What is a dry garden?
The Dry Garden (Karesansui Niwa) The Dry (Karesansui) Garden (sometimes erroneously called Zen) is a garden that does not fit the Westerner’s typical image of a garden. Instead of colorful flowers and foliage, it is instead a simple bed of raked gravel, interspersed with a few large rocks and surrounded by shrubs. Essential elements of a Zen garden include carefully placed rocks, raked gravel or sand symbolizing water, and minimal plants like moss or dwarf conifers, all designed to inspire contemplation and serenity.Consider putting your garden in an area you can see from inside your home. Choose a flat site that gets sun or shade, depending on the kind of plants you want to grow. Keep in mind that traditional Zen gardens don’t use many plants. Level the ground for your garden with a rake and remove stones, roots or other debris.White sand and gravel had long been a feature of Japanese gardens. In the Shinto religion, it was used to symbolize purity, and was used around shrines, temples, and palaces. In Zen gardens, it represents water, or, like the white space in Japanese paintings, emptiness and distance. They are places of meditation.Zen gardens are structured around seven guiding principles: Austerity (Koko), Simplicity (Kanso), Naturalness (Shinzen), Asymmetry (Fukinsei), Mystery or Subtlety (Yugen), Magical or Unconventional (Datsuzoku) and Stillness (Seijaku). Your Zen garden should promote most or all of these concepts.
How to get soil to dry quickly?
Mix in a speed-treating agent – Adding a chemical agent such as quicklime or hydrated lime is a fast and efficient way to help reduce the water in your soil. The lime will chemically react in the soil to help dry out overly wet soil. To dry out soil quickly, you can apply hydrated lime to the soil, add compost and then turn the soil thoroughly to aerate it. Adding hydrated lime and compost will help absorb the water in your soil, and turning it all will help distribute the water in the waterlogged soil throughout your garden.