Skip to Content

Asian Backyard Landscaping Ideas For A Soothing Garden

Are you geared up and ready to give your backyard a brand new look? These Asian backyard landscaping ideas just might be your perfect solution. Asian style gardens can help create a tranquil courtyard and a backyard landscape that can showcase unique features and natural elements.

Asian style garden featuring a pagoda

Asian Backyard Landscaping Ideas

If you love the Asian style and the thought of having your own Japanese rock garden, thinking up unique Asian landscape ideas might be just what you need.  You can easily create gorgeous gardens in a small space with a simple Japanese garden design.  

The reason that the Asian design is popular in the outdoor space is that it’s unique and adds a sense of calmness to the living areas. You can also easily create an Oriental landscape using natural materials as well. 

Best Plants For An Asian Garden

Choosing plants for your landscape design is important because you want to plant flowers and other flowering plants that will give you a stunning Asian garden. If you happen to have a natural hillside, you can use that as a good base for your plants. 

Asian plants can be great for small spaces because they don’t tend to require a lot of maintenance. 

Trees for Asian landscaping

Japanese maple tree surrounded by white rocks and a small pond

There are several types of trees that would be great for your outdoor garden space. Japanese maple trees are wonderful because they bloom a beautiful red color throughout the year. Even though they’re native to Korea, you can still plant these Korean trees without worry. (if they’re well taken care of, they can last for 100 years or more!) 

The flowering cherry tree is another lovely tree that produces pink blooms and a stunning display. If you happen to have a stone bridge in your garden area, this would be a perfect cover for the bridge when it’s blooming. The other great part about planting this type of tree is that it’s not an overly large tree and won’t take up a lot of space.

Asian flowering shrubs

Purple blooming hydrangea in a Japanese garden, with an orange bridge in the background

If you don’t want to plant trees in your yard, look at the options for flowering shrubs instead. Hydrangea shrubs will bloom in the sun or the shade and require little maintenance compared to other shrub varieties. They’ll also bloom in varied colors like blue, white, or pink

Mahonia shrubs are actually really nice as well because they add a beautiful touch of greenery to your yard. They tend to bloom with smaller yellow flowers on them and are lower to the ground than other shrubs as well. 

Asian landscape decorations

If you have a stone pathway in your garden, you’re going to want to accompany that look with some unique and fun landscape decorations. Luckily, there is no shortage of Asian-themed items that you can add to your rock garden space. 

Below you’ll find some great suggestions that can add beautiful decor and ambiance quickly. 

Design Toscano NG29870 Asian Decor Pagoda Lantern Outdoor Statue, Large 17 Inch, Polyresin, Two Tone Stone Finish

This outdoor lantern is a wonderful way to add a fun ambiance to your garden path or space. It’s a unique look that will give you the chance to light up the outdoor area easily. 

It’s not recommended to use a candle or an open flame for this light but instead an LED light instead. Place this lantern strategically in your garden space so that it does a good job of lighting up the area. 

It might be a good idea to get several of these Asian-themed pagodas or lanterns and have them sitting around your garden space. That way the area is lit and you can easily walk about freely without worry of tripping or falling over anything.

Even though you might know your outdoor space well, there are always “things” that can trip you up! 

Winsome House Asian Pagoda 30.9" Patio Fountain with LED Light in Dark Bronze

This bronze outdoor fountain adds an instant touch of class to your outdoor space. Not only will it add a calming to the vicinity, but it also adds a nice tranquil feeling as well. 

The fountain also has LED lighting on it so it can be used in that capacity, too. This Asian-inspired fountain has a sleek design that will go perfectly with any of your Asian landscaping designs. 

Many people put fountains in their space because it gives that meditation and calming aspect that everyone tends to crave. The white noise of an outdoor fountain can help to block out any other noise and help you to melt into a sea of calmness. 

Elly Décor Meditating, 13 inch Tall Ceramic Handcrafted Budha Decor Indoor and Outdoor Garden Sculptures Buddha Statue, Gray Cement Stone

It wouldn’t be an Asian outdoor inspired space with a Buddha stone, right? What better reminder than to have a statue of Buddha right in the middle of it all. 

Since you’re creating an outdoor garden space that is supposed to bring you calmness and peace, it just makes sense that you have Buddha there to join in the calmness with you.

The Buddha statue is a decent size but it’s also a size that makes it easy to move to various sections of your outdoor space. Adding a statue of Buddha just seems like it’s the most logical thing to do! 

Asian landscape lighting

Since you’re going to be spending a ton of time in your outdoor garden space, having the proper outdoor lighting is going to be key. While there are a lot of great options to choose from, you’ll find that these are some of the top choices to filter through.

GIGALUMI Solar Powered Path Lights, Solar Garden Lights Outdoor, Landscape Lighting for Lawn/Patio/Yard/Pathway/Walkway/Driveway (4 Pack)…

These solar powered outdoor lights are so unique and convenient. As long as they’re able to source their energy from the sun, they’ll light up and be bright every single night. 

They’ll automatically turn on during the night and once the sun rises in the morning, they’ll shut off then as well. This means that there is a minimal effort on your part besides sticking them in the ground. 

These outdoor lights are also weatherproof which means that you don’t have to worry about bringing them in and out of the weather, either. Once you put them in the soil, they can easily stay there for as long as you want them to. 

Solpex 2 Pack Solar Garden Lights, Warm White Garden Lights Solar Powered, Waterproof Solar Yard Lights for Lawn, Patio, Yard, Pathway, Walkway and Driveway

These solar lights are also a fun look as well. They look like windows and have a fun powdered coating that will keep them looking new. 

The other great part about these outdoor lights is that they’re weatherproof. Not having to take them in and out of the weather is a nice feature and something that you don’t have to waste your time worrying about. 

If you’re looking for minimal maintenance outdoor lights, solar lights are the way to go. Make certain that whatever pattern of outdoor lights that you get, you purchase enough so that you can have them distributed evenly all around the garden area. This way you have enough light to see the path and also add a warm feeling and look to the space, too. 

Now that you have some great ideas on how to set up your Asian landscaping for your garden, it’s time to get started with picking out all the top items to decorate with. With all of these great Asian-themed items to choose from, you can easily set up space in your yard that gives you the ambiance and feeling that you’re looking for. 

Try out a few of these items and see how they feel. You can always add in more as you go – and more than likely, you’ll find even more really great decor items along the way as well. Can you ever really have too many unique landscape items in your yard? 

Which of these items on the list are your favorite Asian backyard landscaping ideas?

Asian backyard landscaping ideas - Pinterest image

Pin To Save For Later

Best Landscaping Ideas For Your Home

Wednesday 17th of August 2022

[…] Asian Backyard Landscaping Ideas For A Soothing Garden […]

Hillside Landscaping Ideas For Easy To Maintain Slopes

Monday 30th of November 2020

[…] these hillside landscaping ideas have helped take some of the overwhelm out of beautifying your yard. All you have to do is look at […]