9 Feng Shui Garden Secrets For Health & Wellbeing

Feng Shui, the study of how to arrange your environment to enhance your  life, observes that gardens do much more than beautify your home. Gardens  promote your health and well being by inviting the healing energy of  Nature into your personal space. Here are 9 garden Feng Shui tips to  keep in mind as you create your own outdoor paradise:

• Enhance Serenity – To assuage a hectic lifestyle, make privacy a  priority.Create a protective embrace around the sides and back of  your home with appropriate plants that tuck you into your own  intimate “green belt.” Focus on aesthetic ways to privatize even the  smallest spaces. Ornamental trees and flowering vines on balconies or  decks, or evergreen plants placed just so in the yard can turn any space  into a private sanctuary.Pay special attention to planting a protective  landscape that buffers the front of a home located on a busy street,  cul-de-sac, or T- junction.
• Invite Good Fortune – Design the path to your front door that’s at least 36 inches wide.  The generous width symbolizes good fortune, and graciously invites  people to approach your home side-by-side, not single-file. Give the  path a curved or meandering shape, especially when your home has angular  lines. Then highlight it along the way with symbols of welcome such as  special plants, seasonal flowers, and statuary.
• Appreciate Beauty – Create a beautiful view from every window and door. Place  garden embellishments specifically so that you enjoy them from  inside the house.
• Honor Safety & Comfort – Because Feng Shui places much importance on safety and comfort, pay  close attention to lighting your garden. Electric lights with sensors  can be installed so that the garden lights up automatically at night.  Solar lights can also to be used to softly illuminate pathways, patios,  and decks.
• Heal & Rejuvenate – Include Feng Shui’s 5 elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and  Water in your garden design.Your garden takes on a deeply healing and  rejuvenating quality when all 5 elements are included.Obviously,  most gardens begin with an abundance of the Wood element, represented by  plants and wooden or rattan furnishings.The Fire element, which  enhances conversation and relationships, is found in lighting,  fireplaces, barbeques, garden art depicting people and animals,  triangular shapes, and the color red. The Earth elementadds a  reassuring solidity to the garden and is found in brick, tile,  earthenware items, square shapes, earth tones, and the color yellow. The  Metal elementencourages mental clarity, and is expressed in metal  furniture and statuary, rocks, stones, and cement, circular or arched  shapes, and white and pastels.The Water element, which brings a  spiritual quality into a garden, is present in water features,  reflective surfaces, such as glass, crystal, and mirrors, asymmetrical  or free form shapes, and black and dark tones. Combine the 5 elements  according to your own tastes to create a one-of-a-kind Feng Shui garden.
• Encourage Community – Consider creating an outdoor room in the garden. Features  such as a fireplace, gazebo, or pool can anchor a space  that draws people outside, especially when it’s comfortably  furnished. Include plenty of pillows and cushions that can  be conveniently stored in weatherproof trunks.
• Improve Healthy Energy Circulation – When applicable, install gates or open up side yard fences so that  you can easily walk all the way around the house. This enhances a  healthy circulation of energy around your home.
• Organize and De-Clutter – As a holistic art & science, Feng Shui views all  areas of the house and garden as equal in importance. Eye-sores  (indoors and out) are considered unhealthy. Keep storage areas for  trash containers, lumber, tools, compost, and garden  supplies well-organized and maintained.
• Bring Nature’s Healing Energies Inside – The garden can always be brought indoors. If you don’t have an  outdoor garden, design a room with the furnishings, decor, and  houseplants that bring Nature’s healing energies inside.

Terah Kathryn Collins is a best-selling author and the founder of the Western School of Feng Shui®. She is also the originator of Essential Feng Shui®, which focuses on the many valuable applications Feng Shui has in our Western culture while honoring the essence of its Eastern heritage. Her 6 inspirational books on the subject have sold over a million copies worldwide.