How to create a Japandi Zen garden

A Japandi Zen garden is, at its heart, a wellness space. An antidote to the daily grind, this style of garden is designed for daily decompression, like forest bathing in your own backyard. The result is serene, minimalist yet comfortable, and a beautiful, liveable style around which to base both interiors and outdoor spaces.

What are the key features of a Japandi garden?

Japandi is an amalgam of Japanese and Scandinavian aesthetics, focused on elements that are common to both: simplicity, functional comfort and an emphasis on natural materials. The key features include:

• Clean lines, uncluttered spaces and a sense of calm.
• Carefully considered features. A Japandi garden has a sense of being carefully composed. Whether it’s an artful stack of stones or a maple tree floating like an island in a sea of mondo grass, every element should feel deliberate.
• Natural elements like stone and timber.
• Colours grounded in nature. Think muted shades of beige, soft browns and muddy sage green, for an effect that is calm and balanced. Features like pots and furniture should blend in, leaving lush foliage or sculptural stones to be the stars of the show.
• Carefully planned hardscaping. From a pebbled path to a warm timber deck, there is an emphasis on natural shapes and textures, and a softening of hard edges, which might mean disguising fences with a boundary line of bamboo; allowing dense clouds of groundcover plants to creep over the edges of garden beds; and choosing pebbled paths or irregularly shaped steppers instead of a solid path of pavers.

What are the Zen garden principles?

A Japandi garden is both formally structured and a little bit wild, precise but organic - though apparently contradictory, it’s about channelling the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi, which celebrates the beauty of the imperfect, impermanent and natural. In practice, this might look like asymmetrical plantings, natural materials allowed to weather, and embracing seasonal change in deciduous trees or certain plants allowed to go to seed.

• Mindful relaxation. This is a key intention of a Japandi garden, so consider Zen elements to encourage quiet contemplation. A lovely way to engage the senses and foster tranquility is with a gently trickling water fountain or still pool, suggests horticulturist Tammy Huynh. “A simple water feature, such as a shallow pond or reflecting basin, fosters tranquility, encourages mindfulness and perfectly fits the Japandi aesthetic.”
• Thoughtful negative spaces. Include focal points where the eye can rest - one way to accomplish this is with a Japanese rock garden. This features a base of raked gravel or sand, often punctuated by careful compositions of large rocks and moss or low-growing plants, and is designed to promote mindfulness. Borrow this idea for your garden or give it an Australian twist by designing a dry creek bed. Take the idea of a wellness space further by setting up a dedicated meditation or yoga space; design a wooden platform or simple cushioned seating in a scenic spot under a tree or with a view of the rock garden or water feature.
• Functionality and simplicity of form. Both Japanese and Scandinavian design styles prize this ethos, so keep furniture and accessories in line with this philosophy. Look for clean lines and natural materials, like a timber-frame modular sofa. Keep this same aesthetic in mind with ornaments and accessories - a minimalist sculpture, large matte-finish pot or shallow bowl planter, for example.

How to create a Japandi Zen garden for an Australian climate

The mossy woodland palette of a traditional Japandi garden is a bit different to the average Australian backyard, but you can easily adapt this look to our climate.

• Integrate native plants alongside some of the traditional Japanese specimens - honouring the natural environment is a defining feature of Japandi gardens, so bringing a bit of Australia into the space is entirely on brand.
• Mosses and other shade- and moisture-loving elements can be subbed out for more sustainable plants that will still capture the Japandi aesthetic, like dichondra, zoysia, mondo grass and native violets.
• Similarly, blossoming cherry trees are an iconic feature of Japanese gardens, but often don’t love Australia’s climate; instead, capture seasonal interest with a flowering native or a hardier flowering exotic like crepe myrtle. To remain in keeping with the calm, balanced Japandi aesthetic, keep flowering plants minimal and avoid bright colours.
• Water needs to be taken seriously in Australia’s hot climate, but you can still have a Zen water feature. Consider a closed-loop system, recycling the same water and only losing water through evaporation. Even better, harvest rainwater and use this to top up the water feature. Keep bubblers and basins small, and if you opt for a pond, place it in a shady spot and cover with floating plants to reduce evaporation.

Which plants should you use for a Zen garden?

To capture the Japandi look with plants, pair quintessential Zen garden elements, like sculptural trees, with looser plantings for movement and softness. “Clean lines, architectural plants and layered greenery capture the calm, minimalist feel of a Japandi garden. Maples, clumping bamboo and neatly clipped shrubs provide structure, while groundcovers like mondo grass, zoysia and carex add texture and tie the planting together, softening edges and adding warmth,” says Tammy, whose top Japandi plant picks are as follows:

Height and structure: Block out the visual noise with bamboo for privacy. Try slender weavers bamboo (Bambusa textilis var. gracilis), black bamboo (Bambusa lako) or Bambusa multiplex 'Alphonse Karr'. A selection of deciduous statement trees add structure and seasonal colour; classic matches for a Japandi garden include maples, like Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku', weeping Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Atropurpureum'), and Japanese elm (Zelkova serrata 'Green Vase').

Shrubbery: Fill garden beds with architectural plants, particularly those with striking foliage, and a touch of unobtrusive topiary. Try clipped Japanese buxus balls (Buxus microphylla), fatsia japonica, sago palm (Cycas revoluta), and dwarf Lebanese cedar (Cedrus 'Hedgehog').

Groundcovers: Use low, groundcover plants to soften edges of garden beds, fill gaps between steppers and lend lushness to garden beds. Tammy suggests mondo grass, zoysia (planted in mounds, not mown like a lawn), bugleweed (Ajuga reptans), liriope, shore juniper and carex.

Ready to design a Japandi Zen garden?

Start by creating a path of stepping stones between the garden beds.

Image credit: Rebecca Newman, Sue Stubbs