The good news is the 'trees forest' you have indicated, you can incorporate these as shakkei (stolen landscape) and to a degree they should influence the kind of garden you create ie. japanese woodland styling.

The pond is very japanese, try for an elongated gourd shape and ideally make sure a small bridge crosses it at a mid-point 'waist'. Think of where the water comes from and create a stream or waterfall to supply it. There is alot of lore about the direction a stream should take but I'd need North on your plan.

You will need rocks but if they are in short supply I'd suggest making a prominent feature of those you do get, perhaps by surrounding them by gravel for a karensansui 'dry garden' area.

As regards the children lawns are OK in a Japanese garden, just try and blend it in with everything else rather than do a Western square or circle lawn, gourd shape would be good again.

PS. I'm sure kids will love a deer-scarer.

Hi, congrats on your new home. Just a few questions for you to think about. How do your guests arrive? If they park in your drive then you may want to consider a walk way to the front sidewalk. The curves of that walkway will give you the shape of your garden in the front. And do you want to greet your guests by stimulating all thier senses? If so you could have a water feature, plants for aroma, then the varied textures and color shades of the plants. If it were my front yard I would use the same tile for a gently curving path to the front of the house from the curve of tile between the house and garage. The path would widen and curve into the existing tile at both ends. Placing running water near the front door would draw my guests to the front enterance wit its sound. I would want the landscaping to keep the water source a mystery and reveal it as they neared the front enterance.

Remember to put everything down on paper, it is easier to erase and move things on paper than it is in the garden. When the final plan is complete and you have your plants place them all where you have planned and see how they look, you may have to move things before the final planting. Take your time and really think it through, this is the first impression you will make when greeting your guests. Believe me, I tend to rush and then have to move things after they are planted and it is alot more work. Gook luck and have fun.

Lots of possibilities in the back. Decide how you want to use your yard. Do you want to view the pond from the deck or have it out in the landscape. Do you want to see the children as they play from the house? Then you don't want to obstruct the view from the house to the lawn area. See what I mean, think how you will use the back yard and how you want to view the garden. Let the property tell you where the gardens and thier shape should be.

Hope you are enjoying your new home.

Cheers Jando

Hi Peter and Malin,
How about a moongate for the entrance I know they are not Japanese but Chinese, but they sure look nice ,take a look at mine on the link below, it is just a suggestion you may not like it.
George.

Here is a link that might be useful: George's Japanese Garden

Hello and wow, what a great response! Yesterday evening we sat down and talked about what we wanted to do:

1) My wife want to build a "shinto"-style fence around the wood deck. Just for decoration... and perhaps in teh future to prevent the children from falling in the bushes around the deck.

2) Between then garage and the house, she also wanted me to build this:
http://www.woodsshop.com/kits1/kits1.htm

We figured it will be a great entrance to the back yeard.

3) We want the pond to be visible from the deck, so perhaps we place it about 2 meters from the deck in the middle of the lawn, and surround it with stones and perhaps a small waterfall. Like i said the area is VERY flat, så a natural waterfall is impossible... perhaps if i make a small hill next to the pond... ;)

4) Yes my thought first was that its a good area for shakkei. The forrest behind the house consist of many different trees, perhaps we will plant similar in the garden.

5) We are VERY unsure what we want to do with the front garden. Since the distance between the front door and the road is ony 2 meters its not easy to make a curved path look good... So I think we stick with what we got. And perhaps plant some round schrubs to counteract the "squared" feeling...?

thank you
Peter & Malin

Check out Mr. North posting on page two of this forum. Looks like the two of you have twin plans.

Cheers Jando

Really?? Then we will do that!

Just want to point out that this configuration is very common in sweden... house, garage and square garden :( Perhaps he has the same problems...

/Peter

You could post us a front of house picture but my first thought would be for you to plant a single 'superstar' tree such as a well shaped pine or acer. If the space is long and thin small bushes withh emphasise this. You want to emphasise height. Put this tree at one end of a gravel area with it's own rock and then balance by placing two good rocks at the other end.

Euonymous alatus comes to mind as this is a real four seasons interest plant.