7 Tips for Creating a DIY Zen Garden

1.Decide how large you want to make your Zen garden. Assess your available space. Are you going to make a garden that fills up part of your backyard, or are you going to start with a desk top version? The steps are the same, the scale will just be different.

2. Create a mold to contain the sand and/or gravel. Sand or gravel generally form the matrix of a Zen garden, and to keep it looking sharp, you need it to be contained.

3. Nail, screw, or glue together your form. After you have completed your form, you can decorate the wood by painting, staining, or varnishing it.

4. Place a weed retainer, such as black plastic, down prior to setting your Zen garden mold. Zen gardens receive much of their appeal from their cleanliness. Keeping out weeds is a must for outdoor gardens.

5. Fill the form to the top with sand or gravel. Spread the sand or gravel evenly and as level as possible. For a small desktop garden, you might be able to buy sand in small bags at a local pet shop or aquarium supply store.

6. Select features to add a visually stimulating theme. Ex: old, mossy logs, rocks with interesting colors, shapes or textures. Place them off-center and partially submerged for the best effect. Natural items made of wood, rock and vegetation are best but don’t be afraid to add statues etc. Just don’t clutter it! Think: peaceful and simple.

7. Rake the sand or gravel in long, curving strokes to represent water ripples. You can use a number of patterns to accentuate your garden.

Medicine Wheel

Medicine wheels have been used for Native American religious purposes for centuries. Native culture pays homage to the four cardinal directions: north, east, south and west. A medicine wheel looks somewhat like a wagon wheel. The construction differs by tribe, but in most cases there are four spokes representing the cardinal directions. The east section is planted with yellow plants, the south with red, the west with blue and purple and north with white.

Instructions
Build the Wheel

1
Stand at the edge of the area where the wheel will be built. Count your footsteps across to the opposite side of the area. If the area encompasses 60 steps, than 30 steps would be the center. Place a temporary pole in the ground at the center.

2
Tie the twine securely to the pole and walk away from the pole the number of steps that you took to find the center, which was 30 in the example. Pull the string taut and at 30 steps tie a big knot into the twine. Bring it to the ground and drive a stake into the ground. Continue around placing stakes at the knot while holding the string taut all the way around the center to create the outline of the circle.

3
Place rocks, edge to edge, using the stakes as a guide, to make the rim of the wheel.

4
Check the orientation using a compass. The east section should actually be east. Set rocks to divide the wheel into four sections.

Plant the Wheel

5
Plant banana peppers, yellow wax beans, yellow tomatoes, yellow snapdragons, marigolds, cosmos, evening primrose, arnica, St. John’s Wort, lady’s slipper and nasturtium in the east section.

6
Plant tomatoes, red chili peppers, red salvia, red verbena, dianthus, roses, petunias, bergamot, cardinal flower and begonias in the south section.

7
Plant purple cabbage, petunias, ageratum, iris, blue fescue, lobelia, blue cohosh, coneflower and purple basil in the west section.

8
Plant the north section with white to silver plants. Include phlox, dusty miller, petunias, sweetgrass, white sage, wintergreen and bayberry.

9
Remove the temporary pole in the center of the wheel and replace it with a pot of plants, a tree or a statue.

Tips & Warnings
Before laying the stones and measuring for the wheel turn the ground over and add compost and peat moss to make the soil soft and pliable.

Set taller plants toward the center pole and low-growing plants around the edges.

The medicine wheel is a representation of the circle of life. It is a place of energy, and walking the perimeter of the wheel to offer prayer is a spiritual experience. The sections are representative of air, fire, earth and water or mind, body, emotion and spirit.

Keep the string low on the pole and do not let it move upward as you are marking the perimeter of the wheel, or the wheel will not be round.

The Power of One

“The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. Nature has made a food chain; why can’t we stick to it? Who would protect these animals if we, as superior beings, start hunting them?” – Jadav Molai Payeng, who single-handedly created a 1360 acre forest.

Villa Durazzo Pallavicini

The Villa Durazzo-Pallavicini is a villa with notable 19th century park in the English romantic style and a small botanical garden. The villa now houses the Museo di Archeologia Ligure, and is located at Via Pallavicini, 13, immediately next to the railway station in Pegli, a suburb of Genoa, Italy. The park and botanical garden are open daily.

