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Episode 6: Classical Chinese Gardens

Fred approached Abacus gardens to renovate his garden. His garden in Fourways was quite established and he wanted a fresh facelift. Amongst several specifics he indicated that he had hoped for an eastern Asian influence in the garden design, despite the architecture of the home not being Eastern in any way.

Mountains and rivers form a large part of China’s geography. They are also fundamentals in Chinese philosophy, religion and art, thus the central part to any Chinese garden is a pond surrounded by dark and irregular rock formations. The Abacus Gardens design team immediately recognised that the entrance atrium would be ideal as a Classical Chinese garden, in that there was no room for lawn and because a pre-existing rock water feature with typical misshapen rocks was a central focal point.

Being the entrance to the home, we wanted the garden to make a great first impression for visitors, whilst also motivating them to linger in the area as a result of the visual garden delights.

Classical Chinese gardens take a walk through many facets of Chinese civilisation. These gardens include aspects of Chinese philosophy, art, architecture, culture and literature. Our challenge was to incorporate these influences in Fred’s garden accurately. Symbolism forms an integral part of Chinese gardens. Rocks represent mountains; Water represents rivers; Plants such as bamboo represent strength and thus all aspects of the landscape design were carefully selected.

In the South African interpretation of Eastern style gardens, we often bundle Japanese, Chinese and particular Bali styles together, merging ideas and concepts, resulting in general Eastern gardens without exact definition. The exciting aspect of Fred’s garden design was that our aim was to faithfully emulate Classical Chinese gardens, particularly that of the Ming Dynasty.

Chinese and Japanese gardens are different in that Chinese gardens are lived in, they’re part of a family home forming a back drop to every day life including leisure. Japanese gardens are substantially more contemplative and may have been considered as art for the home to be admired. European and Chinese gardens are also easily differentiated in that European gardens are traditionally formal geometric gardens, where man saw himself as master and the centre of his universe. Chinese gardens in contrast are distinctly asymmetrical, representing a microcosm of the natural world, through streams, hills and plants, symbolising man’s place in the universe, not in the center but part of the whole.

A typical viewing pavilion, together with a zig zag deck bridge was installed straddling the rock water feature filled with koi fish leading to the front door. The entrance area was further accentuated by to 2 large glazed ceramic Chinese pots richly animated with dragons and plants. The Chinese call a dry river bed a silent river and this too was part of the Abacus design team’s garden design for Fred as we installed a meandering river of crisp white pebbles leading to the two Chinese terra-cotta soldiers faithfully guarding the entrance of the home. Four Tang ladies were positioned along the perimeter and these ornamental delights further added Chinese character to the garden. The Tang ladies were said to be buried with noble women in order to keep them company in the after life. Two 40 year old Bonzai’s framed the gate and it was through this vista that we used the Chinese landscape principle of borrowing the view, by drawing one’s eye from the entrance atrium across the driveway, past the Chinese gong to the 3 gigantic glazed pots lining the driveway. These super size Chinese grain containers were placed as the primary focal point in the driveway. Clearly visible from the front door they were chosen to entice the visitor’s eye from a distance whole adding drama to along the driveway.

Typical Chinese plants such as Wisteria, azalea, maples and bamboo added to the authenticity of the design.

Chinese gardens are all about poetry and the resulting garden installation at Fred’s home created an atmosphere of tranquillity and peace.

Click here if you would like to FAST TRACK an enquiry to have a Verge garden designed and installed especially for your home.

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