How To Feng Shui Your Garden (Beginners Guide)

What is feng shui?

The Chinese Words "Feng" and "Shui" are literally translated to mean "wind" and "water". The idea behind feng shui is that everything in life is connected and it explores how to create balance in the natural world. Most of the time this is relating to the rooms in your home, but there is no reason why you can't apply some of these rules to your garden too.

Why should I feng shui my garden?

Feng Shui doesn't only create balance in the natural world, but it can also create balance within yourself. Correctly placing the right things in your garden will help to promote wellbeing and bring positivity into your life.

Where do I start?

There are four basic concepts in feng shui and we are going to explain how to put each and every one of these into action in your very own garden. But it is very important to be happy with where everything is placed within your space, if you are unhappy with the placement, then no matter how much you follow the concepts of feng shui, the area will not emit positivity.

The five elements of feng shui are water, earth, metal, wood and fire. Their correct presence in your garden space will ensure that energy is balanced and will help you feel more positive. The perfect placement of these elements will be highlighted in the next section. But here are some ideas of what could be placed in your garden and where for each of these elements and associated colours, shapes and areas

Fire Position – South, Southwest, Center, Northeast Colours – Red, Orange, Yellow, Purple and Pink Shapes – Triangles & Stars Items – Firepit, Barbecue, Candles, Fairy Lights	Wood Position – East, Southeast, South Colours – Green and Brown Shapes – Rectangles Items – Furniture, Garden Bridge, Shed, Plants
Water Position – North, East, Southeast Colours – Blue, Black Shapes – Waves, Curves Items – Fountains, Ponds, Bird Baths, Mirrors	Metal Position – West, Northwest, North Colours – White, Grey, Silver Shapes – Circles Items – Wind Chimes, Garden screen, Furniture

Earth
Position – Southwest, Northwest, West, Northeast
Colours – Natural Colours e.g. Cream, Beige, Taupe
Shapes – Squares
Items – Sculptures, Soil, Plant Pots, Sand

The Bagua Map

'Bagua' literally translated means 'eight symbols'. The bagua map is the feng shui energy map, comprising of 8 life circumstances, with you situated in the center of it, representing your overall health and wellness. The idea is to focus on up to three of the areas which are important to you in your life currently. Each of these areas also have a corresponding colour, shapes, season, number and element.

Improve the energy in these areas by incorporating our feng shui suggestions. For example, if you would like to encourage wealth, place a garden bridge in the area of your garden which is furthest East.

The Command Position

The command position is the place in a room or area which encourages optimum energy flow and makes you feel good. This is generally the position which is diagonal from and furthest away from the door. So ideally, you should try and place your main piece of garden furniture in this location. If this is not possible in your space, you should try to place your furniture so that you can see the door/gate.

Use of Colour

Any decorator will tell you that colour is so important for setting the scene of a room, red colours can symbolise passion and neutral colours are bright and airy. Colour is what the eyes perceive at a result of the way it reflects or emits light, and because of this, colour is seen as energy in feng shui. Different colours hold different energy qualities which relate to each of the five elements. So when you are figuring out which life circumstances you would like to encourage, you should also focus on the colours which encourage the correct energy.

We know it can be tricky to get started with something like this but here are some examples of what you may want to do to encourage some events or correct energy in your lives. It's a good idea to have our guide for introducing the five feng shui elements in your garden handy to help you along.

Fertility
The bagua areas which fertility will come under are family, children and possibly health, meaning the elements which you would want to focus on are wood, metal and earth. So for example you may set up your garden with a garden swing in the furthest point east in your garden and introduce some windchimes in the west, and plant some white roses in the northeast. It is important not to overclutter your garden with items, otherwise this will completely defeat the purpose of setting up your garden for optimum relaxation.

Anxiety
The bagua area which you will want to focus on to relieve anxiety is mainly health which corresponds to the element earth. So ensuring you have positive earth energies in the southwest, northeast, northwest and west of your garden will help to bring calm to your life. So I would maybe focus on introducing some square stone sculptures, and potted plants in these areas.

New Job
In encouraging energy for a new job, you would definitely be focusing on the career bagua area, meaning the water element (which is my personal favourite). Introducing a pond or water sculpture into the north part of your garden will encourage a new career as well as blue or black garden accessories such as stones, flowers or sculptures.

Hopefully this gives you a place to start when it comes to feng shui in your garden. Spread the positivity!