Japanese influences are increasingly being copied in British gardens. PAT HOLT visited some of the South Coast's finest

JAPANESE gardens are said to be tranquil places where people can contemplate nature. This idea has such a strong appeal in our crowded modern world, that it is not surprising that so many Japanese influences are finding their way into our British gardens.

Not too far from Southampton - at Compton Acres in Poole - is one of the largest and most authentic Japanese gardens in Europe.

This is just one of ten themed gardens at Compton Acres and is just the place to see some of the ideas you might use in your own garden.

In the pre-war years, Japanese designers were brought to the site at Canford Cliffs to create the layout and planting scheme.

Ponds filled with koi and waterlilies form the centre-piece for the garden, which has many genuine oriental statues, a tea house and a temple.

Winding paths and stepping stones encourage visitors to take their time wandering slowly around among the trimmed conifers, maples and other Japanese plants.

There are no bright-coloured bedding plants. In fact, unlike most traditional Western gardens, there are few flowers. Instead, the emphasis is on beautiful foliage, moss and natural materials such as water and stones.

It is a beautiful place for peaceful contemplation and - in keeping with Japanese tradition - seems to capture a little of the natural world "just lightly touched by human hands".

Many of these restful ideas were reflected in this year's show gardens at the Chelsea Flower Show and can also be seen, these days, in more mundane settings such as city parks and hotel courtyards.

If you are ever in London you might like to visit the kaiyu shiki ("stroll-around") landscape at Kew Gardens. This is a rather more austere Japanese garden, built in the 1990s, with an authentic 16th century gateway as its focal point.

Once again, its Japanese designers aimed to represent tranquil, natural scenery, using traditional stone paths and a "dripping water basin" (tsukubai).

A completely new Japanese garden opened at Portsmouth this summer, next to the popular rose garden on Southsea seafront. It has been designed by gardeners from the city's Japanese twin town, Maizuru, and includes a replica of Mount Fuji and a water feature with a number of islands. The finishing touches are still not quite complete, so it might be better to visit this garden in the autumn.

Equally ambitious is a restoration project at Kingston Lacy, the stately home just outside Wimborne Minster in Dorset.

In the early 1900s, this had an elaborate, two-acre Japanese garden, which became sadly neglected and overgrown.

Now head gardener Nigel Chalk is planning to restore this area over a five year period. Helping him is a visiting Japanese student, Yumiko Akiyama, who is giving advice on plants, materials and design ideas.

She told me: "Most of the large, traditional Japanese gardens are built around temples and shrines. At home, Japanese people often have small western-style gardens or sometimes a mixture of styles.

"Natural materials are very important in a traditional Japanese garden and everything is arranged to look like nature, with grass, moss, bamboos, trees and other greenery. We would always use wood, bamboo or stone, rather than bricks or man-made materials."

At present, only the first stage of the Japanese garden has been completed at Kingston Lacy: a newly-planted grove of 40 different varieties of Japanese maples.

Later the gardeners hope to plant a flowering cherry grove and they will also be restoring a large Japanese tea garden, complete with bamboos and a thatched summer house.

Bookshops and libraries have an amazing array of gardening books to help you "go Japanese". One which I liked was "Creating Japanese Gardens" ISBN 1854104233.

Local garden centres can also help. Most garden centres have suitable plants, including bamboos, acers, ferns, hostas, grasses, azaleas and small-leaved box bushes. Abbey Garden Centres (at Cadnam and Titchfield) have a range of decorative gravels, stones and boulders and beautiful, hand-chiselled Japanese garden ornaments and bamboo water features.

Gardens to visit

Compton Acres is open from 10am daily, every day until October 31. The gardens are at Canford Cliffs, near Poole. They are clearly signposted from the A35 Bournemouth to Poole road.

For admission prices and other details call the information line 01202 700110.

Kew Gardens are open from 9.30am every day. The nearest underground station is Kew Gardens on the District Line and there is parking outside the gardens around Kew Green. For fuller directions and other infomation, call 0208 332 5622.

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