When it comes to a good Feng Shui garden design, the size of your garden is not the main criterion. It is wonderful to be surrounded by a big, lush garden, but if you only have a small space to work with, you can still create a good Feng Shui vegetable garden design.
To Feng Shui, a flower garden is a great deal easier. It is much easier to say ‘Plant a purple flower here’ than ‘Plant a purple vegetable here’. There are many more choices with flowers. So I was inspired to Feng Shui my own vegetable garden and to help you do the same.
Ultimately where you plant your vegetables depends on many things such as where the sun hits the garden, what was planted there the year before, what will be the best vegetable for your area of the country, etc. That doesn’t mean you can’t incorporate the five elements. A vegetable garden inherently has the elements of Feng Shui already — Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire, but all must be present and in balance in a Feng Shui garden. The universe is made up of these elements working together to create a harmonious, welcoming, space, and you want to reflect that in your garden.
Working with Feng Shui colors is a great way to emphasize various Feng Shui rhythms in your garden. In Feng Shui, color is used according to the five elements theory, and you can bring healing harmony, and joy to your garden by choosing colors that emphasize specific energies, such as the fire energy in the color red, the color of a tomato; or the healing earth element in the color of yellow squash.
In designing your garden, be sure to allow gently curving pathways for chi, or energy, to flow smoothly. Straight lines are rarely present in nature, so use relaxing, flowing shapes and pathways for your feng shui garden. Garden accessories like wind chimes are a wonderful addition to any garden, as their gentle sound creates healing feng shui vibrations in the air. There are a variety of wind chimes on the market, from metal to bamboo, with various symbols, colors, and numbers of strings. While each element of the wind chime design is important, in particular, the sound of the chime is always a deciding factor.
For me what Feng Shui does, if nothing else, is make me examine different aspects of my life by examining the environment, in this case, my garden. I don’t know if putting a particular object in a specific direction can really make a difference, but, the connection I experience from Gaia, Mother Earth, and getting my hands in the dirt grounds me in a way that nothing else seems to.
Never underestimate the healing power of quiet moments of grounding yourself in a garden.
Have any Feng Shui questions? Feel free to contact me at michelle@michellecromer.com and sign up for your Power Color or visit me on Facebook at Michelle Cromer Feng Shui.