The estate was begun in the late 17th century by Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi, who established the Giardino botanico Clelia Durazzo Grimaldi at that time. Today’s remarkable park was created by her nephew Ignazio Alessandro Pallavicini after he inherited the property.

The park was designed by Michele Canzio, set designer for the Teatro Carlo Felice, and built between 1840 and 1846. It covers some 97,000 m² of hillside behind the villa. Although recognizably in the English romantic style, the garden is highly theatric, to the point of being organized as a series of scenes forming a play with prologue and three acts (Return to Nature, Memory, Purification). Structures and statues through the garden form focal points to this libretto.

When the park opened in September 1846, on the occasion of the VIII Congresso degli Scienziati Italiani, it quickly gained national fame. In 1928 its current owner, Matilde Gustinani, donated both park and botanical garden to Genoa for use as a public park. Through the remainder of the 20th century, the garden fell into some disrepair, and indeed was threatened in 1972 by construction

of a nearby highway. Its restoration began in 1991, however, in honor of Columbus’ discovery of America. As of 2006 about half of the park is open for visitors.

The park contains two ponds, a dozen notable structures, various statues, and an extensive grotto. The grotto represents a Dantesque Inferno, with walkways and subterranean lake through which the visitor may ascend to Paradise. In former years, visitors could explore the grotto by boat. Structures include a Coffee House in the shape of triumphal arch, Rustic House, Madonna’s Chapel, Mausoleum of the Captain, Temple of Diana, Flower House, Turkish Temple, Obelisk, and Chinese Pagoda.

The park also contains a number of plantings of botanical interest, including mature specimens of Araucaria bidwilli, Cedrus libani, Cinnamomum camphora’, Jubaea chilensis, Notelaea excelsa, Firmiana simplex, Quercus suber,Podocarpus macrophillus, lots of extotic palms and a wonderful stand of some 160 Camellia japonica.

Clearing A Spiritual Space-Smudging

Tradition teaches that each smudging herb is used for a different purpose. So an important aspect of the ritual is finding the right herb for the moment.

* Sage is the most prominent herb and is used to purify and protect one’s living area by removing negative energy.

* Sweetgrass is often burnt after smudging sage to welcome in the positive influences.

* Lavender restores balance and creates a peaceful atmosphere. It also attracts love.

* Rosemary is effective for gaining clarity about perplexing problems.

* Mugwort is celebrated for stimulating psychic awareness and powerful dreams.

* Bay leaf is used to protect against colds and flu.

* Cedar is burnt upon moving into a new home. It works as a purifier and as a way to attract positive energy.

The act of cleansing your space can help you to truly put the past behind you. As the herbal aromas gently enter a room, clearing out accumulated spiritual clutter, you’ll be free you to enjoy your abode as the place of respite it was meant to be.
Everything that happens within your home leaves a trace. The morning after a party, the tired-but-happy revelry from the end of the evening is still in the air; a morning argument is usually hanging around when you come home from work. Focusing your true intention to purify your space with a time-honored method can return a dwelling to its rightful place as your sanctuary. One such cleansing method is known as smudging. Smudging originated as a Native American custom, and the modern practice can reinvigorate your living space. The vital action of smudging is lighting an aromatic bundle of herbs and allowing it to burn away the negative energy that has been collected. You can celebrate a new phase in life by conducting a smudging ceremony, or improve someone’s day by smudging the space around a friend. Offices and work spaces can benefit from smudging as well, allowing clarity of thought and improved productivity.

The essential object for smudging is the herb bundle. It can be purchased or made by hand. Using a match or candle, put the flame to the smudge stick. Then blow or wave it out, allowing the stick to smolder and the aromatic smoke to fill the room. If you don’t have a smudge stick, you can also place loose herbs directly onto burning wood in an indoor fireplace or into a fireproof container with some charcoal. As the herbs begin to burn, the honored method is to use a feather to move the smoke around the person or place you are smudging. You may also use your hands. As you feel the space fill with the herbal scent, take time to consider the parts of your life that need cleansing. Imagine the smoke lifting away all the negative thoughts and emotions around you.