An Introduction To Japanese Zen Gardens

This is a Zen or dry garden. It's a garden that is monastic, is there for therapeutic reasons and it's a world in one. The gravel is raked to give the illusion of the ocean and the rocks are mountainous areas or Gods.

To make a garden like this you need bamboo, rocks of the same type (all limestone or granite) and pea shingle-type gravel. All are available from good garden centres or Landscape suppliers.

It's easily constructed by clearing the ground to be nice and flat and to stop weeds coming up, a membranous material laid down with your gravel on top, your rocks positioned and to stop people walking on it, the traditional bamboo which lasts twenty to twenty-five years.