Japanese Garden Ideas and Concepts for Modern Japanese Style Homes

Raked gravel courtyards, moss and sculpted trees, koi ponds and stone basins, bamboo screened paths, timber engawa verandahs and onsen style plunge pools. The Japanese garden is the most disciplined garden tradition in the world, and the quietest. Nothing is included that does not carry meaning or serve the composition: a few carefully chosen stones, one sculpted tree, moss, gravel, water and a path. For small modern courtyards it is also the most useful tradition available, because it was developed for exactly those dimensions. Composition begins with stone. Rocks are placed as groups of three or five, set deep enough into the ground to look as though they were always there, with their best face turned toward the main viewing position. That viewing position — usually a window or a verandah, not a place you stand — is chosen first, and the whole garden is arranged for it in the way a painting is arranged for a frame. Gravel and moss carry the empty space that makes the rest work. Raked gravel represents water and gives the eye somewhere to rest; moss softens the ground and links the stones. Both demand maintenance, and both can be adapted: fine crushed granite...

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Garden Designs

Formal Courtyard Garden Design with Honed Concrete Paving and Shaded Arbour Bench and Soft

Formal Courtyard Garden Design with Honed Concrete Paving, Black Steel Arches and Pale Pebble Mulch, Clipped Hedging, Standard Roses and. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com — Formal Courtyard Garden Design with Honed Concrete Paving, Black Steel Arches and Pale Pebble Mulch, Clipped Hedging, Standard Roses and Silver Foliage Contrast, featuring a Shaded Arbour Bench and Soft Evening Garden Lighting, with Considered Outdoor Zoning and Soft

G3 Forward is part of our Garden Designs collection — one of 96 large-format widescreen concept visuals in this section. It is presented here at full size so you can study the layout, the planting, the surfaces and the way light falls across the design before you commit to building anything on your own block.

Planting layers, flower borders, formal parterres, productive beds and full garden schemes. Use this concept as a starting point: note the proportions between built form and greenery, where shade and shelter sit, how paths and paved areas move people through the space, and which materials repeat to hold the whole scheme together.

Every visual on this site is a design idea created for Home Design Photos. Browse the rest of the Garden Designs collection, or open the complete image catalogue to see every home, garden, pool, pergola, furniture, lighting and beach house concept in one place.

← Resort-Style Garden Design with Rustic Timber Sleepers and Quiet Seating Nook and Central Garden Layered Residential Garden Design with Reclaimed Brick Edging and Potting Bench, Compost Zone →

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Productive Family Garden Design with Bluestone Stepping Pads and Sculpture Court, Reflection Pond

Productive Family Garden Design with Bluestone Stepping Pads, Corten Steel Edging and Fine Gravel Paths, Raised Vegetable Beds, Espaliered Fruit Trees and Herb Borders, featuring a Sculpture Court, Reflection Pond and Meandering Stone Path

Designed Garden Landscape with Crushed Granite Paths and Garden Dining Terrace and Curved Lawn

Designed Garden Landscape with Crushed Granite Paths, Rendered Planters and Copper Water Spouts, Structural Succulents, Yuccas and Drought-Tolerant Groundcovers, featuring a Garden Dining Terrace and Curved Lawn Walkway, complemented by Durable Weatherproof Finishes and Low-Maintenance Detailing

Resort-Style Garden Design with Rustic Timber Sleepers and Quiet Seating Nook and Central Garden

Resort-Style Garden Design with Rustic Timber Sleepers, Sandstone Walling and Terracotta Pots, Ferns, Hydrangeas and Dappled Shade Under Established Canopy, featuring a Quiet Seating Nook and Central Garden Water Feature, balanced by Clean Sightlines, Shaded Retreats and Relaxed Family

Designed Garden Landscape with Crushed Granite Paths and Garden Dining Terrace and Curved Lawn

Formal Courtyard Garden Design with Honed Concrete Paving and Shaded Arbour Bench and Soft

Formal Courtyard Garden Design with Honed Concrete Paving, Black Steel Arches and Pale Pebble Mulch, Clipped Hedging, Standard Roses and Silver Foliage Contrast, featuring a Shaded Arbour Bench and Soft Evening Garden Lighting, with Considered Outdoor Zoning and Soft

Resort-Style Garden Design with Rustic Timber Sleepers and Quiet Seating Nook and Central Garden

Complete image catalogue

Small Backyard Design Ideas and Photos for Narrow Blocks

How a courtyard sized backyard becomes the best room in the house — one level, one material, built-in seating, a plunge pool and layered green walls.

Small backyards fail for a predictable reason: they are treated as scaled down large gardens. A tiny lawn, a narrow border, a rotary line and a barbecue on castors leaves a space that is neither garden nor room. The alternative is to stop pretending and design it as an outdoor room — one continuous floor, built-in furniture, planting on the vertical planes and a single strong focal point at the far end.

Keeping the space on one level is the highest impact decision available. A single paved or decked plane running out from the interior floor level, using one material and one laying pattern, makes a courtyard read as an extension of the living room rather than a leftover strip. Where levels must change, use a full width step as a bench seat instead of two narrow treads, so the change of height earns its space.

Built-in seating along a boundary wall frees the middle of the space entirely and can hide the storage every small garden desperately needs — cushions, tools, pool equipment and toys. A slim plunge pool along one boundary, six or seven metres by two and a half, delivers summer swimming without consuming the yard, and its water surface reflects light into rooms that would otherwise feel dark.

Backyards design ideas photo from the Small Backyard Design Ideas and Photos for Narrow Blocks feature. this image created by www.homedesign-photos.com

Planting goes up rather than out. Espaliered trees or climbers on wires against a wall, tall narrow specimens in generous planters, a green wall panel on the least useful elevation and one multi-stem tree for canopy and dappled shade. Warm hidden lighting in the planters, along the underside of the bench and up through the tree makes the space feel twice its size after dark, which is when most small courtyards are actually used.

House Design Photos is a HUGE Library Gallery and Directory of Home Design Photos

Japanese Garden Ideas and Concepts for Modern Japanese Style Homes

Formal Courtyard Garden Design with Honed Concrete Paving and Shaded Arbour Bench and Soft

More Garden Designs concepts

Small Backyard Design Ideas and Photos for Narrow Blocks