While I’m not necessarily a practitioner of feng shui, I do recognize good qi and bad qi (a.k.a chi or energy) when I see/feel it. I don’t need a Bagua* to know when good qi has gone bad.
After 11 years of recognizing the need for substantial steps in my mixed border, I finally had them installed. Money needed to meet need before it could happen as well. When we first bought the home, my gardening budget went to building borders, paths and plants.
Up to now, the path was made up of puny stepping stones that served no purpose other than to direct traffic from the house to the upper gardens. Now the steps also serve as a work of art, a rock garden AND to direct traffic from the house to the upper gardens.
For what I wanted, there was no other person to do the project than Phil Hathcock of Natural Stone Sculptures, in Cary, NC. He knows how to work with the land to make it look natural – as if the stones were a naturally occurring outcropping in my hill. As an added bonus, all the stone was unearthed from Phil’s property. 
According to the principles of feng shui, the best place to sight your home is believed to be near the dragon’s lair. No doubt I have had some critter issues in the past, but I can say without hesitation, I have never had a problem with dragons. And yet, I could have also said that before a deer showed up for dinner last summer. So, never say never.
The best location is to be near, but not too near, the dragon’s lair. Where can one find a dragon’s lair? Well, it is generally halfway between the top of the hill and the valley. Specifically, with the back of the house cradled by the hill. As luck would have it, that is exactly how my house is placed in the garden.
My house is smack dab in the middle of our lot, with the back gardens rising and the front gardens sloping down towards valley – in this case the road. Phil’s interpretation for why this was the best location, confirmed feng shui principles, again, without the need for a Bauga.
His input was this, “The best gardens are when you can see the land out the back going up. This way, gardens can be made to view from the inside or outside the door. If the gardens in the back sloped down, you would not necessarily see the garden. The garden sloping downward in the front is also best because the best view is meant to be seen from the street and a hill maximizes this view.” Phil went on to say that, like all good feng shui, there are ways to get around bad land or energy.
We used plants that I had on hand; mainly from the porchscape of conifers in containers. Some of these will work in the short term to make it appealing, at the same time, stabilizing the dirt.
Ta da!
I keep taking photos of it. Very much like when my kids were babies. I guess this is my new baby. Let’s hope we don’t peak the interest of the dragon.
*Bagua is an eight-sided picture or object that contains a trigram in each of its eight sides with an image of the yin/yang symbol in the center. Each trigram corresponds to a particular compass direction and aspiration area.
