I was honestly just wondering why this board didn't have a section for Japanese Gardens about a week ago. I have been reading a great deal on the art in the last few months. I have a small raked late style zen rock garden in an area of my yard that used to be an overgrown rose garden. Its looks nice, but a Japanese gardener would probably smack me if he saw it. Since, its bordered by my sidewalk, my front porch, a wall of my house, and my driveway.

But, I have been reading a great deal on the traditional water style. Which is only really a complete display of the Japanese elemental forms. My mother and my grandmother both live in a house together with just about 21/2 acres of Florida pineland. The last acre and a half is undeveloped and fenced off. They have contracted me to design them a japanese water garden in this area. And, also adding early style(naturalistic) rock gardens in a few points in the yard to complement sets of pines in the actual yard. They're also getting a baby pond and and hilly trickling stream right by their front door that I'm about half finished with now. I'm talking with a guy who designs golfcourses for a living about the big pond's(maybe around 2000 gallons) design in the back lot. He's also gonna dig the hole. I've taken "before" pictures already. Just working toward the "after" now.

Sorry to ramble, I'm just really excited about that project. Anyhow, my point was thru all that was, I would love to see a Japanese Gardening Forum here as well. They two art forms, while being austerely different, are uniquely linked in their approaches and tree design concepts.



Sorry, to