The Japanese gardening called Zen-garden is supposed to create calm, relaxing and inspiring outdoor areas that bring balance into your life. It is also called “kare-san-sui”, which can be translated to “dry landscape” and refers to the stones that are used as central elements in creating a Zen-garden. But what exactly characterizes a Zen-garden, how can you create a Zen-garden in your own outdoor area and why would you even want to have one?
Aspects and characteristics of a Zen-garden
As already mentioned, a Zen-garden can be recognized by the use of stones and dry materials to create the garden. A real Zen-garden actually waives all kind of plants besides moss and also water. Instead, gravel and sand areas are symbolizing lakes, rivers and even the ocean. That’s why those areas are often infused by wavy lines, that are created with a special wooden rake. To draw the lines in the sand additionally serves the purpose of relaxation since it has a meditative influence.
As a central element, stones are used to create a calming landscape. Important is also that rather natural than geometrical forms are used. A Zen-garden can be created only in a corner of a big garden, for example next to wooden gazebos under which you can sit and enjoy the gardens calming atmosphere, or as a whole gardening concept. It can also be used as a design for balconies and terraces.
Benefits of a Zen-garden
A Zen-garden has many benefits. One of the biggest is to create a garden, that is meditative and relaxing. A Zen-garden can help to calm your nerves after a stressful day. The quiet and clean structures are pleasing for the eye and creating the wavy lines with the wooden reck helps to distract from negative thoughts.
However not only mentally benefits are the reason, why it is good to have Zen-garden but it is also a very easy garden to handle. Due to its dry structure and the minimal use of plants, the garden does not need a lot of attention. Therefore, it is especially useful for people with a stressful daily routine, that does not leave much time to care for a garden.
Since it can be created in various ways, a Zen-garden also fits almost every outdoor area, no matter how much space you have. It can be a well-designed welcoming area for visitors, but also your own private place of retreat. It can make a balcony or a terrace more aesthetically appealing as it can also stretch out over an entire garden.
Additionally, a Zen-garden is due to its use of stones, sand and gravel quite weather resistant. It does not matter if you have a rainy or sunny summertime, if the winter is freezing cold or slightly too warm: A Zen-garden will still look the same in the next year, if you take regular care of it. While plants need to be cut back or newly planted, a Zen-garden does not require any kind of care like that.
