Japanese Gardening Asheville

We have spent most of our summer working on this Japanese style garden.
We were chosen, by our clients, to work on this design created by Bud Stuckey. 
The design called for a rather traditional style Japanese Garden in a small backyard.
Although I have only worked on a few Japanese gardens in my career, I felt that I learned a lot and was able to grasp some of the philosophy and patterns in traditional Japanese gardening. The pace, precision and meditation of working with this design, felt very natural to me. It also humbled me and gave me more respect for this type of gardening and stonework itself. I leaned that I have a lot more to learn!

Working with the design, we were able to create some beautiful features that are consistent with traditional Japanese gardening, but had our personal touch.

We installed a Stone Seat at the foot of the stairs to create a place to stop and enjoy the garden and even take of your shoes, if you want.

We also created a Stone Island feature using three hand selected boulders that created a simple triad. This feature was designed to bring a meditative center piece to the garden. 


This garden included a great deal of carpentry to bring a wood element into the space. We installed three Verandas, a deck and some custom planter box benches. 

One of my favorite carpentry features on site is the 'Butterfly Ramada'
that we built over the hot tub deck. It allows our clients some cover and privacy while soaking in the hot tub, and also leaves the sky open for nighttime stargazing. 

Our designer found this beautiful 700 pound slab of 
Cold Water Canyon stone that we used as a bridge from the 'Dry Garden' or Karesansui, to the hot tub deck.
The bridge also gives the illusion that the stream flows under the rock and disappears into the Karenagare, or Dry Stream Bed.  

We finished the project with low voltage landscape lighting throughout, and Japanese style plantings. 

Overall we really enjoyed working on this project, and are thankful to our clients for letting us 'play in their backyard'!