Heaven is a Garden. Jan Johnsen

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      This shady dry stream suggests a river and catches stormwater when it rains heavily. Every year we plant annual flowers among the hostas, oakleaf hydrangeas and Japanese painted fern to make it colorfully eye-catching.

      A garden metaphor is what I call any landscape feature that recreates a scene of natural beauty in a smaller scale. This can include a dry stone stream to suggest a river, a small earth mound to represent a mountain, or a grouping of trees to evoke a forest.

      The ancient Japanese garden makers elevated recreating natural scenes to a high art. Their honored 11th-century manual on garden making, Sakuteiki, says that “you should design each part of the garden tastefully, recalling your memories of how nature presented itself for each feature…Think over the famous places of scenic beauty throughout the land, and design your garden with the mood of harmony, modeling after the general air of such places.”

      My favorite garden metaphor is a dry stream. It connotes a babbling brook but, for the most part, contains no water. I was first introduced to dry streams when I lived in Kyoto, the locale of most of Japan’s famous gardens. I fell in love with their versatility and I use them often in my landscapes. I create a dry stream by lining a curving trench with rocks, buried halfway into the earth. The trench is filled with gravel and topped with a thin layer of smooth, rounded stones. Dry streams can be a prominent and beautiful feature in the garden while effectively dealing with seasonal wetness – you can incorporate subsurface pipes and sump pumps beneath their beautiful exterior to help out with surface drainage.

       Plantings for a Dry Stream

      I created a dry stream in my small backyard. It adds a serene touch and looks great studded with a variety of plants. Because the dry stream forms a primary view from the house, I tried to follow the Japanese garden rule in planting it up: approximately 30 percent of the plants are deciduous and 70 percent are evergreen. The abundance of evergreen plants keeps the stream from looking desolate in the winter.

      I chose mostly low maintenance plants that tolerate partial shade. The list includes Japanese garden juniper (Juniperus procumbens ‘nana’), ‘Ice Dance’ sedge (Carex ‘Ice Dance’), Golden Sedge (Carex oshimensis ‘Evergold’), Siberian iris ‘Caesar’s Brother’ (Iris sibirica ‘Caesar’s Brother’), hemlock trees (Tsuga canadensis), arborvitae trees (Thuja occidentalis ‘Emerald’) and dwarf fountain grass (Pennistum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’). For summer color, I plant the wonderful, drought tolerant, purple annual strawflower, Globe Amaranth ‘Buddy’ (Gomphrena globosa ‘Buddy’). By the way, most of these plants are deer resistant!

      I love my backyard dry stream. It adds garden interest to a small space and I feel at peace when I look upon it.

      Fencing an Outdoor Space: The Inner Sanctum

      A fence or screen transforms an ordinary outdoor space into a personal area where you can enjoy the outdoors undisturbed. A beautiful fence can define a garden, add a sense of privacy and make it seem like a “place apart.” The psychological buffer it provides satisfies our instinctive desire for security and, if designed correctly, increases the allure of an outdoor patio or garden.

      This distinctive gate was fashioned from a salvaged window grill

      Our ancestors would often enclose places of natural beauty such as a gurgling spring or forest clearing with a rudimentary enclosure. This provided needed protection from enemies and created a special place to relax and enjoy shade, refreshment and camaraderie. You can do the same, but make sure to place a fence far enough away from a sitting area so you don’t feel penned in. Soften the fence’s presence and take care to place the gate so that it does not interrupt the flow within the space. And lastly, choose the layout of the fence carefully.

      The “Insulation” of a Wall

      Walls create the outdoor sanctuary that we crave, offering an extra layer of insulation to a garden. They are the bones of a garden, dividing and defining space and creating sheltered outdoor areas. A tall stone wall framing one side of an outdoor space can act as a magnet. Place a few chairs in front of such a wall and arrange a collection of colorful planters and you have a delightful area to enjoy with friends.

      I designed this patio to be partially enclosed by a low wall to afford a feeling of protection.

      These two stone walls retain a steep slope and, at the same time, make a great backdrop.

      In the photo shown here, I added a lower stone wall in front of an existing stone wall, to retain a high hill. The lower wall is not too high and creates an inviting space more СКАЧАТЬ