I am looking for maps /diagrams of standing rock placement in Zen rock gardens. This is to help me in working my own garden.

Hi all,

I am a garden designer/landscaper from California and I will be visiting Japan next month (Tokyo & Kyoto). I love native plants here and consciously working with water and I am really excited to be inspired by a completely different way of design and orientation to the garden. In order to prepare, I wanted to find some gardens to visit during this time. Please let me know if you have any recommendations or know of anyone who specifically does garden tours . Thanks in advance!

Hello friends,

I’ve never posted in Reddit before but I have been browsing through this lovely subreddit and I wondered: a lot of whT I end up seeing is large scale projects. Books have been much the same. Additionally a lot of things talk about traditional Japanese plants but it feels antithetical a little to grow them here (San Antonio, TX) because it feels like part of the beauty of Japanese gardens I’ve seen is the feeling of being “more natural than nature”. So I wondered first, if there are books that talk about the feeling of coziness and enclosure that so many gardens have in a small space, and how to adapt principles of design but to use plants that are more natural in the habitat. Had anyone found good resources on small space and native design?

I just got back from tour of Japanese gardens in Japan, organized by the North American Japanese Garden Association. I think this, https://maps.app.goo.gl/DMDd7oCsGMzFzBbw5, has all the gardens we visited.

Some of our guides were academics and gave us extensive background information on the history of the gardens, the area, and the culture at the time the gardens were created and recreated. Some of the other guides were practitioners that maintained the gardens in Japan. They were able to give us practical down to earth insights to how a Japanese garden is maintained and how the gardens maintenance differs between gardens.

As time permits, I will share my photos and thoughts from the gardens we visited. My initial thought, from owning a Japanese style dry garden, is there are no true dry gardens in Japan. Even Ryōan-ji has moss around the rocks so maybe it's damp but not truly dry.

Ever wondered how to blend the serenity of a traditional Zen garden with sleek modern aesthetics? Get inspired here.

https://zenfusionhome.com/modern-japanese-garden-design-landscaping-ideas-tips/

Kyoto is known for being the epicentre of Japanese gardens. Here are some of the most stunning private gardens you must visit. https://zenfusionhome.com/discover-hidden-private-japanese-gardens-exclusive-lesser-known-gems-in-japan/