Garden Visit: Cowden Japanese Garden

We celebrated 10 years of marriage this week and decided to treat ourself to a day off work – but not a day off gardens as we love them so much! We made a much overdue visit to Cowden Japanese Garden, just outside Dollar. It was a true pleasure to explore, here’s why…

There are four essential elements used in Japanese garden design: rocks, water, plants, and ornaments and Cowden put them all to perfect use. As you enter you are immediately welcomed with a beautiful ridge and a peek through to the wonder of the gardens beyond:

There are gorgeous Japanese lanterns, sculptures and a plethora of huge boulders dotted around the garden. And always views of the perfect pond in the middle:

Whilst the renovation has only been undertaken in recent years, there has been a Japanese Garden at Cowden for over a 100 years, the amazing creation by Ella Christie. Mature trees work with the newer planting and the beautiful landscape beyond is borrowed to create a lovely, relaxing space:

As the recently planted shrubs and trees grow, this garden will evolve and become an even more special space. Autumn is a stunning time of year to visit as the leaves glow in the sunshine:

The Zen Garden is a perfect dry landscape garden. Rocks, moss and shrubs are carefully placed alongside the “ripples” of the gravel circles:

Tea House inspired structures add to the ambience. A new ceremonial lake-side Tea House is being constructed which will host events, education and tell Ella Christie’s story:

The zig-zag bridge is a clever feature of the garden:

There is also a Woodland Walk which is packed full of fun things for children to do such as making leaf boats and solving puzzles.

We highly recommend a day out at Cowden Japanese Garden, it is a hidden gem.

Vialii

Get To The (Focal) Point – Part 1

One of the many tricks a garden designer has up their sleeve is the use of garden focal points. Focal points can:

• create a journey around the garden, literally leading you down the garden path!
• draw your eye to a certain part of the garden or up and on to the landscape beyond
• divert your eye from something in the garden or nearby
• add interest to borders or other areas of the garden
• create a mood in the garden (i.e. if you are trying to create a Renaissance garden then introducing some classical sculpture would be appropriate

A water feature is a great focal point

What is a focal point?

So what constitutes a focal point? Well pretty much anything! It’s a feature which draws the eye and could be anything from feature pots to sculptures, water features to arbours, birdbaths to feature trees. Anything goes. Just think about the location, the shape, the size and the journey to get there. Here are a few of the features we have used in some of the gardens we have designed or ones we have introduced into our own:

Feature gate

This Japanese inspired gate was designed especially for our clients and sets the mood for the garden beyond.

A Japanese-style bespoke gate creates a mood and the bespoke sculpture at the end of the path provides a focal point and encourages the journey into the garden

Feature plants

Choosing plants and locating them carefully can make them focal points in a garden. Here we used standard photinias to create an entrance to the new patio.

Standard photinias frame the entrance to the patio and form a focal point at the end of the path

Feature tree and stone

In this garden we used a feature tree to create height and add interest. A stone which was unearthed during excavations was kept in the garden and used as a free focal point!

Here, both the feature tree, Euonymus europaeus, and the unearthed standing stone are focal points in the garden

Arbour

Here we created an arbour and bespoke bench to provide clients with a lovely spot to sit in the shade on a sunny day.

A bespoke arbour can be a lovely central feature of a garden]

Themed focal points

In this Japanese garden we used traditional Japanese focal points including a lantern, water feature and koi bridge.

A Japanese lantern, water feature and koi bridge set the mood in this garden

Sculpture

We found this rusty rose made from corten steel in a local shop and we think it makes a wonderful focal point in the border, popping up between the herbaceous perennials.

Herbaceous planting will envelop this rusty rose so that it pops out of the border

Willow balls

These hand-made willow balls make a wonderful garden focal point. They can have lights installed inside them too to make a wonderful effect in the evening.

A willow ball with lighting set inside creates a wonderful focal point at night time

If you would like some advice on focal points in your garden, please get in touch.

To see more focal point ideas click here.

Thank you for reading.

All at Vialii