Sand As A Garden Design Element
Following both the practical need to produce food for the table and also the great traditions of European art and landscape design, gardens in Western civilization concentrate almost exclusively on providing a habitat for living plants (and occasionally fungi), perhaps with design support from architectural elements involving stone, wood and water. The influence of Zen Buddhism has made room for an alternative approach in some Eastern civilizations, most notably the Japanese. A Zen-inspired dry landscape (pebble or sand) garden could introduce a note of tranquillity in your life and an element of unusual interest in your garden.
Just as there are many different approaches to gardening in the West, from the grand formal style to the mixed media palette of the cottage garden, so too there is a range of approaches to what are variously described as “sand”, “rock” or “Zen” gardens. Many Japanese garden plans incorporate plants, water (as ponds or waterfalls), structures (such as bridges or lantern stands) and large rocks. The advice offered here follows the approach of architect and artist Leonard Koren, who suggests that the real value of the sand garden is antithetical to the effortless growth dynamic of plants. Its value is in the deliberate control of forms imposed by the gardener. Even rocks, often strategically placed landscape elements in Zen gardens, can assume too much importance, says Koren, and force the underlying statement made by the sand or pebble base into the background.
Zen gardens can be any size – you can even get table-top models! A practical minimum size for the home garden might be six foot square. It should be square or rectangular in shape, and oriented on a north-south axis if rectangular. Site preparation involves three stages. First, you want to be sure your garden is not invaded by weeds growing up through the sand. To prevent this you can spray the site with a systemic herbicide and then lay weed mat; or you can remove the top few inches of soil before laying the weed mat. Second, you want the sand or pebbles to stay within the confines of your garden or landscaping plans. If you excavated the site, you already have a pit to hold the garden and just need some kind of edging. Alternatively, your landscape professional can supply you with an attractive boundary in a suitable material of your choice that will retain the garden’s materials. The last stage is choosing the viewing point: a Zen garden is designed to be viewed from a single, fixed viewing point over a period of time. Decide where you wish to station the bench from which viewers will allow the patterns in your garden to have their soothing effect.
Original zen gardens were made from crushed white or light grey granite. You can choose alternatives – crushed limestone or the crushed shell and flint sold as poultry grit are suitable. The individual particles that make up the material can be of different size, depending on the degree of coarseness you require. Anything from fine sand of 0.25mm particle size to granite chips up to 14mm has its use. The larger sizes will hold a pattern longer against the action of wind and rain. Choosing “sand” of a lighter color enables the landscaping contractor or designer to make more effective use of shadow. You may also wish to have areas in which you use larger elements – pebbles of up to two centimetres. Once you have the material within the confines of the garden you can begin to arrange it.
The art of the Zen garden is in the placement of its components and in the patterns formed by raking the sand in various patterns. You can use an ordinary garden rake, but for the best effect you will want a Zen rake, which has its tines at appropriate spaces to gain the best effect from the raking. Patterns include whirls suggestive of the sea, curves to represent currents, spirals, zigzags and straight lines. The interaction of materials of various grades and of neighboring patterns creates a number of different effects. You can also build up sections of the garden into mounds, or create dips in the surface elsewhere. You can create – and this is a large part of the attraction of the dry landscape garden design – an almost unlimited combination of patterns on a three dimensional plane. Whenever you wish, you can pick up your rake and create a new view, returning to your viewing bench to let the pattern speak to you.
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