Another post on GardenStew says " the plants commonly found in Asian gardens since many of them just will not stand up to the hot and dry conditions in Texas. The eastern philosophy is to work with nature" . See: http://www.gardenstew.com/about8954.html I think this is an oversimplification! (1) Asia has a great range of climates and therefore a great range of plants (2) 'work with nature' is a great simplification for a continent which has done so much to change 'wild nature' over such a long period.
The class these notes were taken from was not part of a college course that one could take and know everything about Japanese/Asian gardens therefore creating one for themselves with ease. It was to give some basics about the style, the meaning of some of the elements used in that style and how it can be incorporated into our gardens to create an Asian feeling. If any of the gardeners were inspired by the class to further pursue creating an Asian inspired garden for themselves, it was suggested that they do more studying on the style to learn as much as possible. The idea of working with nature is simple, if some plants in a true Asian garden are not suited for the climate where the gardener lives then you find local native plants that will be an acceptable substitute. You notice I have used the words Feeling and Inspired when referring to creating an Asian/Japanese garden. That is because the purpose of that class was to help gardeners create an Asian Inspired garden or create the Feeling of an Asian garden by incorporating some of the aspects and elements and plant placements of an Asian garden in our own home gardens.
Inspiration is always welcome, of course. But another thing to remember about the famous gardens of Japan is that most of them are temple gardens. This makes the design style unsuited to a family which wishes to use a garden, in the western style, for children's games, outdoor parties, growing vegetables etc
The class was aimed at gardeners more interested in creating an out of the way area with the Asian feel not recreating temple gardens. Those would be totally unsuitable for most gardeners anyway.
