[HardDaysKnight]

We have an estimate coming up for a Chinese style garden
with different levels etc. to help bring good energy and
and karma. I was wondering if anyone is familiar with it
and the exact spelling of the term. I googled everything I
could think of and cant seem to find it. Any help or insight
would be greatly appreciated. Sounds like a fun little gig!
Thanks in advance.........Johnny

[Bamboo]

feng shui <<<<<?????????????
pronounced fung shwey

[HardDaysKnight]

Originally posted by Bamboo
feng shui <<<<<?????????????
pronounced fung shwey

Thanks Bamboo! That's it! The client said it but we couldn't
really understand. Now when we go see him we will have a little
backround. Have you, or anyone here installed such a garden?

[Bill Schwab]

they have some weird thought processes....If the front and the back door of the home is lined up, all the prosperity will blow out of the house. If the gable roof is too steep, the people who occupy the home will be living under constant pressures.

If there is a water feature such as a vanishing edge pool, and the edge is installed so the water falls off the edge into a lower pond, all the engery is being drawn from the occupants. If water runs toward the occupants of the home, good will and energy will be carried into the home. Stairs on the front entry must have a little crook in them, because if they are aligned with the front door, bad luck can enter the home and jynx the occupants.

With all due respect, people that follow that crap are nuttier than fruitcakes and in general and real major PIA to work with. There was a Feng Shui surge a year or so ago, and every contractor I know who built one went over budget on time without compensation, and had a very difficult time getting paid at the points of progress that were made.

Good luck with your energy garden!

[Bamboo]

have you listened to the savage nation lately? lol
ok here is the deal. you need to have a little love element in the right hand area as you enter the garden.
Its a bunch of bs !!
bs your way through it and you will be ok.
There are actual landscapers/ designers that can sell this and hey the more power to them if you can bs your skills talents or whatever, you are a true salesman.
look on the web and see the thousands of books on the subject. the real beauty is there isnt a set god or guru in this. If you can sell a feng shuei (feng shui) garden my hat is off to you.
DONT FORGET THE POND!!! and the koi
put some showas or some Kohaku in there. lol good luck!!!!!

[Mac]

Dont get me started on zenn gardens. sand and rocks that you supposedly meditate on for hours on end? I think i would fall asleep before i derived special meaning form the sand and rock. Special training to simply rake the sand? Not my idea of beauty in a landscape.

[NeedCoffee]

There are some basic rules...like 4,000 of them and 4 or 5 interpretations for each. So, go to town with it! Don't forget the tea house.
Just make sure your path to the main entrance is curved and not straight or you'll loose your ch'i (energy).
On a more serious note, I would get some Asian garden pictures and try to replicate some of those features.
Cheers,
ET

[Greensmith]

*greensmith makes note to never take a feng shui design on*

[Stonehenge]

Whoa, easy does it Bill.

I think Feng Shui is rooted in solid design principles, and if you follow the most basic of those principles, you'll end up with a nice scape. Don't get me wrong - moving a tree to increase prosperity or painting a certain color to improve health is out there, and not something I subscribe to. But just having a handle on what they call the "5 Elements" (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal) will get you a long way toward creating a Feng Shui inspired garden.

And the properties of each of those elements is really pretty intuitive; having the water element in a design means using blues and blacks and curves and is supposed to inspire a contemplative mood, fire uses reds and oranges and acute angles and corners (ala flame) and is supposed to inspire action, lively conversation and maybe public status (like the red power tie of years gone by).

In the end I think any good salesman needs to have at least a mild acquaintance with whatever the latest thing is, just to do a good job selling. Speaking the "language" will go a long way toward inking the deal.

On a side note, if you want a good book for quickie reference, check out Feng Shui in 10 Simple Lessons (see suggested reading to check it out at Amazon.

[r schipul]

I've looked at two feng shui gardens and both people where sort of out there. As far as I know a feng shui inspired garden doesn't have to look anything like a 'chinese garden' with limited plants, with a lot of gravel and rocks representing water, earth and sky.
Feng shui is simply design principals which can be applied to any style of garden or architecture. A cottage garden can follow feng shui principles just as a chinese style garden can. As for Feng shui, there must be something to it. Have you ever noticed the oldest people in the world all come from Asia where it's not uncommon to live into your hundreds? It's all the curved walks and walls!

[Bill Schwab]

The most frustrating part of the mix with installing Feng Shui is in fact the people who live in the house. Not all, but usually, they come from the touchy feely side of life. With that, you can be working on the project, and, it is very common to be asked to stop so the owners can meditate before the design is actually installed. And the changes come. "We really got a feeling of insecurity with this brick" as they point to the one at the bottom of the fireplace which has been built a week before. We are working on Coronado island at a home doing a water garden and glass bridge. As we were cracking the driveway out the lady next door, who is very Feng Shui came over and peacefully asked us to stop because it was upsetting her chi. After I explained, with the homeowner we are working for, who happens to be a retired concrete mason, that it was impossible, she took a concrete gargoyle off her flower beds and carried it upstairs and pointed it at our job (the house we are working at). She hopes bad things will come of us as we work on this project....Give me a break!
In yet another unrelated instance, an owner who wanted us to install a meditation space, and an medicine wheel (a place where they stand around and chant) stopped the work, only to have his swami come to the job and "train\' our employees to be in the proper mindset. It's California right? We declined, moved on, and, still have not gotten paid for those 2 days we were there....

As shown and written in books, these gardens are fun, very attractive, and one of those things every landscaper would love to sink their teeth into. The book only shows the picture of the garden and not the tale of how the garden came about.

So, my personal thoughts are that if you take this challenge on, keep your change order tablet handy, make sure if they need you to stop that you get paid for that stop, and pencil extra time to compete the project, chances are you will need it.. It's all about the production and the money along with the end result, and your client needs to be made well aware of that.

[VoodooChile]

a primer:
http://www.soyouwanna.com/site/syws/...fengshui2.html

[Mark Oomkes]

So Bill, we can all assume you aren't the touchy, feely kind of person?? I never would have guessed that. lolol

[GLAN]

Personaly

I don't see Feng Shui working well in a garden. Not in the proper sense. But you can have the elements. Which is the underlying prinicpal of any and all asian gardens.

[Bamboo]

Yin and Yang are not the names of twin pandas. Well, actually, they probably are, but that's not the Yin and Yang we're talking about. Yin (black) and yang (white) are the harmonizing factors of the universe: opposing energies like day and night. Here's a picture:



I guess its like the pipe bill was talking about again here. Mabye thats why m.j. is so weird?