The Japanese Way – Garden Designs

The Japanese Way – Garden Designs
by Maureen Busby
JGS Publishing (2008)

Review by Colin Ellis

Maureen Busby was an exceptional individual who took up garden design in her fifties after a very successful first career in education. In the 12 years before her sudden and untimely death in 2006 she had become a highly respected garden designer and was elected a member of the Society of Garden Designers in 2001. This book is exceptional too.

Between 1994 and 2006 Maureen Busby worked as a sole practitioner on about 130 garden design projects of which some forty form the principal content of this book. Those in the book range in size from a window box to a half acre garden and each is presented using a common format – client brief, site appraisal and interpretation of the brief. Each project is well illustrated using before and after photographs, plans, plant lists and the watercolour concept sketches that she prepared for each client. However, her clients rarely asked for a Japanese garden but rather for “something minimalist,” “something restrained and understated,” only occasionally for “something with a Japanese feel.” This book illustrates her success in meeting those wishes in the Japanese way.

In his introduction Graham Hardman, Chairman Japanese Garden Society, draws attention to the depth of knowledge and understanding that Maureen Busby brought to focus in her work. She firmly believed that nature must be closely observed and understood before it can be interpreted and she enjoyed illustrating this principle by quoting the 17th century Japanese poet, Basho, “Learn about a pine tree from the pine tree. Learn about a bamboo stalk from the bamboo stalk.” As Sir Hugh Cortazzi observes in his Preface “…she had the aesthetic understanding needed to design and build in a non-Japanese environment gardens which are a true reflection of Japan.”

The projects are divided into six sections: Rear Gardens, Town Gardens, Courtyard Gardens, Roof and Balcony Gardens, Front Gardens and Show and Exhibition Gardens. This last category includes the two gardens that she designed and constructed at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) flower shows (Hampton Court and Chelsea). Each was awarded the very prestigious RHS Gold Medal.

The book is well written and beautifully illustrated and works at many levels just as gardens themselves do. People who like looking at gardens will enjoy it, people who design gardens will admire it, people who seek solace in gardens will find it, and those studying the art of good design will learn from it. For although this is not on the face of it a “how-to-book” there is a very great deal to be learnt from it.

In Britain if you are interested in gardens in the Japanese style and hope one day to make one of your own then this is very much a book for you but you should also join the Japanese Garden Society and there make direct contact with the leading specialist designers and suppliers of whom Maureen Busby was one. The Society also publishes to its members an excellent quarterly journal Shakkei devoted to gardening in the Japanese style.