These are the high holy days of gardening season. Everything is at its peak — beans, corn, tomatoes, cucumbers. If you planted zucchini you are probably carrying a sack full of those green torpedoes around in your back seat, trying desperately to give them away to friends and neighbors. [If you have some to give away to those present, all the better.]

In North America gardens are usually straightforward and straight-rowed. Planted for ease of watering and weeding, for maximum efficient use of the land, for taking best advantage of required sunlight and shade, our gardens don’t offer too many surprises. We want uniformity and unanimity among our canvas of crops.

Japanese “gardens” are much different. For centuries creating gardens — large strolling gardens or tiny tea gardens — has been a…