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Feng
Shui Tip:
"Hang
wind chimes outside your front door for good Feng Shui."
SPRING
TIME - FENG SHUI GARDENING
By
Eloise Helm
Springtime
is almost here and it is time to plan and start your Feng
Shui garden. There are several different types of gardens,
with one to suit every personality. Your Kua number with
your direction and color should be used with your garden
planning. It is important to have an area for entertaining
or a place just to sit and relax after a hard day’s
work regardless of your Kua number and direction. If you
can place your bench or swing in the garden facing your
overall harmony, you feel more in tune with God and the
universe. The Japanese and Chinese have known for years
the importance of having a relaxing atmosphere to sit
quietly, meditate, and relax in. There is a saying that
goes, when you are in nature, you are in the presence
of God. How true this is.
It
is important to vary a garden regardless of what type
you choose. Flowers for borders, fruit trees, vegetables
and a patio or terrace with stones, statues, fountains,
and benches to balance the five elements, (water, wood,
fire, earth, and metal) are essential. It is very important
to have balance in a setting for one to feel overall harmony
in their surroundings.
If
you have a need to redo or restyle your garden, make a
rough sketch, design the main elements you plan to use.
Mark the position of the house and the fixed boundaries,
and then allocate approximate areas for beds, borders,
a lawn, pots, statues, fountains, patios, or whatever
else is required for balance. Before drawing up the final
plans, go over the site carefully, visualizing how it
will look from the paper layout to the actual yard or
garden space.
It
is also important to access what type of climate you life
in. You have to figure in the rainfall, temperature, and
sunshine hours, as well as details, such as early frost
conditions. Also, note which direction your garden faces
and what part receives the most sun and shade areas. If
you have large trees, the type of plants to be placed
in the shade area is important for growth and appearances.
Make the most of the climate by growing plants that enjoy
the given conditions of your area.
When
planting your garden take into consideration the time
it takes the planting to be effective. Plants grow, mature
and decline at different times, for example, trees live
much longer, than flowers and some shrubs and hedges.
Peonies live for many years and are considered by the
Chinese to be very lucky for happy relationships, so if
your area is conducive for growing peonies, be sure to
have an abundant of peonies in the southwest section of
the garden, as this is the area to activate for good successful
happy relationship. Other such delphiniums are short lived.
Be sure to add structures such as walls, fountains, waterfalls,
rock gardens, borders and statues as they have an immediately
effect within the garden. Try to work with the natural
conditions as much as possible, such as the changing levels
of the garden, terraces, stepped beds, waterways, and
good overall views of the garden. Wooded ground cover
plants and bulbs can be used to colonize shaded banks
and provide beautiful color. Review your garden by making
a list of the long-lived plants you have. Note the condition
of the shrubs, hedges, and perennial plants and work out
the renovation that is required. Indicate what the conditions,
their orientation and replace or prune accordingly. Always
clear out any dead plants before they have a chance to
spread. Any kind of dead plants are bad Feng Shui. Prepare
and plan which plants and color to modify.
By
cleaning out clutter and placing the elements in the right
location, you create good Feng Shui There are many variations
of style for creating a unique design for your personal
taste that blends with your Kua number and personal color
scheme. Balance and harmony are very important and creating
a setting with the scale of the space has to be considered.
This can be quite difficult at times because plants change
in size and shape as they grow. The height and spread
and growth rate of plants have to be taken into consideration
when planning your garden. Proportion is important as
you can make a garden seem longer by establishing a long
axis and then accentuating it with tall plants in the
foreground, grading down to shorter ones along the axis.
In a long narrow garden, breaking the length will improve
the proportion as well as making it more mysterious. A
nice accent is a trellis, statue, or fountain that brings
in a gentle break from the long narrow space, and makes
it more inviting. Colors also offer a distance sense;
bright bold colors shorten a distance while cooler colors
appear to recede.
Once
the design of the garden has been determined now comes
a more detailed planning. Plants are the most important
features of a garden. They bring style, character scents,
and changing scenes from season to season. However, your
garden also needs elements such as walls, walkways, and
previous mentioned elements, and you still have enough
space to use plants in interesting ways. Plants are used
to balance and soften hard features and should be used
as an integral part of the design. Most gardens are designed
on plants as the dominant feature, however in order to
create balance you must have other features, such as walk
ways with trellis, fountains stones, statues, benches,
with both clay and wooden pots to create interest and
balance
An
Introduction to
Feng Shui
By
Eloise Helm
A
Feng Shui expert uses a variety of exterior and interior
design and decorating techniques to harness and redirect
this "ch'i energy". This "ch'i" energy
improves the bodily "ch'i" to create good health
and good fortune. Ch'i enters a house, room, office or
business through its main door and then circulates around
the room. In order to initiate the effective flow of this
energy, Feng Shui principles need to be employed.
A
person's birthdate determines the flow of energy and one's
best direction. After finding the person's best direction
, the Feng Shui consultant has the knowledge to decide
what must be done to balance the yin and yang in the home
or office. When this is accomplished, a person feels completely
at ease in their surroundings.
The subject of Feng Shui is actually far more profound
than the popular belief that it is a kind of mystical
interior design. It is the art and science of living and
working in the right environment. Feng Shui is concerned
with the flow and circulation of vital energy called "ch'i."
and is the interplay of the yin and yang within the five
elements. Feng Shui is the intertwining between people,
places and the interactions of energies. The universe
is a vast field of energy. Feng Shui is the study of this
energy and how it moves through the universe and affects
us directly and indirectly.
As you study Feng Shui, you will begin to appreciate what
it means to merge the elements, move energy and feel the
universe. Once you know the value of Feng Shui you will
wonder how you ever lived without it. You will feel more
alive than you ever thought possible. It is my wish that
you achieve personal success by creating an environment
that helps you.
An
Introduction on How it Works
All life is based on dualism or opposites, positive and
negative, male and female, light and darkness. Yin and
yang are in an ever changing state. Where yin ends, yang
begins. Yin is winter, yang is summer. Everything in the
universe is part yin and part yang. The yin and yang together
constitute the Philosophical Tao. Yin and yang help balance
one's life. With too much yin, there is too much stillness
and quiet.
Too
much yang brings about imbalance, thus creating bad luck.
Our physical environment is continuously changing, and
consequently we have to change with the passing of time.
It
happened in Three Weeks!
In December, 1999 I did a feng shui in Silicon Valley
for a large soft ware company with 25,000 square foot
of space with 35 employees. The Kua numbers of the three
men who owned the company were compatible. We moved
the Sales Manager's office to another part of the building
and rearranged one office all together. The office we
worked on the most belonged to one of the owners so
we rearranged his office altogether. He was sitting
with his back to the window in his worst direction so
we rearranged his desk to face his best direction, brought
in more green plants and replaced his L-shaped desk
with a regular desk with feng shui measurements. Three
weeks later he reported to me, the company could not
fill all the orders that were coming in.
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