We designed and built this Koi pond our first year in business, almost 15 years ago today. This Koi pond featured a small waterfall, a bamboo water feature, aquatic plants and of Koi. Generally speaking those of love gardening enjoy Koi. Introducing a gardener who enjoys Japanese gardens would find that Koi to be the [...]

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If you are interested in Japanese gardens you should know that the most common plant shape found in Japanese gardens is the tamamono, or “dome” shape. It is the easiest and and perhaps the least expensive way to add more Japanese style pruning to your garden. When visiting a Japanese garden you will see this [...]

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There are a number of bridge styles to choose from when creating a Japanese garden. They vary in shape, materials and the way in which they are constructed. In this garden we used a flat single stone slab bridge with no center support. Natural stones that are just the right length, width and thickness can [...]

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The snow viewing, or yukimi, style Japanese lantern is a wonderful lantern. This lantern received its name from the cap, or roof, of the piece that is much broader than other lantern styles. This cap is either round, hexagon or octagon in shape and because of its size looks quite pretty after snow fall. This [...]

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The Kasuga style Japanese lantern is a classic.  Today it is often found at or near the entrance of Japanese gardens.  Dating back to the Ashikaga period it was traditionally used as a “guardian” lantern in Japanese temples.  When not used near a garden entrance it serves as a focal point like the one shown [...]

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The Oribe Japanese lantern is a post  style lantern.  This means that the bottom is like a post and set into the ground.  The stone lantern is named after Lord Furuta Oribe, for whom the design was originally created for.  This style is often found in todays japanese gardens adjacent to tsukubai water basin feature. [...]

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Thanks to the wonderful fall weather we have had our Japanese garden project is taking shape.  This garden features a Koi pond, extensive boulder work, pathways, sitting areas and of course lush plantings scheduled to be installed spring 2012.  The pond is currently shut down and ready for winter, but once the leaves have fallen [...]

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Niwa Design Studio applies its knowledge of Japanese garden design principles to a Frank Lloyd Wright home near Still Water,Minnesota.  Niwa’s client, who owned an original Frank Lloyd Wright house plan, hired an architect to help interpret the plan and construct the home on the shores of a Minnesota lake.  The mountain scene entry garden [...]

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There are several different types of pathways used in Japanese and other garden types.  Here in one of our garden project in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, we used a tobishi style path as a short cut off of the main gravel pathway.  The tobishi stepping stones in this case are hand carved limestone pads which [...]

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This garden entrance is flanked with a pair of beautifully carved limetsone shigu.  Shigu is actually a Chinese word used to describe the type of sculpture shown in the picture.  Although the bases are actually unfinished the detailed carving of the dragons, foo dog heads and the phoenix or mythical fire birds.  These decorative stone [...]

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