Here is a concise introduction to the practical aspects of making a Japanese garden. Whether your garden is a spacious suburban lot, an office countyard, or a tiny inner-city backyard, you will find here hundreds of creative but time-honored ways to make maximum use of the space you have.

You will learn how to lay stones and pathways and how to create intriguing sand patterns like the ones in Zen temple gardens. You will learn about Japanese lanterns, miniature pagodas, water basins, gates, and walls, and will be shown step by step how to make a bamboo lattice fence. Notes on the care of bamboo, moss, and grass are provided as are names of native North American plants and trees that can be substituted for conventional Japanese varieties. Schematic layout plans, detailed how-to explanations, and over 130 color photographs of Japanese gardens old and new give you ideas for endless variations.

Thoroughly up-to-date in its approach and based on the principle that a garden must satisfy the gardener, not a set of inflexible guidelines, this book encourages you to choose freely from the wide range of traditional Japanese design elements that suit your needs and tastes. Whether you live in the country, city, or somewhere in between, you will discover here numerous ways to transform-simply, inexpensively, and with your own two hands-that back porch, corridor, or yard into an intimate, tranquil oasis, one that will reward your planning and work with a rich and everchanging beauty.

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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!

44 of 44 found the following review helpful:

Japanese Touch for your GardenAug 27, 2001
By Al Aliment
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.

33 of 33 found the following review helpful:

Just what you needAug 02, 2005
By Zack Davisson "japanreviewed"
The title of this book is a bit misleading, in that it does not offer tips on adding a "Japanese touch" to your existing garden, but rather goes about explaining how to create a Japanese-style garden in the space available to you. In this manner, it is an extremely capable guide and leaves you with the confidence that you can accomplish building your own Japanese-style garden.

"A Japanese Touch for Your Garden" tells both the basic elements of a Japanese garden; rocks, plants, water, artificial elements, and also provides a blueprint for laying out and constructing a garden using these elements. Although packed with lovely pictures, the book is straight-forward and bare-boned, giving you the essentials of what you need. The authors briefly touches upon garden philosophy and such, but acknowledges that there are other, thicker books for the esoteric matters and they will focus on the practical.

The different sections of the book deal with things such as stone lanterns, bamboo fences, bridges, plants and trees...basically everything you will need. The focus is one how to select and use these available elements for the existing space you have to work with, and how to maximize them for the effect you want to achieve. The rear of the book also contains a guide of Japanese gardens in the US that you can visit, and suppliers of the various items you may want for your garden.

An excellent book, it is exactly what you need if there is a spare portion of your house or yard where you would like to put a Japanese garden. For a more deeper, spiritual look at Japanese gardens, look elsewhere. But to be inspired and begin construction on your own "World in Miniature," this is the place to start.

37 of 38 found the following review helpful:

Quality but too brief overview of Japanese garden techniquesSep 24, 1997

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).

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