my boyfriend and i just finished making/assembling a zen garden for a friend's Xmas gift and i thought i'd let you know how easy it was. i bought a mini garden for a friend/colleague a few months ago from an art gallery - it was just sand in a ring box with two smooth black stones and a tiny rake. it was sort of a joke, but we both love it. then, I recently saw another version (much improved) at Urban Outfitters and my boyfriend asked if i thought that we could make one, instead of buying it. (double dare.)

he made a shallow box from 1/2 inch pine with pine strips. we lacquered it with rosewood stain and poured decorator's sand into it. he had bought stones at home depot, but the best stones were actually found in the parking lot (it's a cruel world.)

the hardest part was the "rake". i hate to admit this, but we used a "stray" fork from the cafeteria at work and bent the tines into a rake shape. it works wonderfully. tomorrow i'm going to go and get a bonsai plant pot decoration or two.

i'm very impressed with it... and although assembling all the materials cost about $20, we can still make another dozen! if you have a birthday coming up, and work in an office, and i know you, then don't read this or you'll spoil the surprise.

I love these! I made one in high school, my guidance counselor (who was a pretty good friend) had the store-bought version, and I liked hers so much she gave me a whole bag of scorpion sand. (I guess that's the same as decorator's sand) I filled a funky green planter that had been part of a funeral flower arrangment (heh) and added shells and rocks that had special meaning to me. I never did make or find a proper rake for it, though. Oh, and I remember cutting my fingertips all up when I washed the planter before assembly. Not very zen-like! But the sand is so deep, you'd never reach the bottom while casually playing with it. And its crowning glory is a black ceramic frog head I found in our garden.

my advisor at school gave all the people in my homeroom one of these for xmas. all she did was get one of the drip catchers you buy at a plant store to go under the plants, a pretty dark green one, and get some pretty stones and sand and a giant toothpik(for the raking). as strange as that sounds like it would look, it was reall really cool, and looked great.

I love this idea! :) Although I'm torn between the wooden box and the plant tray.

When I get a job, I'm definitely making one of these for my space. If I kept it at home, well, I have cats...cats + sand= yuck.

Kerri

I just made one today... well, kinda. I just used a nice box that a necklace from Christmas had come in, filled it with salt (too lazy to go out and try to find sand), grabbed a clear plastic fork for a rake, and threw in some little cool rocks and shells I had. Very cool for my desk!

rakes - small little cute garden style ones sold at craft stores, but quite expensive for tiny things.

sand + cats - plexi-glass box top. see through, pretty, and durable for the cat that just won't give up.


My dad gave in and bought a Zen garden. But we were going to make one but he decided against the terror of his frustration.

But I bet all of your home made Zen Garden's are better then his HSN one.

kategirl! i like the salt idea. the one that i bought came in a little paper box, too. i'm sure that cats wouldn't play in table salt... would they? i don't know much about cats.

I made one of these for my best friend this year for Christmas. It was really easy and he completely loved it. I found a wooden jewelery box at Big Lots, that was a photo frame, and I was torn with putting a picture of Buddha or some other peaceful thing, but then I decided to leave it empty and told him to put a picture of his dog that had ided in it. I foound the sand at Ben Franklins and mixed two colors. I added polished rocks and two white buffalo beads I found. The hardest part was finding a rake. I found one at Ben Franklins, but it is too big. It came in a set with a little shovel too though and they are okay. I am going to try and find a new rake off of a dollhouse supply website. Anyway, I just wanted to share.

I have absolutely no clue if cats like to play in table salt. actually, I like the salt, it reminds me of this really, really white beach I was once at in Mexico. really, really white sand.

I just found this How-too on Uniqueprojects.com
>http://www.uniqueprojects.com/projects/miniaturedrygarden/miniaturedrygarden.htm

Lissa :)

i got one awhile back its beautiful, its from the store though, its a rock slab sorta and it gorgeous, it came with four different rakes so i was lucky! i also have a little four inch one i bought back around thanksgiving it came with the most cutest small rake.

anybody want to make a little pagoda? i made one by screwing off the little decrative screw thingy on top of my lamps... so go check your lamps, some of the screw thingys are awesome!

I have a zen garden!!! And it was LESS than $10! :)

Books a Million had these little flat wooden boxes with slide lids- OK, they also came with 4 flat wooden puzzles for kids- for $4. :) It's about an inch high and the surface area is about 5X7. Perfect! :) I'll just give the little puzzles to my nephews.

I found a little rake in the miniature section of Hobby Lobby ($2.50 for a three piece set-rake, shovel, and hoe). I may find someone to cut slots into the hoe to make it into a rake. I also got a bigger bag of sand than I really needed for $3. I can get a few more of these out of that bag of sand. :)

Oh, and I already have a bunch of stones. :)

Hello gifts! The 5x7 size is perfect on my tabletop, and would be fine for a desk, too. When you get done raking, I put the two stones and the rake on top of the lid. :) Very cute.

Have fun,
Kerri