Zen Garden Design

Just the word "zen" brings thoughts of peace and meditation. Add the word garden and you have an ideal place for relaxing and thinking. Carefully chosen stones, raked sand that "flows" like water, and privacy-providing walls all contribute to the effect of this natural sanctuary for meditation and de-stressing.

What is a zen garden?

A Zen garden is a dry landscape garden -- in Japanese, called Karesansui ("withered landscape") -- in which the elements of nature are represented by a composition of sand or moss, gravel, stone and rock. Primarily for meditative viewing only, the Zen garden is rarely entered. Plants are limited to small evergreen trees, ground-level greenery, and a few modest flowers. Many Zen gardens also include raked gravel, but this is the only element that designed to replicate nature.

The kare sansui style incorporates water features, as well, but aslo but spreads sand where the water is suggested. Taoist and Zen gardens "flow". This abstract style is favored by Zen temples. Japanese garden style -- jodo "pure lando" -- is often taken for Zen gardens but is, in fact, a quite different style.

To really learn Zen gardening would require a serious commitment to understanding eastern philosophy and Japanese culture. However, reproducing the form and design of these meditation gardens in your own backyard it not nearly as complicated.

Preparation

Zen gardens offer a rather contradictory "stylized natural look" in which nature is represented in symbolic ways. Because of this, understanding natural landscapes will help you design a Zen garden. Study nature -- how rocks lie in the earth, how water moves along a shoreline. Look at familiar landscapes from new angles.

The natural elements in Zen gardens

Because stones, water, and plants are the unifying elements in nature they're given top priority in Zen gardens and are always chosen and positioned with forethough and care. Although placed in natural-looking arrangements, these elements often have symbolic meaning.

Zen garden rocks and stones
Stones express strength, stability and endurance. The stones' placement in the garden enhances the feeling of safety and security one needs in order to relax. When choosing stones, consider the feelings and personality the rock's shape expresses to you -- bold, shy, tempermental, easy-going, etc. There are no rules about rock choice. This is your garden, so any rock that suits you is fair game. Because rocks in nature are never grouped by shape and size, a Zen should contain a variety of differently-shaped rocks and boulders.

Stones are present in odd numbers. Japanese garden masters consider the number three to be auspicious and this number represents heaven, earth and humanity. Seven and five are likewise as auspicious. Depending on the size of your backyard, you can stop at three, five, or seven stones or go on to form, for example, three groups with five stones each.

Once in the garden, rocks are buried two-thirds of the way into the ground to look like natural outcroppings. The direction of the rocks edges and ridges and the rocks' placement in relation to other rocks are carefully considered to give each rock space to express its unique personality. Stones are often set in a triangle for asymmetrical balance because perfect symmetry is considered to be out of balace with nature.

Many of these groupings are symbolic. A vertical rock symbolizes heaven, as it lies flat like the sky, whereas a horizontal rock symbolizes earth, and a diagonally placed rock stands for humankind. Some of the most popular rock groupings in Japanese gardens are those that represent the crane and turtle, animals that represent health and longevity. For example a tall basalt stone can represent the crane, while a flatter limestone rock stands for the turtle. Still, these symbols are always deliberately left vague to let the onlooker approach each arrangement of stone individually.

Zen garden sand and gravel
Sand and gravel brings the garden simplicity and serenity. The sand is often said to symbolize a clear, empty (that is, neutral and open) mind. The sand also symbolizes the ocean around the island of Japan while the rocks placed in the garden represent Japan itself. This "sand" is usally not beach sand but crushed granite that comes in a variety of shades.

This bed of sand is raked daily, so that everyday the garden dies and is reborn in accordance with the Zen tradition. In some gardens, sand is raked in perfect circles around the rocks and in perfectly straight lines in the remaining space. In many other gardens, sand is raked in swirls, to resemble the movement of water around stones and islands. Depending on their style, these swirls can impart a feeling of raging seas or a gently flowing stream.

Various colours of sand can also be used as in real rock gardens - black to give an imposing formality, brown for a subdued and refined look, and pure white to contrast with the rocks. The color, too, can be symbolic: white gravel represents the ocean and the rocks on the islands of Japan. In a sunny garden white sand can create an unpleasant glare, but it can work well for brightening up a shade garden.

Plants
Many Zen gardens have no plants at all. The plants that are used are typically humble shrubs or simple-looking trees. When choosing plants, aim for contrasts in color, shape, and texture that will balance each other and create a unified harmony. Common choices are bonsai Japanese Larch, black pine, Japanese maples, Mount Fuji cherry trees, and plants like Acer palmatum, azaleas, and rhododendrons (such as the highly scented Rhododendron luteum). To balance light, soft-textured plants, use dark, sharp-needled pines, glossy leaved camellias, horizontal conifers, and yew trees can be used to maintain the concept of balance and wholeness. Bamboo is another frequent choice -- either the striking black Phyllostachys nigra bamboo or the varigated yellow-and-green Phyllostachys aureosulcata.

Viewing points

Because Zen gardens are meant to be viewed and contemplated, rather than walked on, viewing points are meticulously chosen. Whether it's the most obvious spot to view from or a place that's a little more subtle, the view from that point is chosen to elicit a response in the viewer that is both personal and universal. A smaller Zen garden might have only one viewing point, located to one side. A small wooden veranda or modest gazebo can be placed to offer shelter at the chosen viewing point.

Zen garden walls

The borders of Zen gardens are marked with earthen or stone walls or bamboo fences. The popular bamboo version, the Yotsume-Gake (lattice), is made of bamboo with the spaces between the poles connected with black cord knotted in one of the traditional Japanese knotting styles. Another possibility, the Itabei (plank wall) made of wood planks and bamboo, is also frequently used.

Zen and Japanese garden decor

Although decor is minimal in a true Zen garden, a few accents pieces can do a lot to enhance the atmosphere in the backyard version, especially if placed unobtrusively at the borders of the garden. Accessories should be made of natural materials and be as uncomplicated as possible. Stone lanterns, pagodas, Buddha statues are all easy to find in gardening shops. If you really want to give the garden a Japanese atmosphere, a Torii gate, the sacred Shinto gateway that announces that the space beyond it is both pure and revered, will provide an unmistakable symbol of the style and signifigance of your garden. Another simple-to-create compliment is the chiriana (dust hole), a shallow hole near the garden entrance where guests can dispose of mental "garbage", such as jealousy or ill will, before entering.