# How to Care for a Zen Garden Using Pea Gravel
Zen gardens, called karesansui gardens in Japan, are an abstraction of nature using pea gravel, rocks and moss to represent water, mountains and grass in a miniature version of nature. The original purpose of karesansui gardens was for meditation, although most people use them for more than that. Caring for the Zen garden is supposed to be relaxing. The pea gravel in the garden covers most of the ground and raking it into sweeping shapes allows time to think and enjoy the peace of the garden around you.
Things You'll Need
- Rake
Instructions
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1
Hold the rake in your hand and step into the Zen garden. The purpose of raking the garden's pea gravel is to make it look like water or grass surrounding the rocks, which are supposed to be mountains.
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2
Run the rake over the pea gravel in a circular motion. Rake the pea gravel around all the rocks in the garden into a circular pattern.
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3
Rake from the edge of the circle and rake a larger circle around the first circle. Rake one circle for each rock in the garden until the circles meet.
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4
Rake the entire Zen garden by following the circles' curves and leave no footprints behind. There should be furrows that represent the land or water left behind in the gravel from the rake.
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1
Rock Garden
- How to Make Fake Rocks for a Zen Garden
- How to Make a Pea Gravel Garden
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- Instructions for Building a Zen Garden
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