The Japanese love gardens. Garden designers are regarded as artists. The gardens are used for a place to think and to make people feel good. Items in the gardens are arranged asymmetrically. Trees, shrubs, stones, gravel, and water are usually more important than flowers. If real water can't be used in the garden, white sand, clear stones, or mirrors are used instead. Some gardens have a stone lantern, a fence, or a teahouse in them. Stopping stones, paths, stone steps, and bridges may be used to link the garden together. Many gardens are miniature versions of a landscape with mountain ranges, rivers, and cliffs. Some temple gardens consist of raked sand and rocks without any plants at all. Often trees and shrubs are closely clipped to make interesting shapes. Because most Japanese live in crowded cities, very few people have a big garden of their own. Some people make miniature gardents in trays. These gardens are called "bonkei" or "bonseki".

You will need:

1. An aluminum pie-tin or sturdy container (ie. terra cotta dish)
2. 1/2 cup of small, clean pebbles (enough to cover the bottom of the pan so it's one layer thick)
3. 3 cups of sterile soil (enough to make a 1 inch layer)
4. 3 twigs of pine, spruce, maple or oak to represent trees
5. 1/4 cup of white sand
6. Grass seed
7. A miniature Japanese lantern or figure or bridge
8. Popsicle sticks or straws or toothpicks for fences
9. Small rocks - some flat ones for a path if you wish
10. A little mirror to represent water

Here's how to put your garden together:

1. Wash the pebbles well in hot water. Put a layer of pebbles in the bottom of your pie tin.
2. Spread the soil evenly over the pebbles. Make it about 1 inch deep.
3. Cut the twigs so that you have 1 tall, 1 medium, and 1 short one. Plant them toward the left side of your pie-tin. (The tall one goes straight up, the medium toward your left, and the short one toward the front.)
4. Arrange the rocks, paths (sand or flat stones), ponds (mirror or sand), fences, and bridge or lantern on the soil.
5. Sow the grass seed.
6. Water the garden.

Now -- Watch It Grow!
Keep the grass trimmed with scissors about once a week. Enjoy it!

If you plan to display your garden on a table, according to Japanese tradition, it should be in the front left corner and not the middle of the table.

Why not share what you know about Japanese gardens with your family and plant one at home or find a spot in the woods and create one?

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Last modified: April 8, 1996
Copyright © Highland Park Elementary School 1996