Customer Reviews

The New Zen Garden: Designing Quiet Spaces

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This book is itself a work of art, the best I've ever seen in the field. The photographs convey the quiet, peaceful, beauty of small Zen gardens so well, that it is a joy to look at. Mr. Cali's text clearly introduces and explains both the historical background and the philosophical/aesthetic concepts behind Zen gardens. The traditional techniques to create your own garden space, large or small, are explained clearly enough to give anyone the confidence to create even a tiny oasis of natural peace within their home environment. This is best book on zen gardens to come out in a long time. Highly recommended.

This book in itself is literally a work of art. The book is a beautiful. Like Zen ......the book points the way to a modern Zen garden. The colored photos, the text, the black and white photos, the plans, the sketches, the examples, the details, the composition are as perfectly organized as a high order Zen garden. This is the Zen garden book I had been looking for. Joseph Cali does an excellent job of walking you thru the process of designing a garden. He starts with a plan and then does something very few authors/designers accomplish in the western world..........he promotes garden design thru..........intuition. I love it. He shows you how to put a plan together that "responds" logically to the site and then he advises the reader that while you are actually building the garden, stop and...........listen to what should happen while in the process of creating the garden! Go with what "feels" right. This book is only 88 pages long. Again this in itself is symbolic of the Zen way; simple, pure and free of the particular. If you purchase this book, be sure to study the list of plants and the bibliography.

I ended up buying a number of books on this subject when I decided to create a zen garden in my backyard. This was my favorite, and it provided a number of ideas. It also is a good source of providing instructions on how to do it yourself. I also liked the modern twist on traditional gardens that were featured in here.