Showcase garden: Jon Bradford

Garden Showcase - Jon Bradford's Japanese Garden in Slough, Berkshire

We are incredibly pleased to announce this months showcase garden. It was sent in (via post no less!) by Mr Jon Bradford. We were very touched to recieve Jons personal letter. Furthermore - we are sure that you will be interested as unlike some of our other gardens, Jon has been able to create a wonderful garden in a rather modest space. The following information was extracted from Jons letter - enjoy!

'Work started about 6 months ago on a plot 20ft x 8ft. After a lot of designing I finally achieved what I was after.

Starting at the top of the garden I constructed a screen (originally to hide the wheelie bin) but it turned out rather like the front of a Tea House. ( note the lantern I obtained from you)Although it's a screen, from the road it looks like another room attached to the house.

Directly in front of the screen I constructed a pond with a scratch built bridge in traditional red and black which spans 4ft across the water (note the Heron standing Guard)

The pond is surrounded by plants such as Maples, Bamboo, Azaleas , hostas and an assortment of different grasses - Oh!, and a lantern at the waters edge.

Next comes a hard landscape area, with a Pagoda, build from scratch constructed in wood, but given a final finish to resemble concrete. It houses quite a large Happy Buddah

.

The area was finished with a piece of decking (this covers a manhole), with hand made cobbles in black and purple slate, planted out in Blue Grass, Japanese Blood Grass Bamboo and a large Acer.

It was finally edged in Bamboo and hand made bricks.

The area is lit at night with 3 rock lights (up-lighters) to great effect.

The next area has quite a mixture, a 5ft Cheals weeping Cherry taking center stage with numerous azaleas, ferns and hostas. More additions include a home made Water Basin , "Tsukabai" with bamboo water flume. This is surrounded with white pebbles and planted with three different types of conifer, hostas and ferns. '

6 months hard work has come together in a beautiful creation and it goes to show you do not need acres of space to fulfil your dreams. As Jon finishes in his letter. "I think I'll just sit back and relax for a little time" -

Well done Jon and thank you for sharing your experiences with us at JapanGarden.co.uk

Footnote
Congratulations are in order!!
Jon has recently won an award for his Japanese Garden in the annual "Slough in Bloom
Competition". This competition covers the whole area of Slough.

We aim to make this part of our website a resource to show the best of design and ideas - if you want your garden to be considered, please just let us know.