Feng Shui your garden

For paths and flowerbeds, meandering curves are better than straight lines. As well as being more pleasing to the eye, curves let chi circulate gently, without rushing through the garden and being wasted. They are also protective; Chinese tradition teaches that devils and evil spirits travel in straight lines and can't go around bends!

Protecting the garden
To get the most from your garden's energies, you need to make sure that plenty of good chi enters it from outside, and minimize the amount of harmful chi coming in. Look for any possible sources of problems, particularly 'poison arrows', which produce rushing chi that hits your home violently. If you have any of these problems, use plants or fencing to protect your home.

If you have problems with noise or disagreeable neighbours, you can protect your boundary with bamboo; Phyllostachys and/or Fargesia are the most beneficial and least invasive. Alternatively, you can use what the Chinese call the 'cannon mouth'. Lay some terracotta plant pots on their sides, fixed at an angle and with their mouths pointing at the problem, to bounce harmful chi back out of the garden.

If you want to be subtle about it, you can hide the pots with plants or a rockery. (An added benefit is that hedgehogs, which are traditionally seen as protective animals, like hiding in the pots.)

Doctor's orders

Problem: Your garden is overlooked by a 'poison arrow'.

Remedy: Plant hedges, bamboos or tall trees to screen you from the problem. At the edge of the garden you could add a hedge, or prickly plants such as holly, which act as 'protector warriors'. Another remedy is a wall or fence, but don't build it high or it can isolate your home from its surroundings.

Stirring the dragon's breath
Dragons, the most powerful and lucky animals in feng shui, symbolically live in rolling landscapes. It's a good idea, therefore, to create different ground levels in your garden, like the rounded hills of the dragon's home, to stimulate the 'dragon's breath' (sheng chi), or beneficial chi. Sunken areas, with seating and decorative plants, provide secluded, intimate spaces; they also, in effect, make fences higher and more protective.

Examples of beneficial raised areas include rockeries for alpine plants, and herb gardens near kitchens. Designs like these also fit the ancient Eastern principle that you should never be able to see a garden fully from one vantage point. Ideally, you should be able to journey through your garden, coming across areas with different atmospheres, and with lovely surprises such as sculptures, water features or flowering shrubs. Sunlight and shade can also help to create different moods and energies.

Balance and proportion
In a feng shui garden, 'less is more' (chiao te, chiao ta te). The garden should feel spacious and not at all overcrowded. The plants and other features should be in proportion to each other, and nothing should dominate or overwhelm the space. Always leave the centre of your garden clear, with no large plants, ornaments or sheds.

Whatever you plant or put into the garden should look natural, as though it has been there for a long time. To create extra interest and promote good chi, you need to include a variety of textures, heights and shapes. In feng shui, it's also good practice to place key shrubs, bushes and trees asymmetrically.