This guide will be covering the details on how you can obtain a 5-star rating of your Japanese garden in House Flipper. For those who are struggling to get this rating, this guide is for you.
Introduction
Let’s start this guide by giving you the general tips to have a good Japanese garden.
- You must mow 100% of the yard and remove all weeds! I know some of those exotic European weeds are pretty, but sadly they must all come out. Leaving some existing trees should be okay for the Japanese garden.
- As others have pointed out, the game appears to split yards into eight segments: Front right corner, Front center, Front left corner, Right side, Left side, Back right corner, Back center, and Back left corner. Try to distribute items among all segments to create balance.
Equipment to Use
Structures and Statues
- 1 pagoda
- 4-5 Japanese benches
- 2 bridges
- 2-4 of each Japanese lantern
- 1-2 elephant statues
- 1-2 owl statues
Water Elements
- Both koi ponds
- 1-2 other ponds
- 3 boulders per pond (Garden tab > Decorations > Boulders). ie, 4 ponds x 3 boulders/pond = 12 boulders total
Plants to Use
Required
- Bamboo (Plants > Exotic)
- Cherry trees. No need to buy all three sizes if you don’t want to.
- Both types of Japanese maples
- All three sizes of rhododendrons
- Plenty of bonsai
Optional
I like to put these in my Japanese gardens but do not think the game requires them. You can try adding them if you get less than 5 stars in the plant rating category.
- Leaf-Plants > Round bush 1 meter > Spiraea japonica variety
- Non-bonsai evergreen trees such as Needle-Plants > Coniferous Shrub – Conical Shape
Layout and Design
This could be the hardest part. Work your imagination to make everything looks good. Here’s our recommendation:
- Try placing all of your plants and equipment out towards the edges of the yard. Let nothing touch the house, and make sure all areas of fence/hedge have items directly in front to mask them off.
- Group like plants together. Include long lines of bamboo, clumps of rhododendrons, groupings of bonsai, a line of cherry trees.
- Similarly, try to balance your statues and lanterns in symmetrical groups. Put identical statues at the four corners of the pagoda, corners of the bridge, one to each side of a bench, etc.
- Several posts have mentioned a zen garden with sand and scattered pebbles, but this did not work for me and in fact, I got increased points when I removed the scattering of pebbles. I suspect I was losing points because the pebbles were not symmetrically arranged.
- Finally, the key point: put three boulders at even intervals around your ponds! Create radial symmetry around your ponds using boulders. I leapt from 2.5 to 5 stars after doing this and removing the asymmetrical zen garden.
Here’s some screenshot of a 5-star Japanese garden in House Flipper game.
