How to create a Japanese-inspired garden in Maine
The focal point of this stunning private garden on the Midcoast is the "Dragon's Gate" style dry waterfall and stream bed, one of the classics of Japanese garden design. Designed by Noah Gottlieb of Lee Schneller Fine Gardens, the arrangement of stones evokes the fall and flow of water. The low plants, planted in carefully spaced drifts to accentuate the stonework, have either no blooms or very gentle, short-lived ones; among them are ferns, hostas, iris and lilies. COURTESY PHOTO
Designing your own homegrown haven
By June Donenfeld
The striking natural features of Mount Desert Island and elements of classic Japanese garden design meet in true synergy in the Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor. The serene sand garden, created by Charles Savage in 1958, is punctuated by a careful arrangement of rocks and plants. The long raked lines represent ocean waves and the smaller ones surrounding the rocks recall ripples hitting the shore. PHOTO: MARY ROPER
“Take a hike.” This is what Mary Roper said when I asked for some guidance on how Maine home gardeners can create their own Japanese-inspired garden. But she meant it in a good way. Roper has managed the renowned Asticou Azalea Garden in Northeast Harbor on Mount Desert Island for three decades. Designed by Charles K. Savage in 1957, the Arts and Crafts-style garden blends Acadia’s imagery with traditional features from gardens in Japan.
“The common source of aesthetic inspiration for both Asticou Azalea Garden and traditional gardens in Japan is mountaintops,” Roper says. “I prefer to inspire, not oversimplify, so my advice would be to hike the mountains, where you’ll find landscapes formed by wind, waves, streams and ponds or stony outcrops. Absorb the scenery into your imagination and mind’s eye, and then let it play out in your garden design.”
Other experts also helped me with my aspirations. Freeport-based artist John Farrell creates “gardens and ponds in the Japanese spirit” at his company hanamichi design, founded two decades ago following an extended fellowship in Japan, where he immersed himself in the beauty and tranquility of the country’s traditional gardens. Father-and-son team James and Eli Appleby of Lee Schneller Fine Gardens (LSFG) in Warren also weighed in. LSFG was founded in 1995 by Lee Schneller Sligh and specializes in designing and building Japanese-inspired, naturalistic and continuously blooming gardens. Both James Appleby and recently retired Schneller Sligh studied at Kyoto University of Art and Design in Japan and have traveled there extensively.
This private courtyard garden was designed by John Farrell and features a Japanese stone basin fountain, irregular Maine granite boulders, and discreet green planting. The gentle sound of splashing water and contrasting textures and hues of the moss, ferns and lichen create a contemplative vignette that delights the senses and calms the mind. PHOTO: JOHN FARRELL
Begin at the beginning
The very first instruction in the 11th-century Japanese treatise Sakuteiki, still the bible for Japanese garden designers today, is “observe and learn from nature,” just as Savage did when designing Asticou. Personal habits are also important.
“I always tell people to think first about where they spend most of their time,” Farrell says. “For most Mainers, that’s indoors, so consider that your Japanese-inspired garden will mostly be viewed from inside your home. Compose its structure with an awareness of how each viewing point reveals or frames or hides the landscape. Then think about creating small vantage points outside the home. Look for ways to focus on the garden, not on the house.”
And when LSFG garden designers first meet with clients, their planning conversations often start with the question, “What would happen if I just did nothing?” This helps isolate design challenges, reveal true priorities, and accentuate the natural strengths of the area.
Focus on “inspired” as much as “Japanese”
Beware of outright imitation. Farrell uses his deep knowledge of Japanese garden traditions to create designs “that are Japanese in spirit and essence, rather than trying to recreate Japanese gardens in a foreign context.”
Eli Appleby cautions that “people should be aware that when directly copying design elements from other cultures, they may not fully understand the broader context that informs those elements, which cannot only be potentially offensive but also wreck a garden’s innate sense of place and style.”
And Roper nutshells it when she says, “Avoid the wholesale appropriation of the Japanese aesthetic, which would feel artificial or contrived.”
This is especially true for figures of Buddha. In private gardens in Japan, these statues reflect the household’s religion. So, if you want to place one in your own garden, as a sign of respect to the millions of Buddhists who believe in its efficacy, set it in an elevated, inconspicuous place and leave it unlit.
The "hide and reveal" Japanese garden design principle is one of the standout features of Asticou Azalea Garden. While seated on one of the flat stones abutting the path, visitors can gaze out on the verdant panoply of trees and shrubs whose varied textures, shades and sizes both engage and soothe the eye, and then farther to the peaceful pond and simple footbridge beyond. PHOTO: MARY ROPER
It’s the principle of the thing
With their deep philosophical and spiritual roots, traditional Japanese gardens are designed for peaceful contemplation. Whether tiny or expansive, they can be havens of renewal, solace and joy. No matter how much—or little—space you have, you can apply a judicious selection of Japanese design principles, techniques and elements to create your own private refuge. But do less, not more. “Intentional simplicity and carefully scaled elements can provide the basis for your garden,” Roper says. Essential principles include asymmetry, borrowed scenery enclosure, framed views, hide and reveal, symbolism, and wabi-sabi.
Plants
When you create your home garden, use native plants when you can, as was done at Asticou at its inception. “It started with a strong native basis and is rich in azaleas native to the East Coast,” Roper says. “There are also pitch pines—the predominant pine on Sargent and Acadia Mountains—along with low blueberry bushes, dwarf laurel and moss.”
