Japanese garden design and ideas
Japanese garden design means a calm garden made from a few elements: stone, gravel raked or laid as a dry stream, clipped evergreens and acers, moss, and a path that slows you down.
Design my garden
First 3 designs free · No card
Real Japanese garden ideas
Japanese garden design pictures from real gardens redesigned with the app: Japanese style garden ideas for a whole garden, and Japanese garden designs for small gardens. Tap Before to see how each started, or Get this garden to try the look on yours.
Japanese gravel garden ideas
Two Japanese rock garden ideas made from ordinary gardens: white gravel round a patio turned into a pebble stream under pines and acers, and a strip of long grass turned into raked gravel, moss and stepping stones. 2 gardens
Raked gravel and stepping stones
Get this garden →Small Japanese garden ideas
Small Japanese garden design for a corner by the back door: a bed of loose cobbles behind a hedge turned into raked stone, a lantern and one of the simplest Japanese garden water features, a stone bowl. 1 garden
Raked gravel, lanterns and a stone water bowl
Get this garden →How to design a Japanese garden
The few ideas behind the gardens above, and how to plan one of your own from them.
The elements of the style
Most Japanese gardens rest on the same few things: stone for the bones, water or gravel standing in for water, and plants chosen for shape and leaf more than flower. Add a lantern or a stone basin, and leave some space empty, because the gaps are part of the design.
How to lay one out
Build the garden to be seen from one place, usually the house or a seat. Lay a path of stepping stones that wanders, set rocks in groups of three or five with part of each one buried, and plant low near the eye and taller behind, so the garden seems to go further than it does.
Gravel, rock and a dry stream
A rock garden can be as small as a gravel bed by the patio: rake the stone in lines, set a few rocks in it as islands, and run a band of grey pebbles through it as a dry stream bed. Moss or mondo grass at the edges softens it.
Water without a pond
Water does not need a pond. A stone basin with a trickle, a bubbling bowl or a pebble stream that only fills when it rains all bring the sound of water, and a single stone lantern by the path gives the eye somewhere to rest.
See it on your own garden first
Garden Design App designs a Japanese garden from a photo of yours. It reads the picture, keeps your trees, fences and house exactly where they are, and redesigns the ground with stone and plants that suit the look.
From an idea to a plan you can plant
When one of the designs clicks, the Pro and Max plans turn it into a planting plan: every plant named, how big each grows and where each goes, with a month by month calendar of what is in flower and in leaf from spring to autumn.
The 12 plants of a Japanese garden
Plants chosen for leaf, shape and calm more than flower, all grown in the UK.
- Japanese acers
- Evergreen azaleas
- Ferns
- Hakonechloa
- Bamboo
- Hostas
- Mosses
- Camellia
- Pines
- Iris ensata
- Nandina
- Ophiopogon
More Japanese garden ideas
The acers, azaleas, ferns and grasses behind the look, with how big each grows, are in our Japanese garden plants guide.
Moss, ferns and stepping stones under trees are among our shade garden ideas.
For gravel planted with lavender and grasses instead of raked, see our gravel garden ideas.
Japanese garden design questions
How do I lay out a Japanese garden?
Pick the one place it will be seen from, then lay a wandering stepping stone path, set rocks in odd-numbered groups, and plant low near the viewer and taller behind. Leave some gravel or moss empty so the garden has room to breathe.
What are the elements of a Japanese garden?
Stone, water or gravel standing in for water, plants chosen for shape and leaf, and a few ornaments such as a lantern or a stone basin. Many add a path of stepping stones and a boundary of bamboo or clipped evergreens.
What is a modern Japanese garden?
One that keeps the calm and the stone but uses clean modern materials: large pale slabs, black pebbles and a few clipped shapes, with fewer ornaments.
Can I make a Japanese garden in the UK?
Yes. Acers, azaleas, camellias, ferns and moss all grow well in the UK's cool, damp climate. Acers want shelter from strong wind and late spring frosts, which scorch the young leaves.
Can I see a Japanese garden on my own garden?
Yes. Add a photo of your garden, choose the Japanese-inspired style, and see it redesigned in about a minute. Your trees, fences and house stay.
Are the plants real, and can I buy them?
Yes. With the Pro and Max plans every design names its plants: garden centre favourites and RHS Award of Garden Merit winners, chosen by a professional gardener, with how big each grows and where each goes.
Is it free?
Your first 3 designs are free, with no card needed. The Pro plan is £29 and the Max plan is £49, paid once, with nothing to cancel.
Can I try more than one Japanese garden idea?
Yes. Make different designs and compare them on your own garden. Your first 3 are free, and Pro, one payment of £29, gives you 20 designs over 14 days, two at a time, so you can see several looks side by side.
Why does my redesign look like high summer?
We show your garden at its peak, in full flower, so you can see how full it can look. It is an artist's impression: your real garden changes through the seasons. Every paid design comes with a flowering calendar, so you know what flowers each month, and evergreen shapes help it look good in winter.
See your garden in stone and moss.
Try any of these Japanese garden ideas on your own garden in about a minute. Your first 3 designs are free.
Design my garden