Emma had a little problem. Pigeons. And what they left behind. After an entire year of pigeons cooing, pooing and goodness only knows what else on her Kanada Kodan balcony, she finally got around to doing something about it; netting. Lots of it. So now she had an extremely filthy balcony that needed renovating, and while she went off to England, I started hammering away! Hoping to introduce a definite Japanese feel to her newly reconquered balcony, I wrote up a shopping list including various features; rocks, stones, pebbles, bamboo, a large amount of plastic grass carpet,  small bushes and a pond. The idea was to create a miniature Japanese garden at one end of the balcony, leaving the majority free for hanging washing, sunbathing etc., in an area approximately 1 metre square. A nice challenge.

The feature I was desperate to include was a working water pump and pond, to provide the relaxing sound of trickling water. I got wet, but I got it done. The pond itself only measured about 30cm long, but I managed to fit in a wooden bowl in the centre to catch the water pouring from the bamboo pipe. The garden itself was raised about 30cm above the floor level in order to bring it closer to eye level, and to hide the internal workings of the pump system.The rest of the balcony was carpeted in about 5 metres of plastic grass (gorgeous for bare feet), while the railing and walls were 'carpeted' in bamboo rush matting. A bamboo bench was added in the middle of the balcony to break up the vast expanse of green, and a hand-made wood and paper lamp was fitted into an empty air-conditioning vent, to cast the essential warm glow over the whole scene.

Having raised the level of the corner garden on concrete breeze blocks, I then cut holes for a large plant pot (so the bush could be changed if required), for the small pond, for the bamboo water stalk and for support stakes for the rush matting on the walls. Then I started getting to the finishing touches; 3 very large rocks were hefted onto the balcony, a small bush was potted in the hole, then the raised garden area was covered in a layer of light-grey gravel with mid-grey pebbles surrounding the pond and the rocks (see the photo above). Then it was a case of simply connecting the pump piping, filling the pond with water and covering the gap between the balcony floor and the raised area with wood-effect logs. Turning on the switch, I was rather pleased to find the pond pump worked first time! So there it was - a relaxing Japanese garden, all fitted onto a balcony.