A JAPANESE GARDEN

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 250, 18 July 1931, Page 21

A JAPANESE GARDEN

The idea of miniature gardens comes from the East, arid the Japanese make especially beautiful ones, and study the art quite seriously. Sou can copy this idea and make quite a success of it with a little patience and care. Any kind of bowl will do for the wee garden, but a shallow one is best. /Put a few pieces of broken china at the bottom for drainage, and then fill the bowl with a mixture of leaf mould, loam, and sand. Press it in firmly, and then begin to lay out your little landscape garden. Make paths from well-pressed yellow sand, and steps from small, flat stones. These will perhaps lead down to a small lake made of a small piece of mirror. For hedges, use growing shrubs, and moss for lawns. Odd. rough pieces of stone or cement will help you to build rockeries. For trees you can grow acorns or date stones in your garden, and plant tiny growing things in any suitable spot. Such additions as bridges, small boats, pagodas, figures and little animals can be purchased very cheaply in

many shops — especially toy shops. A good home-made bridge can be made from a piece of bamboo or cane. Split it and soak it well in water. While it is still wet put a weight on e:tch end and place it over a tin. When it is dry it will remain in a curve. Of course you may prefer to turn your garden into an old English one, • and then you would

have swans to glida over your lookingglass lake, a little dovecote, and a summerhouse instead of pagodas and Japanese figures. A. toy farmyard is another idea, with tiny cows and sheep dotted about a field of grass seed sown on a piece of damp flannel, with a hayrick or two, and a red-roofed barn to finish the scene. Take care to keep your miniature garden damp, and remember It doos not like draught or too much heat