Water features are popular in both the home and the office.

LANDSCAPE gardening was almost unheard of a decade ago and the demand for artificial or sculpted gardens has risen dramatically. The landscaping culture is growing not only in cities like Yangon but also in the smaller towns. It’s now a lucrative business and there are many experts to handle the growing demand.

While they are businesspeople, landscape gardeners are usually also nature lovers who can offer advice and see your dream garden through to completion.
Of the two kinds of landscaping – “hard landscaping”, which uses stone decorations, and “soft landscaping”, which handles the trees and grass – hard landscaping is the most frequently employed in Myanmar.

Daw Htay, the owner of landscaping company 555, said most of her customers ask for pebbles, stones and rocks for their landscaping.

“Up until only recently stones or pebbles were only used to make paths or maybe ponds, but now they are very popular for landscape gardening,” she said.

She said clients now frequently request streams, ponds and waterfalls decorated with stones and pebbles and this is often contrasted with some greenery.

Pebbles are also popular for decorating the exterior of buildings, with customers often opting for bring colours such as red and yellow, while black and white flaked shale is also popular. Daw Htay said using pebbles is both more attractive and cheaper than tiles, while many superstitious customers believe it is better for their health.

Petrified (fossilised) wood and igneous rocks like granite are used to make waterfalls and ponds. They also can be used for outdoor stools, benches and tables, she said.

Most rocks that 555 use come from upper Myanmar and they range in price from about K70,000 to K150,000, depending on the size and colour.

“My customers prefer real, natural-looking stones to moulded stones for their landscape gardens. They want to make their landscaped garden using naturally beautiful products and real stones from Myanmar are cheaper than moulded stones, which are foreign-made,” she said.

U Thiha Min Thwin, an architect with local company Spine Architects, agreed that using local materials is usually the better option.

“It is very suitable to use the local products. They require less maintenance and are less likely to have problems with the climate but are also cheaper so save the client money,” he said.

Grasses and trees selected for soft landscaping projects should be local seasonal varieties, he said.

“There are many types of trees and grasses, but they should be used depending on the weather because the differences of weather can have a significant effect on the trees in particular.”

He agreed that interest in hard landscaping, particularly water features, had grown dramatically and said it was because people enjoy hearing the bubbling sound of the water as it allows them to pretend they near the forest or the beach.

“You can’t deny that a landscaped garden is a beautiful thing,” he said.