But before you empty your wallet at a garden center, cultivate a sense of seasonal awareness. “Bear in mind how your space will look in all seasons, and consider how your asymmetry, enclosure and so on will hold up throughout the whole year,” Eli Appleby says. “If you stake your garden’s balance on plants that get cut back in July, you’ll spend six months out of every year with a lopsided garden!”
“Lean heavily on evergreen plants that remain beautiful through the colder months,” Farrell advises, “and keep in mind that many months of the year are wintry. Ask yourself, ‘What will the plants or rocks look like covered in snow? What plants can tolerate snow load?’” Farrell also recommends embracing the natural cycle of life. “Leave some grasses standing through the winter rather than cutting them to the ground in the fall,” he says, “because they are beautiful against the snow and remind one of life’s ephemerality.”
You can do this!
There is a mountain of information available about how to create a Japanese-inspired garden at home, but with the resources below, you’ll be off to a strong start. As the Applebys say,
Create the garden that you want, within the scope that you can control. Start small, work slowly, build experience, understand your own tastes; define your vision and don’t be afraid to adjust your initial design. Just get out and start working—if you play to your strengths, do what moves you and stay conscious of your expression within cultural context, you will be well on your way to successful Japanese-inspired gardening in no time!
Traditional Japanese garden design principles, techniques and elements
Asymmetry: Create an irregular arrangement of elements to reflect the natural world.
Enclosure: Create a sense of a separate world within your garden with walls, hedges or trees.
Borrowed views or scenery (shakkei): Incorporate views beyond your garden’s boundaries, whether close or distant, to make it feel larger and more connected to the surrounding landscape. Lakes or mountains are classic examples, but if your neighbor has a beautiful tree, for example, you could prune some of your own shrubs to include a view of it in your own garden.
Balance: Strive for balance and harmony through the placement of elements, the restrained use of color, and the way different features interact.
Symbolism (mitate): Use some elements for symbolic purposes: rocks can represent mountains, for instance, and raked sand or gravel patterns can suggest distant hills, streams, waves or the sea.
The beauty of empty space (yohaku no bi): Create dynamism by leaving some empty areas to add structure, balance and definition to your composition. For the viewer, this empty space is both calming and energizing, giving our eyes a place to rest, but also stimulating our imagination.
Wabi-sabi: A general design principle that refers to the beauty of rusticity, impermanence, patination and imperfection. In gardens, use (in moderation) stones, wood, or ceramic vessels with lichen or moss.
Contrasting levels of formality (shingyōsō): Combine formal, less formal and informal materials. Border a path of river rocks with precisely hewn stone blocks or arrange formal steppingstones in an informal pattern.
Framed views: Dry gardens of sand, rocks and minimal plant matter (karesansui), were originally meant to be viewed, and contemplated, through the exterior wall openings of Japanese temples. At home, use windows or French doors to frame a garden composition.
All-green plantings: To soothe the eye, plant evergreens of varying shades, with textural interest from different plant heights and leaf shapes. You can also create a stunning living sculpture through careful shaping. When a flowering tree blossoms in the spring or a tree’s leaves turn color in the fall, the contrast will be beautiful.
Hide and reveal (miegakure): Plan your garden so not everything can be seen from a single vantage point, so that the visitor can appreciate the unexpected.
Verges and grades: Use these to achieve the asymmetry essential to Japanese-inspired gardens. James Appleby says, “Verges are the points where two materials or surfaces meet, as when raked gravel meets a path, and the way the grade is shaped at which they meet can make an inhospitable and unnatural location look as though it's been a lovely garden for a thousand years.”
Objects with previous lives and purpose: (mitate-mono): Use an old slate or ceramic roof tiles as decorative edging for paths, an antique stone trough for a birdbath or planter, or an antique millstone for a paving focal point.
Sculptural or water elements, such as a water basin (chōzubachi) or stone lantern.
Resources
Maine native plant suggestions from John Farrell
Cornus florida (flowering dogwood), flowering crab apples
Amelanchier canadensis (shadblow serviceberry)
Clethra alnifolia (coastal sweet pepperbush)
Clethra acuminata (mountain sweet pepperbush)
Kalmia latifolia (mountain laurel)
Ilex laevigata (smooth winterberry holly)
Aronia arbutifolia (red chokeberry)
Rhododendron viscosum (swamp azalea)
Rhododendron canadense (rhodora)
For fencing, instead of bamboo, try Maine native cedar or red twig dogwood.
To preview native plants that might suit your garden, visit:
Eastern Maine Native Plant Arboretum in Bangor (native trees and shrubs for managed landscapes)
Kitty Todd Arboretum at Merryspring Nature Center in Camden (native trees)
Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (native and non-native species)
Native Gardens of Blue Hill (native species)
Viles Arboretum in Augusta (native and non-native species)
Learn more
A Japanese Touch for Your Garden by Kiyoshi Seike, Masanobu Kudo, David Engel
Japanese Gardening in Small Spaces by Isao Yoshikawa
Japanese Inspired Gardens: Adapting Japan’s Design Traditions for Your Garden by Patricia Jonas, Ed.
The Ever-Blooming Flower Garden, by Lee Schneller
Creating Japanese-Inspired Gardens in New England/Japan Society of Boston with Lee Schneller Sligh (video)
North American Japanese Garden Association: najga.org
On the Cover: Maine’s local flower market is blooming, thanks to a new collaboration of Maine flower growers and buyers.