Zen and the Art of Woodland Garden Maintenance with Ease and Peace
INSPIRATIONAL, 18 Aug 2025
Jan Oberg, Ph.D. | Oberg Photo Graphics – TRANSCEND Media Service
You should tend to your garden today even if the world ends tomorrow. It’s a very healthy defiance…
12 Aug 2025 – We do not know what a garden looks like that gives you peace, inner and outer, and is also rather easy to maintain. But we’re working on it.
First, a little philosophising and then some (non-processed) snapshots – by the way, taken with my new, magic Chinese Xiaomi Ultra 14 phone cam with four Leica lenses! They were deliberately shot without sunlight, and some were taken in evening light.
This garden was a wilderness when my wife, Christina, and I took it over four decades ago. But it had wonderful big trees planted in the 1950s, thick bushes, and lots of shade.
Perhaps because it felt – and was – more like a wood than a garden, what inspired us was the concept of a woodland garden; see a short video about it here. I still don’t know whether such a garden is a wood looking quite a lot like a garden or it is a garden looking quite a lot like a wood. But it must be a blend of the two, expressing respect and care for what is naturally there.
The basic points of departure were those majestic big old trees, the different dimensions and spaces around the house and the idea that a) we would not have someone designing a new garden for us, b) we would not spend the necessary time to grow vegetables ourselves – better support the local producers in the market square – c) to make the best out of what was already there and d) not put up too big a project because we have always had so – too – many other things to do.
And, yes, we wanted to make it beautiful, joyful and peaceful around our home and peace foundation.
Over time, however, I grew increasingly frustrated with the constant barrage of tasks that prevented us from simply sitting down and enjoying the garden, just relaxing and meditating. That is the meaning of a garden; it is not to give you a bad conscience constantly. I mean, the damn things grow all the time! – and we are not out there every day. There’s always a big project that takes days or weeks and demands a lot of energy, and which, therefore, you try to ignore or put off until later – and later again.
This summer, we’ve changed our garden philosophy.
The priority now is to maintain the garden by making minor, easy-to-do adjustments regularly, rather than constantly struggling with some big elements that should have been repaired long ago. In other words, we invested considerable time, energy, and muscle effort, making a great leap that aligns with our vision of beauty while also taking into account what we can continue to maintain as we age.
We felled two wild-growing mirabelle plum trees that did no good, and reduced and thinned out eight other trees and shrubs, cut them down to manageable heights, and we got much more light into the garden, unto the ground, where things began to thrive. We love hortensia, as you’ll see, and they immediately started to flourish like never before.
Further, the Buddhas, the yin and yang water fountain, the glass house and the night lightning appeared new and refreshed in the lighter environment. In the daytime and at sunset, rays of light fall beautifully on branches and flowers where earlier there was darkness.
And now it shall be maintained – a couple of hours here and a couple of hours there – to keep it tidy and joyful to be in. And – indeed – never perfect.
It’s been thoroughly good for body and soul, and you should tend to your garden today, even if the world might end tomorrow. It’s a health-increasing defiance…
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Prof. Jan Oberg, Ph.D. is director of the independent Transnational Foundation for Peace & Future Research-TFF in Sweden and a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. CV: https://transnational.live/jan-oberg
https://transnational.live.
Tags: Art, Gardening, Inspirational
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