Zen in Your Garden: Creating Sacred Spaces

by Jenny Hendy

Full of colorful, striking photographs and insightful commentary this Zen gardening book is an essential guide to the most serene of Japanese traditional arts.

The Japanese Zen garden is a triumph of simplicity, a space in which balance is emphasized to create a place of stillness and sanctuary. Zen in Your Garden offers readers a comprehensive and practical guide to creating a sacred space for meditation and contemplation. Learn how your garden can stimulate your senses to either energize or soothe you, and discover what type of garden you need, as well as how to convert your existing garden to one designed on Zen principles. Boxed features, illustrated with detailed drawings, show you how to build specific features such as gravel and rock landscapes.

Zen in Your Garden includes beautiful photographs of outstanding gardens from around the world to help you consider the various styles you might wish to work on—rock and gravel; water gardens; shade, moss, and woodland; courtyards; and nature and wildlife gardens. Planting is explored in detail so that you may choose a landscape that has something for all seasons and creates a pleasing form and balance. This book beautifully illustrates and clearly details the many elements of gardening from a Zen perspective and offers you both the creative inspiration and the practical guidance to develop your own.

Zen gardening topics

Genres: Gardening

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Narariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite what I was looking for, the book was very focused on the Zen aesthetic and mindset without many ways to adapt it, either for different environments, different budgets, or small spaces. The pictures were beautiful but often didn't seem to fit what the book was saying very well. There were some instructions for different projects though none were very detailed. I did find some inspirational ideas, with the sections on paths being particularly useful in presenting ideas that might be usable in other situations. Overall, a decent book but probably one for those with more money and/or space.

[Am Y · Rating 1 out of 5]

Suffered from a thorough lack of pictures (despite the claims in the book's description) and way too much redundant, uninformative and ill-written text. With oftentimes only one pictorial example to illustrate a concept, this is not the book to choose if you're looking for variety and inspiration in zen expression applied to garden design.

[Cathay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photographs and advice for depicting rock placement and for stone walkways was very helpful. Elements of nature are woven into the landscape as well as this book - good emphasis.

[Ursula · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good ideas on Zen gardens. Beautiful pictures with some instructions.

[Jocelynne Broderick]

Cool book! I will need to check it out again sometime just to browse.