Inside your Japanese garden A guide to creating a unique Japanese garden for your home

While the focus is on creating a Japanese-style garden, much of the advice here is universal and will benefit any gardener. That said, the ethos underlying the instruction in this book is specific, and the manual was created to honor and share culture, tradition, and the wisdom of author and garden designer Yasumoro. A variety of traditional Japanese gardens are revealed through visits to 20 sites, with step-by-step instructions for projects such as benches and bridges interspersed throughout. While this is presented in the form of a manual, it is clear that what is truly important is not rigorously following a series of instructions but gardening from the heart, using fundamental design principles to inform one's plan and working with the site and conditions rather than trying to force them into obedience. Stunning color photographs depict the featured gardens and highlight smaller details within them. Thoroughly indexed and with a list of plants that appear in the book, this is a useful resource as well as a source of plentiful inspiration for readers.

"Gardening is not a theory. It is all about learning the various scenes presented by nature," write designers Cali (The New Zen Garden) and Yasumoro in this highly detailed overview of 20 Japanese gardens. The authors begin with an introduction to Japanese gardening, outlining such fundamentals as digging a hole to determine drainage and soil content, and cover concepts including size variation in plants and other features ("three stones are never the same size") to create perspective. The garden overviews that follow include a wealth of design schemata and background information about gardening's history and religious philosophy: "A Garden for Lasting Relations" in Tokyo features Japanese sago palm trees, which are believed to "keep the devil away," while in "Paradise in an Urban Jungle" the authors introduce the concept of shakkei, which means "borrowed scenery." Then there's "The Garden of Plum Blossoms and Students' Prayers," a garden near a famous shrine in Tokyo, which makes use of misogi, or purification by water. The lush photographs and encouraging tone are a boost: When Cali asks Yasumoro what one word defines the Japanese garden, Yasumoro answers, "Heart." Fans of garden design will want to give this a look. (Dec.)