Rocks in Japanese Gardens, Buiding Rock Garden, Backyard Designs

Simple and elegant Japanese garden design ideas symbolize natural landscapes. Creative stone arrangement in Japanese rock garden can represent mountains, ocean waves, sea or river water surfaces. Even a miniature Japanese rock garden adds mysterious charm to rock gardens landscaping, creating unique backyard designs.

Large stones and white sand is often used for building a rock garden in Japan. Raked or not raked gravel or pebbles are great for backyard landscaping and creating Asian garden. Water, moss and pruned trees are important elements of traditional Japanese rock garden also.

The mystery of building a rock garden is in slow disclosure of the garden’s elements. A restricted view of backyard landscaping creates a meditative feeling. The wonder of a Japanese rock garden lies in its timelessness and simplicity.

Asian garden design ideas, building a rock garden with stones, moss and trees

Building a rock garden

1. Use odd number of garden landscaping rocks for creating proper Japanese rock garden arrangement. Usually Asian garden design includes 15 landscaping rocks.

2. Stones in Japanese garden vary in shapes and sizes.

3. Garden landscaping rocks should not be placed on the ground, but set deeply in the soil, sand or gravel. A stone on a slope is sitting deeper in the soil than on the flat part of Asian garden.

4. Building a rock garden should create the impression that rocks in Japanese garden lie on their spots for centuries, witnessing how the weather, seasons and plants change.

5. The arrangement of landscaping rocks in Japanese gardens is not symmetrical.

6. Building a rock garden Japanese style requires creating a mystery of slow disclosure of landscaping rocks. The arrangement of stones in Japanese garden should allow to see only even number of them from one point. One of the landscaping rocks should be creatively hidden. The viewer can move around, exploring Japanese rock garden, but should not be able to see all landscaping rocks at the same time. This is the rule of building a rock garden and creating perfect Japanese rock garden design.

7. Japanese garden design ideas should repeat natural landscapes, symbolizing rivers, mountains, large rocks or ocean waves.

8. Strong contrasts of shapes, colors and textures are important part of formal Japanese rock garden design. Large garden landscaping rocks look impressive, because of their size. Smaller stones can have sharp edges, ideally flat surface, intricate or very smooth curve, that capture attention.

Small Japanese garden

9. Water is a symbol of life in Asian garden. Traditional garden design ideas include water elements for create the sound of running water or bringing texture contrast into Japanese rock garden design. Backyard designs with a small waterfall, a river bank or a pond create the sense of harmony and relaxation.

Japanese rock garden design, that includes a water element, looks great with a small waterfall, the sound of which can reach the house. One large waterfall rock surrounded by smaller garden landscaping rocks creates beautiful Japanese rock garden design that emphasizes the statics and dynamics of life. (Look at Asian design ideas, green home decor miniatures and Japanese vases made of beach stones.)

Small rock gardens, landscaping rocks

10. Real water can be successfully replaced by unique Asian garden design ideas. One color or multicolored pebbles create attractive dry creek’s bed for Japanese garden design.

11. Even small Japanese gardens ideas should define the movement and create the contrast of static and dynamic elements of backyard designs. Asian garden landscaping rocks create static and timeless arrangements.

Small Japanese garden

White sand or gravel waves represent ocean surface and dry creek symbolize rives and springs in miniature Japanese rock garden design. Concentric circles around garden landscaping rocks, made of pebbles, sand or gravel in small Japanese gardens, are reflections of static waves on a still water surface of a lake or a small pond.

12. Building a rock garden can include unique Asian garden decor items, like arched bridges, made of unusual natural stones. Bridges do not need to be large in small Japanese gardens. They can be decorated with Asian garden plants or sand and gravel. Building a rock garden bridges, especially made of solid wood, is very appreciated in Japan.

Japanese garden design ideas, backyard landscaping traditions in Japan

Simple rules for arranging rocks in Japanese gardens and building a rock garden elements create elegant, mysterious and relaxing designs that help to escape everyday problems and improve mood. The beauty of Japanese garden design offers simple backyard landscaping ideas that able to bring a person back to their sense of ‘self’ in busy and stressful world.