How to Feng Shui Your Garden?

As a part of our living environment, the garden is common to many houses. It is so cozy to enjoy the tranquil and comfortable environment created by the sunshine and plants in the garden. Nowadays, the garden design is a fashion providing us the high-quality life. The garden Feng Shui, however, affects our fortune, thus an element not to be ignored. Let's check Feng Shui principles for the garden in terms of its design and layout:

A Garden Shall Have Water
Water is highly regarded in Feng Shui and it has the effect of generating prosperity. Water is also very important in the constitution elements of a garden because it plays an irreplaceable role in terms of recruiting wealth, importing air, enlightening wisdom, nourishing life or improving vitality. It is better to design the garden near the water, such as at the bend of a river or lake. In addition, the water shall be clear rather than muddy or dead, so as to gather Qi for the prosperity of people and wealth.

A garden shall be big enough to avoid the limitation of layout, so the role of water can be fully played. Generally, the garden shall have a square or round fountain, pond or swimming pool. Building a little pond in the garden to breed fish is a good choice. For the convenience of cleaning, the courtyard shall not apply the design of deep fountain, pond or swimming pool, or it will be difficult to clean the water but easy to accumulate mephitis, which will affect the Feng Shui. The shallow water is easy to clean and you just need to breed a few small fishes inside and keep the water dripping continuously for the auspicious meaning of making a fortune where there is water.

In principle, the water shall be located at the prosperous direction of the building rather than the opposite. This direction, however, shall be identified by a professional Feng Shui master and it cannot be explained in a few words.

Fence
A house with good Feng Shui shall be able to gather Qi and guard against wind. Therefore, an open garden without fence does not have this effect, thus will attract evil spirit. On the contrary, a garden with fence can resist the invasion of evil spirit and make the family prosperous and lucky.

The front fence can block the evil spirit: the external evil spirit generally comes to the front door. If there is a fence in the front courtyard, the evil spirit will be blocked temporarily and have most of its ominous property reduced. The courtyard gate and the front door shall not be located on the same straight line to avoid the evil spirit marching into the house; after the circuitous twists and turns, the evil spirit will become the auspicious one bringing good luck to the family.

Fence  Height: of course, the higher fence plays a better role in blocking the evil spirit but it also influences the ventilation, especially the front fence. If it is higher than the front door, it will block the air inflow and lead to the dilemma of air stagnation. Therefore, the fence shall have the moderate height.

Shape
A garden shall be in square rather than triangle, trapezoid or concave-convex, which is ominous. In terms of Feng Shui, the triangle, trapezoid or concave-convex shape will be attacked by the direct evil spirit, leading to the declined fortune, bad luck and wealth loss.

Path
In building Feng Shui, the path means the fake water which plays similar role with water. Therefore, the design of garden path shall follow the same rule of water planning. At the same time, the path shall not face the building directly. If the situation cannot be avoided, however, the impacted place shall be planted with trees to solve the problem.

Statues
It is common to see all kinds of statues in gardens. The Yi-ology principles shall be applied in the sculpture planning. For example, putting a horse sculpture in the water is inappropriate because the horse belongs to fire in five elements, so putting it in water will lead to water restricting fire and water extinguishing fire, thus bringing a series of side effects. Putting a tiger sculpture in the courtyard is also inappropriate because tiger means hurt and the sculpture will lead hurt to the family.

Rockery
As the saying goes, "hill blesses family number while water blesses wealth". Hill plays an important role in Feng Shui. It is feasible to build a rockery in the courtyard for the prosperity of family number but its layout has strict rules:
1. Direction: north, northeast and west are the auspicious directions while southeast, south and southwest are the ominous directions which shall not have a rockery.
2. Shape: the rockery shall be round and smooth and avoid grotesque-shaped rocks and disorderly sharp corners; otherwise it will have more disadvantages than advantages.

Avoid the Over-paving of Pebbles
The pebble paved ground is common to the courtyard. This design is fine if the garden is big enough or if it is far away from the house. If it is near the house, however, the design is poor because the over-paving of pebbles in the garden shall be avoided in Feng Shui. The over-paving of pebbles always leads to the strange shape and the loss of Yang in the garden due to the heavy Yin of pebbles. In this way, the house will become a decadent and isolated place harmful to the owner and male offspring.

Plants
Plant is one of the design elements in the family garden. The planting of Feng Shui plants in the garden has strict rules and requires the consideration of space size, planting location, vegetation selection and so on. What are the proper Feng Shui plants for the family garden? Let's check the planting principles of courtyard plants here: Feng Shui Garden Plants