No backdropAll artists, fashion models, photographers and even flower designers know that the backdrop behind the subject is very important. A good backdrop helps to define a work of art. It can complement the subject or contrast against it, but in each case, backdrops will make a difference in the way art work is perceived. Gardens are no different.
In the perfect Japanese Garden, you would have a beautiful scene on the horizon that you could borrow as a backdrop for your garden ... You could create a wonderful garden in the foreground and use the lake and distant shore as your backdrop, you might even say, "Why do I even need a garden with such beautiful natural scenery just outside my window?" You’d have a good point. The fortunate ones who live beside magical lakes don’t really need to create paradise - they already lice there. More often than not, Japanese Gardens are created by nature-lovers that lice in urban or suburban neighborhoods. They live in homes surrounded by other homes and do not have the luxury of nearby lakes or mountains to use as garden backdrops. Urban and suburban sites still leave many options open to the Japanese Garden designer. One poor choice is to build a beautiful garden and do nothing at all about backdrop or enclosure. This leaves your garden standing there naked for strangers to admire from bus windows. If they with, they can even get off the bus, cross the street, and stomp right on through your azaleas. An exaggeration, perhaps, but the point is clear: a garden needs enclosure to feel intimate.
No backdrop
A nice hedge backdrop
A nice bamboo fence backdrop
You can create both enclosure and a backdrop by erecting an attractive privacy barrier and using it as a background for your garden. There are many possibilities - hedges, fences, walls, berms and loose plantings all do the job. Even an adjacent building with white walls can make a nice privacy barrier and backdrop to your pines and crabapples. When choosing a backdrop, don’t lose track of your primary goal: to display your garden. Every backdrop has advantages and disadvantages. A bamboo garden would not look very attractive against a vertical slat bamboo fence, but it might look stunning against a white wall enclosure.