Feng Shui Garden
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What’s amazing is that whether you believe in it or not, if you apply its principles in your feng shui garden you will experience the positive transformation in your life that this energy creates.
Your yard and garden will convert the area around your house in an oasis for you and your family. Fact is that those principles form the basics of natural garden design more attractive and pleasing.
A good start would be to place an arbor at the entrance of your garden to make it more inviting to everyone. The entrance should face south for maximum sun exposure.
Do not use a closed gate as it would be less inviting and would deter the energy from moving freely.
There are no particular plants for a feng shui garden, but colors have a strong impact on energy flow just as they are shown to influence our moods. Hot colors, like red and yellow flowers, lift up your energy level when you're looking at them. The cooler-colored purple and white flowers are more soothing. You should have both types of colors in your garden, but in separate areas.
One of the basic principles of feng shui is balance, diversity, and simplicity. Do not let your garden become overgrown with plants as this would be counter productive to the flow of energy: Keep it simple, minimize the clutter.
At the outset put relatively few plants in your feng shui garden even if you feel the urge for more. You may find this hard because when the season starts the plants are small and the space seems too empty. You may tend to plant a lot but as the plants grow they fill in the space and then, as the season wears on, the space becomes overgrown.
The plants you choose will likely depend on what's available at the time of year. The emphasis is more on color and coordination, than on type.
For spring, it would be flowers such as tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, primroses, pansies. The most important thing is to be able to create blocks of plants with colors that blend well, not one of a lot of things, but a lot of a few things. If possible, add plant herbs such as lavender, sage, or thyme.
The addition of a birdbath would be good both for the birds and for you. Remember, feng shui emphasizes diversity.
The five elements you want to have represented in your garden are wood, metal, earth, fire and water.
Water is very soothing, be it a fountain, a pond, or a bird bath. By the way, attracting birds is the best most natural form of bug control because they eat pest insects.
If you don't have enough space for a birdbath, there are other ways to incorporate water into a garden. A simple electric fountain would do. Just add water and the electric pump would recycle it.
You could use lights to represent the fire element. A grill would also give fire a presence – if you grill a lot. But the ideal way is to build an outdoor hearth.
A bench could introduce the wood element. You should minimize the number of plants around it to make it a calm area; it should be the most serene spot in your garden. You could place a stone or a sculpture here to emphasize this place. Wind chimes are nice. But you don't want too much here. You want it to be calm.
The style of furniture that you choose is also important. Feng Shui philosophy emphasizes simplicity, so stay away from furniture that is ornately designed. Natural material that harmonizes with your outdoor setting is best.
In your garden, curved paths will create an energy flow inviting meandering, as opposed to straight paths that lead directly to the end without encouraging a more relaxing pace.
The five elements represented:
Water: Bird bath, fountain,
Wood: Arbor, bench, planting boxes
Fire: Lights, grill
Earth: Soil, clay pots, boulder
Metal: Arbor, seating, wind chimes
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