in the magazine is of high quality and can be relied on. Roth's actual training in Japan and familiarity with the gardens and Japanese general culture puts him far ahead of the garden-forum wannabes. The rather bizarre nature of internet forums attempting to discuss Japanese gardens is a case-study in itself (!), but suffice it to say Roth's publication fills a real need. There just aren't many places elsewhere where the average person can learn this specialized pruning material (and practical Japanese-garden tips in all areas).Rock arranging, of course, is also difficult to learn from books. There aren't many books out on a specifically Japanese style of rock arranging, either. Probably the essential book for Westerners in this regard - and entirely concerned with Japanese techniques for arranging stones - is Isao Yoshikawa's "Japanese Stone Gardens: Appreciation and Creation". Yoshikawa is the founder of the esteemed Japanese Garden Research Association, and author of many fine books (with brief English texts) on Japanese gardening - all highly recommended. The value in Yoshikawa's book is not only the expertise of the author himself (which is imposing in itself), but also that the Research Association was created for the purpose of closely studying the fine traditional gardens of Japan and extracting the principles and techniques for use in one's own creative garden-design efforts. I became aware of Mr. Yoshikawa's wonderful garden work through reading the excellent "Create Your Own Japanese Garden: Japanische Gartengestaltung" (with text in German and English). The fine rock-work exhibited by Mr. Yoshikawa and three other experts in that book are also well worth studying closely.A good book from a Western author on the subject (although without the impressive break-down detail of various arrangements in the prior book) is David Engel's "A Thousand Mountains, A Million Hills: Creating the Rock Work of Japanese Gardens". Engel needs no introduction to Japanese garden fans. He is a pioneer in introducing Japanese gardens to Westerners and all his books are reliable. One need only observe pics of his own garden work to realize here is a man who knows what he is doing with rocks. Visiting fine gardens in the States, such as Portland or Anderson Gardens in Illinois, is also very helpful. These famous gardens have fine rock-work that will repay close study. Of course, Japan is always the heartland; if one can visit traditional gardens in Kyoto and elsewhere, all the better. There are many visually-inspiring books from Japan on small gardens that are also helpful, such as the 4-volume "Garden Views" series (by Tatsui Teien Kenkyujo). Any book on Japanese courtyard gardens (tsubo-niwa) is good for giving ideas for small backyard gardens.There is much more to be said regarding the culture and aesthetics of Japanese gardening, which is a very broad subject. Perhaps the best English-language book on this background material from a Westerner is Marc Peter Keane's "Japanese Garden Design". Many other books attempt to discuss the culture and aesthetics behind Japanese gardening, to varying degrees of success, but Keane lived, taught, and designed gardens in Kyoto for many years and therefore is on the short list of foreigners who can be relied upon in this area. Keane's books are a must for all English-speaking Japanese garden fans interested in an authentic look at the history, philosophy and aesthetics that make Japanese gardens unique among world gardens.Well, reader, let's sum up this rather disjointed review. Try reading some of these books, get some practical bonsai pruning experience on a few small pines you don't mind butchering :-), learn other pruning techniques for shrubs, weeping trees and so on, go observe how Mother Nature arranges rocks and water features, and go to it! What are you waiting around here for, reading Amazon reviews? Happy gardening.

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