How To Build A Zen Garden

Want to know How To Build A Zen Garden? Zen gardens originated in Japan. The nation’s mountainous islands have a beautiful landscape that provides for a natural setting for raw beauty which is loved by the Japanese people. In today’s world, they are created with an idea of enhancing beauty using the natural elements of the environment. They are made from beautiful locally available materials such as white gravel to represent ocean waves, round rocks to represent a sand sea just like it was in the olden times when the Buddhist monks developed the gardens.

Creating a Zen garden is a great way of making a space where you can meditate in your garden. There are several ways in which you can approach in making the garden look beautiful such as using cool colors like blue to ensure that the garden is as serene as possible. If you idolize nature and like the natural order of the earth, Zen gardens provide you with an opportunity to express yourself from your own backyard.

In this article we shall discuss the steps on How To Build A Zen Garden –

How To Build A Zen Garden-
Prepare the materials and tools that you require

You will require different materials and items for the creation of the Zen garden. The basic materials that the garden will comprise are white gravel and rocks. The gravel quantity will be determined by the size of the garden and you should, therefore, measure the garden area before acquiring the gravels. The rocks on the other hand will be required to be of different sizes and shapes for there to be a good balance of nature.

Other materials that will be required are a steel rake, shovel, hoe, tamper, a landscape fabric, strings, and their levels, measuring tape, work gloves, and edging stones.

Site Selection

To start off, you should select an area that is flat enough in the backyard and mark it accordingly using the tape measure to take equal measurements. A smaller space means a reduced workload and requires fewer materials. The size will depend on your preference and also the overall size of your backyard garden. Another important consideration is the source of light if you will be growing plants in the Zen garden in which case you will have to consider your source of light. For plants to grow properly, they must receive natural light for a considerable amount of time during the day.

Once you have selected the site, you can now follow the following steps;

1.Clear up the selected area. Remove any debris, leaves, and any clutter that is lying on the space. By this time, you should have marked the edges clearly so that you create the garden to have a good shape when you finally finish up.

2.Using a shovel, you should remove the top layer of the existing soil and carry it off to a designated dumping site so that the Zen garden area is clean and a good area to work on.

3.Ensure that the ground is even up and check for its leveled properly and without any contours. The dimensions of length and width should also be matched to ensure that all sides are equal according to the plan. If there are any spots that are uneven, you should take them out using a garden rake for the best surface possible.

4. Once the ground is evened out, you can now start digging holes for the rocks that you will be using in the Zen garden. The size of the hole will depend on the sizes of the rocks and they should be deep enough to make them stick strongly on the ground.

5. After the rock holes are in place, you can now install the rocks and the plants into the holes in a natural way to ensure that your garden takes the shape of natural open spaces.

6. The white gravel is put as the last item to the open spaces that have remained after the plants and the rocks have been installed. They should be evenly applied across the garden space to ensure that the garden looks as beautiful as possible. The spreading should be done using a hoe and a rake and any other material that you might deem necessary.