Building My Zen GardenKieran Egan had a fantasy. Inspired by a visit to a friend's miniature Zen garden on a balcony in Nagoya, he returned home determined to build his own Japanese garden. Like many men his age, with kids grown up and moved away, he was ready to tackle something new -- and tackle was the right word. Even before he began, he had to spend days hacking at the overgrown thicket where his garden would be. At night, dreaming of roots with nothing to do but grow, he thought less about Zen masters than about Dorothy Parker, who observed, "Every year, back comes spring, with nasty little birds yapping their fool heads off and the ground all mucked up with plants." In spite of the running conflict between Zen philosophy and his own rather slapdash methods, he succeeded in creating "a treat for the eye and spirit." Like Michael Pollan's A PLACE OF MY OWN, BUILDING MY ZEN GARDEN will appeal to men, and to women as a gift for men. In these prosperous times, when men of the baby-boom generation are often looking for something new, building a Zen garden could very well be it -- even if, after reading and laughing at the author's adventures, they never build one themselves. |
Contents
Introduction | 3 |
one The fence the quince and the black bamboo | 14 |
two Building the pond | 50 |
three The bog the stream and the waterfall | 72 |
seven Framing the teahousestudy | 153 |
eight Inhabiting the teahousestudy | 191 |
Common terms and phrases
alcove asked bags balcony bamboo basalt began black bamboo bought Brendan building cedar Chuang Tzu chunk color compost heap couple cover decided deer ferns digging edge fence ferns filter finished fish floor front goldfish gravel green ground hammer hole imagined inches insulation Japanese garden Jarrah trees joists Kieran Egan kind landscape supply lawn layer liner looked lumberyard Moby Rock moss garden moving nails needed paint pavers pea-gravel perhaps phoned pieces pile pine plants plastic plywood pond posts problem pulled pump quince raccoons raised garden realized rear roots sand screws seemed shrubs side soffits soil space spade stain stones stream strips T. S. Eliot tatami mats teahouse teahouse/study things thought took tossed tree trim trying wabi-sabi wanted water hyacinth waterfall wheelbarrow wood Zen garden