By Susan Levitt
Those born in Hare year are gentle artistic souls, content to live peacefully in the abundance of nature’s beauty. This summer of Hare year 2011 is the perfect time to beautify your environment with soft lush greenery.
But what to do with an area that is basically just cement? Or a plain cement sidewalk, empty parking area, or any place with disconnected feng shui? Create good feng shui by adding healthy greenery; bring life to barren hard cement.
The Moon is in the Earth sign Taurus this weekend Friday July 22 through Sunday July 24. Greenery does well when planted during an Earth sign Moon: Taurus, Capricorn, and Virgo. Taurus is the strongest of the Earth signs so luck is with you to garden and plant this weekend.
To begin, determine which plants grow best in your specific micro climate. Simply walk around the block and observe which plants are hardy where your live. Pictured below are plants here in San Francisco CA that do well in the shade; many types of ferns, a flowering New Zealand impatiens, a flowering camellia bush, and ivy.
Lush healthy greenery is good feng shui.
Pictured below is a big container garden on a nice wide cement sidewalk in San Francisco. There is still enough room for me to comfortably walk with the family dog Nani Loa because these containers do not block our movement.
These containers are also an excellent feng shui solution to the heaviness of the cars parked facing the home. Adding this live green barrier separates the cars and the street, and stops headlights from glaring into the home.
Ancient Chinese ginko tree in container garden
The patio containers pictured below are in my back yard in San Francisco. I live in a gorgeous Victorian building, in the Italiante style, one of the old “Painted Ladies” as they are called here. But the patio yard is a huge cement block.
What was once a spooky dead cement area is now lush with ferns (a Boston fern and New Zealand tree fern); a lush Swedish ivy plant that is neither Swedish nor ivy; a Japanese lily that blooms white flowers and is so hardy that it grows along the freeways in California; a large broad-leaf philodendron; and a celadon cymbidium orchid. No plant is spiky like a cactus, and no plant is in bad health.
Spooky dead area now alive with plants
Luck is with you to plant this weekend while the Moon is in earthy Taurus. Taurus is ruled by the planet Venus, named after the goddess of love, art, and beauty. So now is truly the perfect time to add flowers and soft greenery, and to plant with much love.