Today I was able to finish up the Zen garden that I have been working on. It was really just the detail left, and adding more bamboo to the fence that I had started last time.

I added horizontal poles in between the ones that were there from the initial build. It just looked too weak before so I wanted to beef up the look of the screen. I think it really worked and made it look just so much better. I’m really happy with it.

The blisters from last week were almost gone, however I certainly noticed them as I made 16 more lashings .

Here’s another close up of one of the many lashings I used. I was really getting good at them by the end of this project.

So all that is left is just to relax and enjoy. Finally some Zen…

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Okay this day was pretty brutal. I must have removed about 15 wheelbarrows of soil out of this garden. Backbreaking work, but extremely rewarding to see the final look. So over the past weeks I have worked to uncover the canvas of this garden, and now finally and I can see it. At this point the outline is now defined, and I have identified the items I want to keep. Also I have located placement for the three main stones. The sand is a little dirty, so it is not as white as it should be. I need a good rain to rinse it clean.

The bamboo in the top right of the photo bothers me a bit because it is located in the sand, and gives me an even number of objects. However its not my main focus right now.

From this angle you can see both mounds of soils are gone (thank goodness).

I now plan to add two bamboo screens to bring interest and contrast againt the green background as well as to hide the door. It has come a long way in a rather short period. I should be able to finish up this weekend. Wish me luck!

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I was contacted recently by someone looking for help to revive and redesign their Zen garden. They had lost the person that had done it before me and had difficulties finding someone to care for the garden. I must admit I was very excited about the idea, and knew that this was something that I had wanted to do for some time. The following pictures are of the garden the first day I saw it.

As you can see the garden was very cluttered and didn’t offer the relaxing feeling of a real Zen garden.

The owner and I agreed that the previous design included too many features and elements. It just has too much going on. I think the most important aspect of the Zen garden is the rakes gravel. With the current design you barely noted the sand.

From this angle you can see how jagged the outside edges of the gravel flowed. It wasn’t smooth and soothing, but instead had hard drastic lines. I could see I would have a lot to do.

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