Feng shui can be beautifully applied to any outdoor space, whether it is a garden, patio or a balcony. In doing so we create a sacred and pious place for ourselves — an oasis of tranquillity where we can reconnect with our natural state of serenity. Today, we will learn how to align our outdoor spaces with the cosmic energy, how to enhance the flow of chi or prana into our homes, connecting our inner and outer worlds in perfect harmony.

No house is complete without healthy plants. Keep the northeast quadrant of your garden relatively open and install a water feature in the area to attract prana. Block the southwest corner to prevent the prana from escaping. Southeast is the ideal place for bonfires and barbecues. This area is also excellent for a kitchen garden. For children, the northwest is the perfect play area where their swings and slides can be placed. Try to adopt an uncluttered approach to your garden design.

Unchecked dense foliage will obstruct the flow of energy, and chaos of competing blooms will cause prana to stagnate. Comfortable chairs arranged in a tranquil part (northeast) of your garden or outdoor space will provide you with somewhere to rest and absorb the soothing energies of nature.

You must create a boundary wall to safeguard yourself at the outset from the negative influences of the surrounding buildings and environment. For example, an electric transformer of your neighbour immediately to the northeast of your property would for sure block the inflowing of energy. Similarly a deep dug pond of your neighbour towards southwest of your property will drain away energy out of your premises.

Your boundary wall can be made from wood, stone, fence or natural hedging. If you opt for iron railings surrounding your home, then diffuse their strong negative energy fields by growing a flowering vine. The boundaries of your garden should allow the chi or prana to enter the northeast, the area that is connected with God’s blessings and retain it with a tall boundary and a high tree with dense foliage in the southwest. Other strong features, such as rock garden should also be placed in the southwest where they are supported by earth. Always have plenty of delicate beech hedges and flowering shrubs of different colours with a bird house and a bird bath in the northeast. You can also adjust the heights of your fences and boundaries to manipulate the energy flow by keeping them lower in the northeast and higher in southwest.

The main gateway of your home is the royal opening to the property. You could grow flowering climbers over and around your gateway to create a welcoming effect and attract nourishing life force into your property. Any undesirable feature that obstructs the inflowing energy like a telegraph pole or a dead end road can be countered by installing a religious icon or a spiritual symbol or a simple light above the gate to ward off bad energy.

Driveways and pathways provide channels for chi and prana — they direct the energy towards the home as well as distribute it throughout the garden or the open space. Any obstructions, such as unkempt or overgrown bushes and withering plants or risky and broken paving stones will all impede the inflowing chi. Enhance and invite the flow of chi by creating pathways with winding or crisscross patterns. If space permits place large garden urns, potted shrubs and ornamental outdoor decorations that will further encourage the energy to flow around them and comfortably and happily enter the house.

Pathways build with natural stone or gravel will connect the residents walking on them more firmly to the earth and to nature. The pathway that directly leads to your front door via a few steps is significant, as it is very similar to climbing up and entering into a temple.

This reminds people of the difficult path toward the final liberation of the soul.