An Asian-themed front yard and a Hawaiian-style, tropical back yard bring the best of both worlds to a Mililani Mauka home.

 

My Blue Haven: The home’s pool, rimmed with real stone, features a variety of depths, ranging from an ankle-deep wading ramp to a diving area that reaches down to 9.5 feet.

The front of the home features a Japanese-style fishpond, replete with koi and a bamboo fountain.

Rocky Road: This elegant side yard serves as a transition area between the Asian front yard and the Hawaiian-style back. Rock arrangements, carefully placed and set amid leafy palms, signal the end of one landscape and the beginning of another.

The Mililani Mauka homeowners’ association might want to consider changing a few of its streets’ names to Sekimizu Place, Sekimizu Way or maybe even Japanese Garden Lane. The renamings would acknowledge the work of landscaper Kiyoharu Sekimizu, who at last count had designed and installed more than 100 landscapes in the fast-growing Central Oahu community. His elegant, Japanese-style gardens, which line both sides of certain streets, are as distinctive and emblematic as the community’s Craftsman-style architecture.

TIP: We do the Japanese-and-Hawaiian combination all the time. The front side is what everyone sees, so homeowners want it Japanese: clean, neat and inviting. The back is Hawaiian, since that’s where people spend the most time. If I did a Japanese rock garden in that space, it would look a little stark and the homeowners would have less privacy. Gary Shinn Hokuahi Lawns

More than half of Sekimizu’s projects in Mililani Mauka feature a mixed marriage of sorts: elegant Japanese-style front yards and tropical, Hawaiian-style back yards. The requests for hapa (half) landscapes may sound a little kapakahi (confused, mixed up). But they actually reflect many homeowners’ acknowledgements that their two yards serve very different purposes: in front is the public face of the home and in back is the private, family space.

According to Sekimizu, the Japanese-style garden features clean lines and smaller, tidy plantings. These give homes elegant, formal facades to greet neighbors and visitors. In addition, the landscape’s heavy use of rock, gravel and slow-growing plants makes it generally easy to maintain—a definite plus in this young and busy community.

However, out back, the story is quite different. Homeowners want flowers, large, lush plants and open spaces they can use, not just admire. The space may be private, but it also must be fun, tropical and useful.

“The front is more formal and clean,” says Sekimizu, who studied landscaping in Japan for 12 years before relocating to Hawaii more than 30 years ago. “But in back, there are flowers. Everyone enjoys and uses the back.”

One of Sekimizu’s projects, a recently completed home on a quiet cul-de-sac, is such a place. The lot, unusually large for Mililani Mauka at a little more than 10,000 square feet, sits on the edge of one of the area’s scenic gorges and features a large stone wall along its perimeter. Out front are two side yards, split up by a wide driveway.
In the side yard (which contains the entrance to the spacious back yard), Sekimizu designed and built a large fishpond, with a waterfall that tumbles down a small mountain of natural stone and a graceful bamboo fountain. Featuring a basin of reinforced concrete, the pond is home to a small school of koi.

TIP: When you mix two different styles of landscape, transitions are important. I use plants that can be used in a variety of landscapes; heavenly bamboo works well in a tropical or Japanese garden. I’d put some in the front, transition area and back yard, so there is continuity. Richard Long Reliable Landscaping & Sprinklers

TIP: Integrating different styles comes down to the little details. For instance, we’ll use plants that can easily be used in both Asian and tropical gardens: mondo grass or a zoysia lawn. It’s like using the same carpeting from room to room. Moss rock is another element to tie things together. It looks great in a Japanese water feature, as well as a Hawaiian-style garden. Susan Mulkern Water Gardens by Mulkern

Around the pond, Sekimizu placed a small collection of plants often associated with Japanese landscapes, such as kokutan and juniper. He also mixed in some tropical touches, such as Manila palms and lariape, a variegated ground cover. Inside the pond’s waters, he placed handfuls of day-blooming water lilies. Then, he surrounded the area with a lawn of el toro zoysia.

In the back yard, just inside the side gate, Sekimizu created a small rock formation. This little rocky island in a sea of grass serves as a visual cue to the landscape’s transition from Japanese to Hawaiian style. Instead of small, understated plants, the back yard features big, leafy red gingers, multicolored ti plants and areca and Manila palms, which will eventually grow full and tall. Within the protective perimeter provided by these larger plants grow dwarf varieties of both lauae fern and monstera, along with a small stand of hibiscus.

Sekimizu placed his plant collection on the outer edges of the lot, making room for the back yard’s real star: a large pool, replete with multiple waterfalls that cascade over real stone. The natural-looking body of water, which sits in a far corner of the lot, varies in depth—from 9.5 feet just below a couple of stony diving ledges, to ankle high at the sloping concrete entrance ramp. Sekimizu also designed a tranquil Jacuzzi, which overflows into the main pool. Nearby he planted a small stand of fragrant white ginger. When the flowers are in bloom, swimmers in the bubbling Jacuzzi can take in their delicate aroma on a passing breeze.

TIP: Anything goes in Hawaii, because everything grows here. If you live by the ocean, you’ll have certain limitations on what you can plant. But other than that, you can try all kinds of combinations. Greg Lee Landscapes by Tropical Images

Around the pool, Sekimizu designed and installed a wide, flowing flagstone deck, which now anchors the homeowners’ fully equipped outdoor kitchen, fire pit and outdoor furniture. Beyond the stone deck is a lawn of el toro zoysia; this tranquil sea of green makes the space seem even larger than it is.
“The pool is the main feature of the back yard, so the most important thing was rubbish. We couldn’t have plants back here that would drop things into the water,” Sekimizu says. “So, we kept a balance between having something that is fun and welcoming, but also clean and simple.”
Because of the massive pool, the backyard landscape doesn’t have as wide a variety of flowering plants as he normally features in a tropical, Hawaiian-style back yard. He can prove it, too: there are three more Sekimizu landscapes in the small neighborhood, nearly back to back.

TIP: I try to keep a central thing going. I think it’s more consistent. If the homeowners want a landscape that combines Asian and tropical touches, they might consider a Balinese-style yard. It’s becoming more popular now, with people buying more furniture from that island. Steve Dewald Steve’s Gardening Service