I rarely think of Japanese garden design in a modern form. Mostly, I think, when we talk about 'Zen' or 'Japanese' gardens we have a tendancy to lump a huge range of styles into one group, and rarely consider how those styles have evolved in the modern world. Stumbling across this garden by Smile Garden challenges my own parochial notions of Japanese gardens and is inspiring my garden making.

I find the employment of so many different materials supremely suitable for a garden maker that values re-use. It can be quite easy and cost effective to source materials on Craigslist, but the trouble with these sources is that often they don't quite add up to a whole project.

So what to do with a little of this and a little that?

Take inspiration from this garden and arrange it in an organized but visually appealing way. Smile Garden'swebsite is in Japanese and Google translate is leaving a bit to be desired, so if any native speaker would care to enlighten us (me!) about the thought process of the design, I would very much enjoy a translation of the explanation. But until then, I am on the lookout for pieces and parts to create my own Japanese inspired modern rock texture garden.

(Images: Smile Garden )