A pair of world travelers with a deep love of Japan asked JMMDS to design a Japanese-inspired landscape that would complement the contemporary renovation of their home in Edinburgh, Scotland. JMMDS created a plan that included a handsome cut-stone patio, meandering stepping stone paths, sweeping bed lines, stony mounds, a grassy pool of space, and swaths of elegant plantings.

The designers and clients visited nurseries in search of distinctive plant specimens, including cloud-pruned hollies, craggy pines, Japanese maples of varied color and habit, and a particularly notable Japanese snowbell tree. Photo © Angus Bremner.

JMMDS laid drifts of sedges, hellebores, European gingers, ferns, and Solomon’s Seal. Evergreen azaleas, juniper, rhododendrons, and hebe were clustered around the lawn. Photo © JMMDS.

JMMDS was on site during the installation to craft the mounds and place the plants and stones. Julie Moir Messervy set out the ancient pieces of gneiss—3 billions years old—from Scotland’s Isle of Lewis. Photo © Angus Bremner.

JMMDS placed bamboos within the root-controlled patio beds on the cut stone terrace. Photo © Angus Bremner.

The garden is beautifully framed through the large entry and kitchen windows, marrying inside to outside in perfect harmony. Photo © Angus Bremner.

Mondo grass, sedums, and mosses grace the stepping stones and provide a soft carpet beneath the stone lantern. Photo © Angus Bremner.

Collaborators

Helen Lucas Architects
Steven Ogilvie (garden installers)

Featured In

“Rear of the Year” by Caroline Ednie, photographed by Angus Bremner, in the January/February 2018 issue of Homes & Interiors Scotland

Japanese Gardens On My Mind by Julie Moir Messervy