It’s a relaxing retreat.

Japanese gardens bring a little “zen” into your life by transporting you to another time and place all at once foreign, unique and calming. Originally created in large Japanese urban areas, the Japanese garden plants a bit of nature into a backyard in a highly formal and crafted way.

“There is a high sense of craft in a Japanese garden. What the Japanese do, they do perfectly because they are perfectionists in regards to craft,” says Bill Webster, a Columbus resident who’s spent the past two and a half years creating and maintaining his Japanese garden.

The Japanese culture has certain aesthetic principles that make its style of gardening distinctive and tranquil. There are several elements that are essential to achieve this style.

The first and most important feature is the water element. As the primary focal element, water is significant in Japan for its visual effect, its sound, and its representation of calmness. Sound is most important, as it indicates the presence of water even if the pond is out of sight.

The pond also is a home for koi, beautiful Japanese carp that resemble colorful goldfish. These ornamental fish are an important part of any Japanese garden and add elegance to the water element, along with plants, elephant ears and other Japanese pond shrubs.

Carefully placed shrubbery and tree forests throughout the garden are the second essential element. Maples, Japanese cypress (called “hinoki”) and black and white pines are located throughout a garden in forests, according to Japanese principles of asymmetry and perspective. Bamboo, a standard East Asian plant, some species of which can grow up to 24-feet tall, is significant around the edge of the gardens for privacy and as a border enclosing the space.

Webster has customized his garden to include small bonsai forests planted in the ground, an unusual addition because bonsai trees are traditionally planted and maintained in pots. Additionally, Webster has 11 specimen trees instead of the traditional two to three, but each garden may be tweaked to individual perspective and experience.

Large stones, integrated with trees and shrubs, are a third key garden element. The aesthetics of stone settings is something found in Japanese gardens, and the art of integrating them is very important, according to Webster. A ground covering of white marble stones is common, and Webster uses them to define the area. The Japanese often rake these small white stones into patterns and waves.

Japanese gardens seem to be increasing in popularity within the United States, mostly on the West Coast, says Webster. “If the Journal of Japanese Gardening is an authority, then there is a lot of interest within a broad spectrum. The challenge is the cost, which tends to be prohibitive,” he adds.

Webster estimates that his 1,300-square-foot garden would have cost $125,000 to create if he and his son-in-law, Hanno Schickram, of Structure and Space-Fine Residential Renovations in Columbus, had not completed it themselves. Even so, the garden cost Webster about $15,000.

Aside from the cost of creating the garden, another consideration is the price of maintenance, which Webster says can be immense.

“It is literally a full-time job during the summer. The pond and marble are the most time-consuming,” says Webster, who works in his garden nearly 40 to 50 hours a week, watering everything daily and picking up bamboo leaves one-by-one from the marble stones. To pay a professional master gardener and workers to keep the garden immaculate would cost more than $100 a week.

“You really have to be committed, but if you spend an hour or two a day and weekends working in the garden, anyone can do it,” Webster says.

The Journal of Japanese Gardening, www.rothteien.com, is a good source for those who are interested in beginning a garden of their own. There are also a lot of books on the subject that are easy to find and read. Webster suggests first planning what’s affordable in your area and then becoming familiar with what Japanese gardens consist of. Additional pictures of Webster’s Japanese Garden can be viewed on his Web site, www.thewebsterjapanesegarden.com.

Samantha Gebert is a contributing writer for Luxury Living Magazine.

Sidenote:
An excellent way to get a sense for Japanese gardening is to visit some of the best Japanese gardens in the United States, such as Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford, Ill., the Portland Japanese Garden in Portland, Ore., as well as gardens in Seattle and Vancouver. But, there is no substitute for visiting Japan and experiencing its gardens first-hand.