Know about the Best Feng Shui Garden Design Tips
Feng Shui, translated as “wind and water,” is a system for arranging your surroundings to enhance energy flow around you. It’s a way to create harmony and balance in your home and the natural world around you. Here are a few tips for designing a Feng Shui garden that you can nurture.
Feng Shui is used to increase your surroundings’ energy to influence both your physical and mental well-being. Although it is a traditional Chinese principle, it’s essential to incorporate colors and symbolism that resonate with you.
So the Bagua is an octagonal map used to organize each section of your surroundings. It comprises nine life sectors: Career, Knowledge, Family, Wealth, Fame, Relationships, Children, Helpful People, and Tai Chi at the center, which is your overall health and well-being.
Each of these sectors should be incorporated into your garden. However, if you have an oddly shaped garden, then there are ways to enhance the chi to balance it out.
Chi, or life energy, can be enhanced as needed by incorporating the five elements in traditional Chinese culture; earth, metal, wood, fire, water, or the four elements in Western culture.
Designing a Feng Shui Garden:
1. Plan but don’t force it
Feng Shui isn’t just st a simple school of design. It is a way of life. It’s an art. Yes, there is a blueprint, but things don’t always go as planned, and sometimes changes and substitutions need to be made. You may have to add objects and features to balance the chi that may be missing. It’s not simply something you can set and forget.
Unlike houses and offices, gardens change naturally depending on the season. It’s essential to consider the garden’s different plants, the year’s season, and their placement in the garden. Certain plants do not grow well together and inhibit each other instead.
You also need to consider the local wildlife. Bees and birds will feed on and pollinate your flowers, while certain grubs are destructive and will kill some of your plants and vegetables.
Take nature into account when you design your garden and if you choose to use pesticides, remember that not only the nasty bugs come into contact with your plants. If you have pets or small children, consider them as well.
2. Paths and Sections
It’s best to tackle your garden in sections, not overwhelm yourself or make mistakes that would throw the balance off. Too many certain elements can overpower other elements and disturb the flow of your garden.
When you work in sections, you’ll focus on one area at a time, and that attention to detail will be apparent in the end. Additionally, when you work with one section at a time, you can create and maintain a path so your plants aren’t trampled and design variation.
It makes exploring more enjoyable, and you can add little nooks and sitting areas to maintain privacy or add a personal touch to each part. Each garden section should correspond with a section of the Bagua, representing the eight directions and the center.
The North represents your career Northeast represents wisdom and knowledge; the Northwest symbolizes support, friendships, and guidance; the South represents fame and reputation; the Southeast is wealth; the Southwest represents love, purity, and attraction; the Eastern zone is for health, and the western is for family.
The center of your garden should be the least cluttered area. It represents your overall wellness and should be balanced.
Working on one section of the Bagua at a time, you can use colors and symbolism to balance the chi in your garden by enhancing the areas that are lacking or in which the chi flows too quickly.
3. Symbolism
Feel free to play with traditional Feng Shui symbols and symbols relevant to your beliefs. These can enhance the chi in areas lacking and add unique aesthetic elements to your garden.
Adding symbols such as coins, statues, and metal elements will balance the natural earth, wood, and water elements in every garden. They also attract things you feel are lacking in your space and life. Shapes are also essential in Feng Shui.
Each natural element has different shapes attributed to it, and incorporating said shapes into the garden is an excellent way to add the characteristics of said element.
While symbols are essential in Feng Shui, the placement of those symbols and the intention are equally important. As mentioned above, each direction of the Bagua represents an area in your life. Adding characters to specific areas will strengthen the chi and attract the things you feel are lacking in that area of your life.
4. Adding color variations to design a Feng Shui Garden
Hence color variations in your garden are not only pleasing to the eye. Different colors have been shown to impact people in general psychologically. So it is an excellent way to shift the energy of your surroundings, and playing with color combinations can bring your garden to life.
Each color represents one of the five elements of Feng Shui, and certain combinations work better than others. But be sure to add red, purple, and yellow plants and flowers to brighten the garden. But add warmth and energy to your garden.
Hence these colors represent the fire element and balance out the earthy green and browns naturally occurring in any garden. Adding plants that flower during different seasons will help maintain your garden’s color variation throughout the year.
5. Water
Having a body of water in your garden is an excellent way to enhance the aesthetics of your garden and incorporate the water element central to the Feng Shui philosophy. So adding simple as a birdbath will bring life to your garden.
A fish pond will combine the water element and attract wealth into your life. So Koi symbolism is used in Chinese tradition to signify prosperity and wealth.
Many people find the flowing water soothing, so having a small waterfall can have a calming effect on the garden.
6. Stones
Use stones to symbolize mountains, add variation to the garden, and line the paths. You can also use them to surround your garden beds.
So rocks and stones can be used to balance out the warm and cool colors in the garden. They will give your garden a “finished” look and keep the weeds at bay. You can also use large rocks in place of benches to add seating while maintaining the natural element.
No matter what ideology you favor or what belief system you feel best resonates with you, Feng Shui principles can be used to curate your personal space and to create a garden that is both soothing and visually pleasing.
Using color psychology combined with the natural elements around you and the cardinal directions, you can create an outdoor space where you and your loved ones can be nourished physically, mentally, and spiritually.