Add a Little Zen to Your Garden
by
Kristin Marino, All About Lawns Columnist
A Zen garden to make the Dalai Lama jealous? Okay, maybe if you live next door
to the Zen garden of the Ryoanji Temple in Kyoto, Japan. If you love the
idea of a soothing Zen oasis in your own backyard, incorporating aspects
of Zen gardening into your garden design shouldn't intimidate you.
The purpose of a Zen garden is to reflect the beauty and grandeur of nature
through the careful design of the garden. You don't need a huge area to incorporate
a Zen garden design into your landscaping plans. The small size of landscaping
and garden areas available to many residents of Japan, where Zen gardening
originated, doesn't stop them from carving out a little island of serenity
and peace into their own personalized Zen garden.
Tips for Using Zen Gardening in Your Own Garden
- Zen gardens are not showy, busy, or haphazard. The
landscape is well-ordered and planned. Any item placed in the Zen garden
is purposeful and symbolic in some way.
- Water is a crucial element in a Zen garden; either
real water in the form of a fountain or pond, or implied water in the form
of a bed of raked sand or gravel. The mountains of stone and concentric
circles of raked gravel represent, not only a body of water, but the larger
universe as well.
- The overall goal of a Zen garden is to create a
sense of permanence in your landscape. Rocks represent mountains, and their
placement is meaningful and symbolic.
- Zen gardens are designed for year-round landscaping
appeal. Evergreens and moss ground covers provide cyclic continuity. Your
Zen garden is never "dormant," but always alive. Whether spring showers,
winter snow, or summer heat descend upon a Zen garden, it is always alive
and appealing to the senses.
- A Zen garden isn't built in a day. Planning the
landscaping for this project is a meditative process that should be as
calming as your garden design itself. Don't just grab a bunch of rocks
and stick them in your Zen garden. Choose your stones carefully based on
how they make you feel, and what they conjure in your imagination.
- There are evergreen selections widely available
in the US, which work well in Zen garden landscaping. Some fitting evergreens
for your Zen garden include traditional Japanese pines and hollies. Native
species, such as mountain laurel, work well in a Zen garden as well.
- Deciduous trees add a delicacy to a Zen garden,
much like a gauzy lace curtain lends to a simple window. The slight and
lovely Japanese maple adds fine, garnet foliage to the landscape. Depending
on the size of your Zen garden, just one or two well-chosen trees are all
you need. Remember, you are looking for tranquil and restful, not a forest
primeval.
- Tending a Zen garden is not, by its very nature,
a chore or something to be rushed through. The meditative quality of a
Zen garden lies not only in the viewing of the garden design, but in the
pruning, nurturing, and especially the raking of the garden as well. Zen
gardens are meant to be fussed over and puttered with.
If you love nothing more on a summer morning to crank up the riding lawnmower
or leaf blower, then most likely a Zen garden is not for you. If you want a garden
where you can meditate and perform garden chores in a mindful, careful way, carve
out a little Zen niche in your landscape and try it on for size. I bet after
a couple turns of your rake, you'll be in an enlightened frame of mind.
Sources
About the Author
Kristin Marino has been a homeowner for ten years and really does
have the greenest lawn in her neighborhood. Kristin holds a bachelor
degree in English from the University of Nevada.
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