Serene Japanese Garden

Updated Jan 23, 2013
Mamta Popat / Arizona Daily StarMamta Popat / Arizona Daily Star

You can have a Japanese garden without a lot of fuss and space.

That’s what Patricia Deridder hopes to demonstrate with Yume Japanese Gardens in Tucson. She says it’s the city’s first public botanical garden dedicated to Japanese design.

The 3-acre attraction, which was to open to the public Saturday, features a koi pond, courtyard gardens, a grassy area, a stone and gravel vignette and a raked gravel garden.

It also has a modern example of traditional Japanese style and exhibition space for bonsai, the cultivation of dwarf trees; floral arrangements called ikebana; and garden sculpture.

Deridder is a Belgian native who as a young adult lived in Japan for 15 years before moving to the United States in the 1980s. She designed the gardens even though she’s not a landscape designer.

“It’s a picture of my life,” says the six-year Tucson resident. “It’s a reflection of what I learned in Japan and what I feel.”

She named it Yume, “dream” in Japanese, because she has long wanted to create the garden to introduce people to Japanese culture.

Read the full article here.

– Elena Acoba

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