In the different homes I’ve inhabited in England, Spain and rural France, I’ve always inherited someone else’s garden. In Japan, we were able to buy a used home in the decidedly uncool city of Funabashi in Chiba prefecture, where I could start to make a garden almost from scratch. This video shows the result: the work of a determined, but flawed amateur.

By Japanese urban standards, the plot, at around 250 sq.m. was decently proportioned. The L-shaped house took up roughly half the space. The former owner, a cheerful widow in her sixties, was to be commended for her efforts in creating a garden, but tastes differ, and the more I looked at the design, the more I wanted to replace, or superimpose a new design, one that would loosely follow the principals of a Japanese-style garden. 

First off was creating privacy, by planting 18 maki (podocarps) along three sides of the garden. Over time, the trees would grow together, creating a green ikegaki (living fence). Stones of different sizes and heft would be placed at the front rim of a slightly elevated earthen section at the back. Aesthetically pleasing rocks can cost a fortune, so we shopped around to get a good deal, eventually bringing them in from Gunma prefecture. This was the point where I needed some help. Under my directions regarding placement, a local garden company took over, using a traditional pulley system to lower the stones. Logs placed under the rocks were used to haul them from the truck. This was also a chance to remove some of the previous owner’s possessions, such as ornamental cement logs and plastic garden furniture. One of the garden crew was delighted to come into possession of a row of garden gnomes. Everyone was happy.

Most of the original garden was covered in gray sand, not unlike industrial road gravel. Although it was early spring when we moved in, I could imagine mosquito-infested puddles forming in the summer and dust whorls blowing up on dry days. The whole area was covered in turf, 400 pieces in all, creating another tonal graduation on the theme of green, one that would also cool down the garden.

Last in were the plants and miniature trees: fragrant olive, Japanese yew, junipers, fatsia, azalea and cycads, with mondo grass and ferns as ground cover. The only ornamental touches were a row of border-creating inverted roof tiles, two old mill stones, some ceramic basins for water hyacinths, and a small stone basin.

This, more or less, is what you will see in my first YouTube video, ‘An Englishman’s Japanese Garden (in Japan)’.