5 STEPS TO MAKE YOUR OWN ZEN GARDEN

Hailing from the peaceful, beautiful islands of Japan, Zen gardens are the perfect meditative spaces to add to your home. They provide a place of refuge from the chaos of everyday living and can be created even in the most restrictive of spaces.

A Zen garden can span anything between acres of land to a miniature that you can fit on your worktable. The dimensions are completely up to you and space you have to work with. This makes it the perfect addition to your home, especially if you feel like you’d like a safe haven but don’t have a lot of room to work around.

Coming straight from IKEA’s design masters, here are five simple steps to make your own Zen garden at home:

1. Make a Mould

Once you’ve decided upon the scale of your garden – whether it is your whole backyard or just the corner of your worktable – create a mould with the appropriate materials to contain the sand or gravel which will form the base of your Zen garden. At a pinch, you can even buy some flat storage boxes or cartons from IKEA and use them as a base to start with.

2. Place a Weed Retainer

The absolutely clean look of a Zen garden is crucial to its aesthetic, so having weeds grow in your gravel is a total no-no. Place a weed retainer, such as a sheet of plastic, before filling in your mould with sand.

3. Fill in Your Mould

Fill your mould to the brim with sand or gravel, as evenly and levelly as possible. Remember that neatness is crucial to the overall look of your garden.

4. Decorate with Select Features

Now it’s time to bring your garden to life! Pick the elements you would like to place inside your garden – mossy logs, smooth rocks, stones with interesting colours, shapes or textures, or even tiny figurines. Just remember not to over-clutter it and to have a lot of empty spaces – peaceful and simple is the goal.

If you’re working with an outdoor space, you can even consider adding a water element to it – a little pond, a tiny fountain, or maybe even a birdbath.

5. Rake the Sand

An essential feature of a Zen garden is raked patterns in the sand or gravel. These are reminiscent of peaceful ocean waves and add to the serenity of the atmosphere. The best part is that you can change these as often as you like.

Now that you have your own Zen garden, you’re ready to experience some peace and quiet. Let us know how it goes!