With the exception of the appartment balcony garden, you really can't get into some of them. It's like they are large table top arrangements unintegrated with their suroundings, albiet very nice.

Jeepster - I agree. The 'Tatami meditation seat' one in particular looks like an oversized 'executive desk' tray.

On the other hand, I read that the smaller a Japanese garden is, the more likely it's intended to be viewed from indoors, rather than entered? I wouldn't mind having a window view of the one at bottom right on the first page, though I'd want to change the colour - and maybe the surface texture - of the wall.

Here are two more sites with smaller-scale Zen-style gardens. One is very reminiscent (to me) of the much bigger Nanzenji garden. Do you see the similarity?

Click for quite a small Zen garden (then scroll down)

They are very similar.

I would assume that the real aspect of Zen is not in contemplating the finished garden but it must be in the tedious raking, escpecially when have you cats and dogs who don't quite understand boundry lines.

In the miniatures I can imagine an American version with small figures drinkin beer in a lawn chair - Missourians don't sit upon the ground, if your past 30 it hurts ;-).

Isao Yoshikawa and Takashi Sawano are Japanese gardeners who have written numerous books on small gardens and their design. I recommend checking them out.

Here is an Amazon listing for Yoshikawa, and if you look at other links on that page, you'll see Sawano's books as well. I've collected all of their books and have referred to them quite a bit.

Here is a link that might be useful: Small Gardens

Jeepster,

When you suggest that the real part of Zen may be in the tedious raking, you may be right, for all I know!

I had been wondering whether, if I laid down exposed aggregate concrete, it could look enough like raked gravel to be the basis of a Zen garden, but if you have to actually rake it all the time, it rather kills the idea. Still, after the dog or cat's visited, it could be hosed down......

Herb

I'm fed up with my small front garden situated in a south-west exposition and that is crossed by a path from the street to the house. In northern France the climate is rather wet, but in summer the place seems to take place in Northern Africa (only in the afternoon). My dream is to create a japanese garden, but I don't know what to do, what to grow in, I don't know anything about bamboos and some people told me they could be dangerous, because they are able to go their own way in a dry, sandy soil. Help me and sorry for my english !
Moreover, it's hard to find books about japanese gardens in France

Is there a French version of Amazon.com (onlne book seller)? You might be able find books there on Japanese gardens, but written in French.

Bamboos are not dangerous. It is very easy to control them. The best way (in a small space) is to bury a very large container (with drainage holes drilled into it) in the ground and plant the bamboo in it. Many gardeners in Europe grow bamboo in their gardens. In fact, bamboo has been popular in much of western Europe for more than 200 years!

Thank you Cady. I've seen Amazon does exist in french and I'm going to plant bamboos the way you told me.

This is probably WAY too picky (and maybe not even right), but I wonder if that first website link in Herb's first post might be spreading a bit of misinformation:

"These gardens were introduced in Japan by Buddhist monks in the 11th century..."

Isn't that a couple of hundred years too early? I believe it was Eisai who founded Zen in Japan around 1200 and converted the Kamakura shogunate to Zen. Then sometime after that the dry gardens became popular. Can you have a "Zen" garden before Zen was in Japan?

(I believe most scholars feel that the term "karesansui" (dry gardens) mentioned in the Sakuteiki (written in the 11th century) was not referring to what we think of today as karesansui.)

And then there is the larger question of whether the Zen priests themselves were actually involved in designing these gardens. And whether they were thinking about Zen or thinking about a nice-looking rock arrangement, or maybe about a way to please their benefactors, the military government.

But historical questions aside, I like the gardens in the website and agree they are nice for small spaces.

Lee

ManieBonne, based upon the description of your site You are going to have a challange and therefore you'll have to be creative. Japanese Maples and some traditional plantings may not do well unless you can get them some afternoon shade. Take a look at the Zen based styles that seem more appropriate to dry conditions. Your situation is similar to mine: wet in the winter and hot, dry and bright in summer. Just get creative and use those plants you know will take the punishment in a creative Japanese way.

I see nothing wrong with your english.:-)

Thanks Jeepster. In the small garden I told you about, I have a wonderful sumac that gracefully leans upon erica carnea, two dwarfs pines (mungo and another I've forgotten the name) at the rignt side of the path a magnolia soulangeana, and some others little plants I don't want anymore, and stones ,of course. Could you suggest something, or send me a photo of your garden, or the title of a book that will improve my feeling. My back garden is an english garden and I'm very proud of it. I don't want a bad form in my future japanese garden. Thanks to tell me more. A bientôt (=so long)