Garden of Sand and Stone

Credit: Derek Lepper/ flickr /

A North Vancouver garden becomes a Japanese retreat

Inspired by their tour of the world-famous dry rock garden at the Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto, John and Adrianna Friswell collaborated with garden designer Toshi Izawa to transform their North Vancouver landscape into a Japanese-style retreat. Their success highlights the versatility of hardscaping and illustrates how adaptable traditional garden designs can be for today’s recreational needs. In 2006, John began renovating the 75-sq.-m (800-sq.-ft.) front yard. Harshly pruned cedars overshadowed the house and scraggly bushes filled the beds. He had big demands for this little space: the garden had to open up the front of the house, be easy to care for and combine North American outdoor living with traditional Japanese design requirements. There must be an odd number of “features” in a Japanese garden, so Izawa, of Babacon Landscaping, designed a series of five flowerbeds to be viewed individually as a person wanders along the path. Each flowerbed follows a similar pattern. The focal point is a large boulder, azalea or Japanese maple, which is underplanted with evergreen shrubs, ferns, and flowering perennials, including hostas, irises and daylilies. Japanese gardens often use shade-loving plants and may rely on tree canopies to filter light. Representing a river, the stamped concrete walkway appears to flow through the garden; from the offset doorway in the fence, it curves toward the entrance of the house. The raked gravel echoes the theme of water by mimicking the waves of an ocean. Izawa also included a water feature, which symbolizes a Buddhist cleansing station. In the centre of the garden, water cascades from a bamboo spout to wash down the side of a boulder and disappear into the river rocks below. A sump pump collects the water and recycles it. John wanted the interior of the house and the garden to “feel as one.” French doors open up onto the cedar patio, which acts as an extension of the living room. Spiky New Zealand flax (Phormium tenax) and ornamental grasses in aluminum planters make this a tranquil dining space. John’s home-renovation company built the cedar deck and fencing. In order to create an even surface in the yard, 30 cm (1 ft.) of old topsoil was removed. A 10-cm (4-in.) layer of sand was laid down and covered with landscape cloth, then another 10-cm layer of pea gravel was added. The soil for the mounded flowerbeds was placed on top of the sand and planted with native moss. Maintenance is simple and easy: In 10 or 15 minutes, John and Adrianna collect the debris from the cedar, deadhead the azaleas and rake the gravel. Their Zen rakes are homemade; John cut triangular teeth into different sized sheets of plywood. Regarding maintenance, John has some advice for other gardeners: set up a drip-irrigation system to keep the moss damp, and avoid creating a gravel garden beneath a cedar tree, as cedars drop continuously. “Everything in the garden is doing really well,” John says. “We are amazed. It just speaks to how well the Japanese set up their gardens. “It should last forever and always be peaceful. That’s what everybody senses.” The following plants were used in the Friswell garden and are hardy to the zone number indicated (turn to page 6 for our zone chart): Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ (Japanese maple) – zone 6 • Acer palmatum ‘Kagiri-nishiki’ (Japanese maple) – zone 6 • Athyrium filix-femina (lady fern) – zone 4 • Enkianthus campanulatus – zone 5 • Iris pallida ‘Variegata’ – zone 5 • Polystichum munitum (western sword fern) – zone 3 • Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis (sweet box) – zone 6 Lia Van Baalen is a third-year journalism student at Ryerson University. She has worked for Burnaby Lake Greenhouses for several years, as well as for GardenWorks.