Yorkton and District Horticultural Society

What is a Zen garden?  Originally a garden composed of strategically placed rocks and gravel, it is a place that is serene and will soothe the mind.  The idea of Zen is to free the mind of distractions and focus and discover things about self through meditating.  The quiet and stark design of Japanese gardens beautifully facilitates that frame of mind.  Plants were deliberately not the main focus of this type of garden, and the plants that were used were very restrained.

In these tiring and troubling days, we could probably all benefit from a Zen garden!  Some gardeners might expand on the idea and create a Zen garden by use of foliage plants only, leaving the bright and happy blooms of flowering plants to another corner of the garden.  Ideal foliage plants would be hostas, bergenia, daylilies, sedums, and creeping herbs such as thyme.

Yes, some of these plants do have blooms, but they are for a limited time, and once the blooms are done, the leaves are very architectural and beautiful.  Imagine a corner of your yard planted with elegant hosta, the sweeping leaves of daylilies, the leathery broad leaves of bergenia, and thyme quietly surrounding a small stone lantern.  So easy, and so serene!

Think about such a planting project for spring.  And if you don’t have a garden, try it with foliage plants in a grouping of containers of different sizes, accented with small ornaments, rocks, driftwood, or lanterns.

Peace to you!

By Debbie Hayward

“Learn to be silent. Let your mind listen and absorb.” – Pythagoras

“Everything you do can be done better from a place of relaxation.”- Stephen C. Paul

“You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” – Timber Hawkeye        

“Where there is peace and meditation, there is neither anxiety nor doubt.”- St. Francis of Assisi

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