Chinese gardens have been in fashion for the past few years. They are gaining particular popularity in connection with the expansion of zones allocated for individual housing construction. A Chinese garden can be laid out and designed even on sloping sites.
Chinese-style garden and its photo
The Chinese-style garden is arranged according to certain canons dating back centuries. In the center of the garden there is always water, which often occupies more than half of it, closed courtyards and shady corners located along the perimeter of water devices, these are independent spaces flowing into each other. The main advantage of the Chinese garden is its naturalness, symmetry and straight lines are impossible in it, all that is absent in nature. Stones are an indispensable element of the Chinese garden. They can stand alone or in a group, they are complemented, they can be or.
The Chinese garden is unthinkable without architectural structures scattered around the estate, each with its own strictly defined purpose. For a walk in the garden, there is a route that connects garden compositions into a single whole, revealing garden pictures to the guest one after another in a certain sequence - this is a kind of scenario for a garden performance. Chinese gardeners wisely advised to learn from nature, absorb some ideas while traveling around the area. Do not blindly copy the surrounding beauty, learn from it, be inspired and come up with something of your own.
Look at the Chinese-style garden in the photos that illustrate the project as a whole and its constituent elements:
Photo gallery
Chinese style in landscape design
An example of the implementation of the project, which is based on the Chinese style in landscape design.
Used elements of the garden:
1. front garden.
2. tree and shrub composition.
3. swimming pool.
6. peonies planted in paving modules.
7. Chinese gazebo.
The garden begins with a front garden located between the house and the driveway, which adjoins the forest behind the fence. Varietal lilacs and forest pines with firs growing in front of the house help the garden blend into the natural environment. Here, to the left of the front garden, there is an entrance and an entrance to the site, a parking lot. The wide house plays the role of a kind of screen that separates the garden from the street.
Several reservoirs smoothly flow into one another, they are limited by stunningly beautiful lines along which expressive compositions of stones and coniferous plants are located. On the west bank, a large poultry house was built from a fine metal mesh, it consists of two parts on both sides of the gazebo in Chinese motifs, to which they adjoin. Pheasants winter well here under the open sky.
Chinese style landscape
You can first look at the photo of Chinese gardens to understand that this style of minimalism allows you to equip even the most unsightly areas:
Photo gallery
The Chinese-style landscape includes several unusual elements. Another building in the Chinese spirit is an observation tower on the east bank for contemplation of beautiful views of the garden - from here they are simply amazing. In addition, she draws attention away from the weakly decorative neighbor's house behind her. The tower takes up very little space on the ground, about one and a half square meters (1.5 m wide, 1 m deep). You can climb up the comfortable wooden steps of the spiral staircase and enjoy the view of the surroundings from the second floor. Built in a good place, painted brown, light and airy, the tower became the focus of perception and decoration of the entire garden. One of its main elements is the roof. The large roof, covered with red-brown flexible tiles, flies into the sky thanks to the curved and raised corners, giving the garden a special expression.
Along the coastline of artificial reservoirs, which is 120 m, there are paths, walking along which you can admire the water and consider interesting plant compositions.
Along the long sides of the plot are often planted the most different trees and shrubs that isolate the site from neighbors on both sides. It is spectacular when the coast is lined with stones, as in this garden.
It is good to decorate some part of the shore of the reservoir with plants, but you should not fill the entire perimeter with plants, part of the shore should be free from them. Paving looks organic with stones. If you need to “draw” a path along the pebble shore, then both closely laid and step-by-step flagstone will do. It's beautiful when it comes close to some part of the coast
Philosophy of the garden interior
The gardens of Asian countries are created for peace, tranquility and encourage those who enter them to relax. That is why the plants that are used for decoration should remain in the same color scheme, and all shades of green form the basis of the garden interior. In the vastness of such a garden, variegated varieties and forms are used extremely carefully, especially when it comes to the Japanese direction.
The classics of Japanese gardens claim that the most strict connoisseurs do not allow even rhododendrons to bloom, their buds are meticulously removed every year. After all, flowers are present only as an addition to some element of the garden, as an accent that enhances the impression. This does not mean that such a garden is boring and monotonous. On the contrary, the symphony of greenery and stones, the light murmur of water and the rustle of the wind playing with decorative cereals, is the most suitable for a meditative tea party after a busy day.
The creations of Asian gardeners are distinguished by their elegant simplicity and conciseness of the assortment of plants. And at the same time, extreme accuracy and cleanliness of landings. These main factors should be the first when choosing an assortment. That is, cultures and forms should be combined with each other all year round and be sustainable in the climate of your region.
Expert advice
There is no need to try to adapt complex heat-loving species to your region, because the beauty of any garden is achieved only when it is formed, and its inhabitants appear before you in all their beauty at any time of the year.
The second moment is philosophy, the idea of a garden. It is not enough to beautifully arrange the stones and pick up truly Chinese or Japanese varieties, it is necessary that they reflect your idea and be part of the whole picture. In such a garden, belonging to the oriental culture of the selected plant fades into the background, obeying the general movement.
Coniferous basis of the garden in oriental style
Especially for those wishing to follow the letter of Asian garden culture, let us dwell in more detail on the main representatives of the East among planting material. Let's start with the tree group that forms the skeleton of the garden.
For structure, choose species of conifers that are resistant to your climate, especially pines. For the East, and especially for Japan, pine is a symbol of longevity, courage, masculinity, and strong character. It can be a common pine (Pinus sylvestris), which has been pinched and formed from childhood, or an old, knotty tree, bent by bad weather and winds. Also suitable are fluffy varieties of mountain pine (Pinus mucio), Weymouth pine (Pinus strobes) and cedar pine (P. cembra), as well as dwarf pine, or elfin cedar (Pinus pumild). Their compact size and high frost resistance make them an excellent planting material for domestic garden compositions in oriental style.
The main thing is that the final dimensions of the tree or shrub harmoniously fit into the overall structure and do not violate the holistic picture of perception. By the way, it was the need to fit a large tree into a small garden format, while giving the plant a shape given by nature, that became the reason for the development of the pinching technique, which is so popular in Asian gardens.
In addition to pines, you can use Japanese larch (Larix leptolepis), Korean fir (Abies koreana). Among the tall varieties of western thuja (Thuja occidentalis), it is easiest to work with the Smaragd cultivar. It is distinguished by a compact form of growth and the constancy of the color of the needles. Other verticals will help create tall juniper species and varieties. When using tall conifers, do not forget about protecting crowns from snow breaks in winter. To do this, be sure to tie them in a spiral with twine so that in the spring the plantings retain their appearance.
As undersized cultivars, it is possible to use sprawling juniper species, for example, Cossack juniper (Junipcrus sabina) or m. scaly)
