Players control the gardener of the Japanese Emperor's bamboo garden, as well as its resident panda, a gift from the Emperor of China.
At the start of the game, the board consists only of the central pond of the bamboo garden - players take turns to plant new hexagonal bamboo plots (three colours green, yellow and pink), as well as to add irrigation and improvements to the plots, move the gardener to grow bamboo, and move the panda who eats the bamboo.