This article will show you how to create your perfect Feng Shui garden with tips on good and bad Feng Shui plants! Plus, where to place your feng shui plants in the home.
I’ve been tending to my feng shui garden lately in an attempt to keep it alive with healthy Yang energy or positive, healthy Chi. This is a pursuit that, admittedly, is more suited to the summer months. However, I do try to keep wild and unruly weeds at bay all year round.
Flowers that are obscured by weeds, overgrown lawns and hedges, rotten leaves and tree stumps, piles of grass cuttings, dead plants and rubbish left lying on the ground will impede chi flow to and from your home and create an overriding sense of doom and gloom.
In Feng Shui, plants are said to represent the element wood (a life giving element that oozes Yang energy). You’ll, therefore, want to balance the right type of plants or Yang energy with Yin elements, such as shady areas that offer protection from the midday sun.
Although plants in Feng Shui generally represent Yang energy and need a fair amount of sunlight to flourish, some plants are naturally Yin plants and grow in the shade. These include ferns (Asplenium scolopendrium), hostas, hellebore and woodland cyclamen. You are ultimately striving for Feng Shui balance in the garden with taller bushes and leafy trees giving way to low lying flower beds and shrubs.
Matching Feng Shui plants to your specific soil type and climatic conditions is also an important factor in getting the balance right in the perfect feng shui garden. Try to ensure that soil is well aerated or turned over and avoid it becoming waterlogged or overrun with ants and other insects. If you do have waterlogged soil try adding sand to stabilise it.
Generally speaking, the most popular feng shui plants are those with round, heart-shaped, thick and succulent looking leaves. Plants that flower and provide fruit are also favoured in Feng Shui as are well established plants that indicate longevity, for example, evergreens (which don’t shed their leaves in winter).
Let’s take a more detailed look at what most Feng Shui practitioners recommend as good feng shui plants that give off nourishing chi.
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