Japanese Touch for Your Garden

Rating:
Summary: Japanese Touch for Your Garden
Review: I had looked everywhere for a book that would describe Japanese fences and how to tie them. This book describes how to build 14 or so fences in good detail with drawings to help. It also taught me to tie the knots required for the fencing. Gates are also discussed along with stone placement and plantings. It's a book I truly appreciate.

Rating:
Summary: Best Guidebook for Planning Your First Japanese Garden
Review: Not a coffee table glamour book, not a glossed-over editorial toss-off destined for the remainder bin. This is quite simply the best guidebook for the amateur of the Japanese garden who wishes to try out the concepts at home.

It can be very frustrating to take home some fancy book on Zen gardens, only to find that it contains no real help for creating one. This book's real, step-by-step, practical advice is what anyone is after. It does not pretend to be the end-all of the art, & rather it admits this right from the title (A Japanese TOUCH...) This book will get you the right LOOK.

I found especially useful the diagrams of how to get balance (especially through rocks) within a space. There are some very good illustrations of bamboo fencing, too. Botanical suggestions and lists of suppliers are also helpful, but these lists are not exhaustive. You can achieve the basic framework with this book, though. I have yet to find a better Japanese gardening book... room for improvement is in expanding the above lists and adding practical suggestions for more ambitious, larger landscaping. But this will get you the basics.

Bonus delight is the first entry, a mood-setting piece on one man's contemplation of mountains and forests... all to be found in his tiny Japanese garden.

Grab a copy and use it and love your results!

Rating:
Summary: Best Guidebook for Planning Your First Japanese Garden
Review: Not a coffee table glamour book, not a glossed-over editorial toss-off destined for the remainder bin. This is quite simply the best guidebook for the amateur of the Japanese garden who wishes to try out the concepts at home.

It can be very frustrating to take home some fancy book on Zen gardens, only to find that it contains no real help for creating one. This book's real, step-by-step, practical advice is what anyone is after. It does not pretend to be the end-all of the art, & rather it admits this right from the title (A Japanese TOUCH...) This book will get you the right LOOK.

I found especially useful the diagrams of how to get balance (especially through rocks) within a space. There are some very good illustrations of bamboo fencing, too. Botanical suggestions and lists of suppliers are also helpful, but these lists are not exhaustive. You can achieve the basic framework with this book, though. I have yet to find a better Japanese gardening book... room for improvement is in expanding the above lists and adding practical suggestions for more ambitious, larger landscaping. But this will get you the basics.

Bonus delight is the first entry, a mood-setting piece on one man's contemplation of mountains and forests... all to be found in his tiny Japanese garden.

Grab a copy and use it and love your results!

Rating:
Summary: A Japanese Touch for your Garden
Review: The photos are excellent. One of my favorite books on Japanese
garden design.

Rating:
Summary: Quality but too brief overview of Japanese garden techniques
Review: This book highlights the key elements of Japanese gardening. It provides some theory into the Japanese style. Quality photos and sketches provide the reader with specific examples of the Japanese style in context. A good coffee table book with quality photos and an inspirational read (all but too brief).

Rating:
Summary: Simple but wonderful
Review: This is a wonderful book about japanese gardens. It is derived from a classic japanese encyclopedia of garden making. It explains concepts of japanese gardening and gives practical information about making a japanese garden. I especially enjoyed the section on bamboo fences, with photographs and instructions on how to construct them.

Rating:
Summary: Simple but wonderful
Review: This is a wonderful book about japanese gardens. It is derived from a classic japanese encyclopedia of garden making. It explains concepts of japanese gardening and gives practical information about making a japanese garden. I especially enjoyed the section on bamboo fences, with photographs and instructions on how to construct them.

Rating:
Summary: Begin With a Classic
Review: This slender book packs a big punch. It has been a how-to Japanese gardening classic for many years, and is a fine place to start. Long on good photography, not wordy, but gets right to the design philosophy behind the gardens. Especially well geared for those without a lot of space to work with. I only wish it were bigger! If you find yourself looking for more at this end of this book, may I recommend 'Japanese Gardens: Right Angle and Natural Form' by Gunter Nitschke (1993, Benedikt Taschen) for more on fabulous pictures, history and design theories.

Rating:
Summary: Japanese Touch for your Garden
Review: Using this book and lots of my time I took a boring townhouse courtyard and turned it into a mini Japanese garden of peace and tranquility. My results were so promising I expanded to the front yard and outside the courtyard fence. The book's beautiful pictures and down to earth language gave me the confidence to select and place my plants, rocks, lanterns and install a water basin plus lights for nighttime enjoyment. I'm still using the book's ideas as I build and install a wooden lattice around the garden's perimeter. (This will resemble growing bamboo, which is too large for my space) Yes you can hire someone to do your Japanese garden but why do it and miss all the trial and error that makes creating you own garden so enjoyable. Take this book home and get started. You will not go wrong.