A Feng Shui garden can look like an English Garden, Japanese Garden, Native Garden or anything else.
Did you know – You could have a Feng Shui garden that looks like an English Garden, Japanese Garden, Native Garden or anything else. It does not need to look Chinese, nor will it have to have pagodas, bridges or bamboo, or anything else in particular.
In Feng Shui we don’t look at a garden in isolation, but always in relation the home or property. The property has a natural distribution of energies that give it its feel and character.
Some areas of the home admit radiant life force from the environment, others areas are subject to negative energies. Some areas of the home thrive on the support provided by other buildings, walls and groups of trees, others become heavy with those features.
And as you know, each individual home has its unique energy chart, so again I am unable to give general recommendations. For example, it is not true that the south should always be open and the north protected, nor is it true the other way around – it is different in each case.
Elements of a Feng Shui Garden
Yin and Yang: The most important aspect of a Feng Shui garden is the proper distribution of Yin areas and Yang features, that is having these located in such a way that they enhance the positive energies of the home – not the negatives.
Yin areas in a garden are solid things, such as hills, rocks, heavy pots, statues, fences, clumps of trees, etc. They facilitate stillness and restfulness.
Yang features are open spaces, lawns, downhill, roads and pathways, openness, bodies of water, ponds and fountains. They facilitate activity and movement.
The effect of Yang energies
A Yang garden feature activates the respective Yang energies of the home – the Yang energies of that direction. And here we have two possibilities:
If these Yang energies are good, the open space or water feature will enhance their beautiful quality and make the home more radiant and attractive and enhance its life force.
However if the Yang energies in that direction are negative, your Yang features will enhance that negativity! They can make a negative potential worse.
This means that Yang features such as a pool or a wide-open space can be a great tool for bringing more radiant energy into the home. However, placed in the wrong direction they can make a place feel more yucky and you more irritated within it.
The effect of Yin energies
Yin garden features are fantastic at activating positive Yin energies of the home – if they are located in that direction.
That means that if you have positive restful Yin in the direction where you have a hill, bushy solid plants or a neighbouring building, these features will help in making that area more restful and cosy. Such an area will provide great personal support that benefits your health and wellbeing as well as your relationships.
However, if the Yin energies in that direction are negative – inside this manifests as not being able to sleep well in such a space and ill health in the long run – the solidiy of the garden Yin features will make those heavy Yin spaces worse! They will become less attractive with this.
The ideal Yin Yang distribution
Ideally you have open spaces, a view and water, where you have good Yang energies in the home – or where there is negative Yin! It will enhance the good Yang and diminish the influence of the negative Yin energies on the home!
You will have raised landscape, bushes, pots, rocks and other solid things where there is positive Yin in the home – or where there is negative Yang! It will help along the positive Yin energies and diminish the effect of the negative Yang.
I hate to say it again, but the location of a home’s energies is unique and there is no general formula what should be where. You should definitely find out what is going on with the home before embarking on any large garden project, such as placing a pool or pond or solid feature!
Ideally, you’d use Feng Shui to lay out a garden so that the pathways, open spaces, water and solid features enhance the home and form an integrated whole – a home and garden that not just look good, but feel right.
Garden Colours
In a garden, colours are important but very secondary to above considerations. However, we select the colours of flowers, leaves, pots, garden furniture, etc. based on the Feng Shui energies present in each sector, in such a way that these enhance the positive and reduce any negative potential in an area. They again are determined by the energy layout of the home.
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