Feng Shui Tips for the Garden
For many of us, the garden is the favorite part of our home. It’s a therapeutic place where you can relax, tend to your flowers, have a barbeque and so on. In feng shui, a garden is much more than just trees and shrubs. If your garden, like any other part of the home, has good feng shui, it can do wonders for you and your family, and the reverse is also true.
Most of us have our gardens in front of our home. If you have a small compound in front of your house, even if you hate gardening, keeping the compound neat and tidy is the least that you could do for good feng shui. If your front compound is dirty and filled with junk, the flow of chi that enters into your home will be unhealthy.
Any respectable feng shui practitioner will advise that a water feature will create wonderful chi for your garden. Waterfalls are very popular and if you have one in your garden, make sure that the water is flowing towards the home.
This signifies money luck flowing into your home. Never have a waterfall or water feature where the water flows away from the home. This is bad feng shui, as it resembles wealth luck escaping from the home.
If any of you have the luxury of building a mini artificial stream in your garden, let the stream start from the edge of your garden, flowing towards your home. Fountains in your garden are also excellent wealth energizers.
Water features are only good feng shui for gardens in front of your home. If your garden is in your backyard, do not install any water features there.
Having any water elements behind the house is bad feng shui as it
resembles missed opportunities.
water feature (ponds, swimming pools , waterfalls, or fountain) can improve the feng shui of your garden. Although a water features are great feng shui, you must take note on where you install it. Never install any water feature on the right hand of the garden (right hand as you look out of the door). Although this will bring in lots of wealth luck, it will cause infidelity among lovers and couples in the household.
Another great feng shui tip is to use the green dragon and white dragon formula. In feng shui, the Chinese believe that the environment is governed by four celestial creatures- the green dragon, white tiger, black tortoise and phoenix. We can emulate the elements of the green dragon and white tiger in the garden.
As you look out from the front of your house, the right hand side of the garden represents the white tiger and the left, the green dragon. The left side of your garden should always be higher than the right, so that the green dragon can control the aggression of the white tiger. This can be done by having higher plants and shrubs on the left side of the garden.
Trees and flowers are also wonderful feng shui energizers. They generate a lot of fresh chi that is good for the home. There are however, some trees that are more auspicious than others. The bambo, for instance, is a symbol of good health and longevity. Strong, solid tress like pine trees and oaks are also good feng shui as they represent strength. There are certain trees and plants which are not as auspicious.
Willows are beautiful trees, but their fragile and weak demeanor signifies illness and weaknesses. Cactus or plants with lots of thorns are also not auspicious. Tall slender trees such as the coconut tree or palms are also not favorable. Their long and slender trunks resemble poison arrows that can be harmful for the household.
The trees that you plant should never overwhelm your house. Trees should be proportionate to the compound of your home. They should also be planted on the sides of the gardens and should not be in direct view from the font door.
After all said and done, there is one final tip for your garden. If you have decided to have luscious garden, you must commit to keeping it trim and beautiful. An overgrown garden with lots of weeds and untrimmed plants is extremely bad feng shui as they accumulate stagnant chi.
There is so much you can do to your garden to create good feng shui. Watch out for the next installment of garden feng shui. Meanwhile, happy gardening!
