The Creation of our Zen Garden

The Creation of our Zen Garden fulfilling a dream
By Joan C. Guyll

Planning
Deciding where it should be located is the first thing. We had an odd shaped garden. We needed to be near a source of electricity for our Bamboo water feature. A few years ago, we had laid out a weatherproof power box for garden lights under our willow tree - so the decision was made that it would provide a lovely backdrop to the clean Zen lines.

Features
While we were in Nottingham, we drove past a Japanese Garden Centre and were intrigued. So we doubled back and checked it out. They were doing a clearance sale of some old Bamboo tubes. When the man said he was selling them off for only £10 each, we grabbed one. Brian remembers that they usually cost around £70 to £80! He was right. Now I am wishing we bought 2. Anyway, after we returned home, we found via the Internet that we had purchased a Japanese deer scarer, otherwise known as a Shishi Odoshi(sounds like what a mother would say to a child in Singapore if she wanted him to do a number 2).

Fillings
I trawled the web and found that for a Zen garden, we needed white sand and rocks. Fortunately we had a large industrial stone merchant within walking distance of our home. So one Monday morning, we drove down (too cold to walk) and had a look. We found an exotic mix of stones and immediately fell in love with a Canadian fossilised tree stump. I love trees and this was perfect. Research shows that these ancient stumps could be more than 70 million years old. Thankfully, I didnt have to carry it to the car. Brian took it upon himself to unload it from the car and nearly had a double hernia. It weighed 50 kgs. We also found a very cute egg shaped stone with iron oxide streaks so bought that as well. The main disappointment was that they didnt have any white sandbut the 6mm limestone chips might be a good substitute so ordered 400 Kgs of that plus 4 gigantic old railway sleepers (also weighed a tonne each) as borders and a bag of plum coloured slate chips.

Final look and feel
Heres the final result judge for yourself. We had the foresight to lay a whole sheet (sewn together by my toy sewing machine) of weed control webbing before we laid everything down. Dug a hole for the plastic tub to house the pump for the Bamboo water feature and hopefully we will have the pleasure of playing in our Zen garden for years to come. The pheasant was the first one to fly in for a cursory glance and the ducks love the water in the tub after they have had their feed. I think we need to camouflage the plastic tub...so there will be more bamboo shopping to do. Oh, total cost £301.99

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• art
• zen
• japanese
• rockery

[wildfirejc]

Thanks for the tip - I shall definitely try slowing down the water flow.

[wildfirejc]

Thanks!

[wildfirejc]

Thank you for your kind comments. I like your anime art!

[wildfirejc]

If you wait until the camera zooms in on the fossilized stone, you will notice a dark oval circle near the top - imagine that as the left eye. Then follow the crease down on the right to half a nose and half a lip. That's a face.

[wildfirejc]

Pleasantly surprised that my Zen Garden won the Silver award from Kent Wildlife Trust Wildlife Gardening Awards 2010!!!

[wildfirejc]

Plesantly surprised that my Zen Garden won the Silver award from Kent Wildlife Trust Wildlife Gardening Awards 2010!!!

[Komusosg]

If you slow down the water flow to just above a trickle it will be fine without the padding as well. The ones I saw in Kyoto Japan worked on a 30-60 minute cycle and were quite loud! Love your garden!

[34comecome]

what is the purpose of this?

[Mr420rush]

very nice.....the water fall is kinda loud tho.

[Trickmaster180]

Beatiful garden! I'm making one to...I'll post it on my channel :)

[etegg11]

nice man

[MewAya890]

it's a beautiful zen garden i love it