Project  - A Japanese Style Garden

As eye-catcher just outside the kitchen window and from the "forest path" we created a small gravel area using white marble gravel and black glittering stepping stones. This area also became a sort of divider between different areas in the garden.

The surface became available as we removed some trees that grew too close to the house. What was left looked a bit boring and needed something new. Since both my wife and I likes when it looks clean and stylish as well as a touch of asia, it became this kind of area.

The first job was to remove all existing growth. Grass patches and smaller roots from the removed trees were cleared out and new soil added. The though was to put selected plants at selected places in the area. On top of this new layer we covered it with a fibre cloth to keep the gravel clean and lessen the risk for grass amongst the gravel.

A hole for a stump and a couple of bigger roots were cut out and then the gravel was added bucket by bucket. When a suitable layer was in place the stepping stones were placed. I used a comfortable distance between them and in a way to point out where to walk across the area. The stepping stones were levelled using gravel. When all stones were in place more gravel was added to an even surface.

The pictures show the newly created area and all plants are not in place yet. There are two grass plants over by the fir tree and a clematis climbing on a support on the tree.

Right to the right of the tree we can see the forest path. If we take a picture from the other direction the area looks as below.

In this angle we can see the stepping stones much better and also that there is a great differnce in impression coming from this way. It does not look as it is in the same garden. It turned out better than expected!

This area was created during 2006 and writing this six years later it has slowly gotten more finished. The plants have changed as we noticed that it is somewhat dry and sensitive of sorts. Some lighting and a deorative bird sculpture is added for completeness. The picture below shows the area in 2012.

Material and Plants