Zen garden

A Zen garden draws on the Japanese dry garden, or karesansui: raked gravel standing in for water, carefully placed rock groupings, moss, and very little else. It is built to be looked at and to slow you down, not to be planted full.

The elements are deliberate and few. Raked lines suggest ripples or current, stones are set in asymmetric groups rather than rows, and empty space is treated as a material in its own right. Restraint is the entire point.

It is the most contemplative of the common styles and the least forgiving of clutter. The skill is editing — what you leave out matters more than what you put in, and a single out-of-place object undoes the calm the whole composition is for.