This garden became one of my biggest lessons in patience, restraint, and thoughtful garden design. Because the backyard zen garden makeover didn’t happen in a single season. It took nearly 5 years of experimenting, planting, redesigning, and learning what this space actually wanted to become.
When we first moved here, I filled the area with containers and seasonal flowers while I figured out a direction. Over time, I realized the garden felt most at home with a calmer, more restrained design focused on evergreen structure, texture, repetition, and a softer color palette.
One of the biggest lessons this garden taught me is that not every garden needs more color or more plants. Sometimes the best thing you can do is slow down, observe the space, and let it reveal what it wants to be.
In this video, I’m sharing the evolution of this zen-inspired garden, from the early years of trial and error to the changes that finally brought the space together. You’ll see how topiary boxwoods changed the entire feel of the garden, why I started removing pachysandra, how improving the soil transformed struggling perennials, and the garden design lessons I learned along the way.
If you’ve ever struggled to figure out what a garden space should become, this video is proof that sometimes the best designs develop slowly over time.
📖 Read More About Creating a Zen Garden:https://stacyling.com/11-backyard-ideas-for-a-relaxing-zen-garden/
📖 See This Transformation:https://stacyling.com/zen-garden-makeover-evergreens/
📚 If you want help putting this together in your own garden, I walk through plant selection, design, and low-maintenance strategies in my book The Bricks ’n Blooms Guide to a Beautiful and Easy Care Flower Garden.
Grab your copy → https://urlgeni.us/amzn/stacylingbook
📒 And if you want a simple way to track what blooms when and how your garden evolves over time, my Flower Garden Planner is where I keep all of that so I can build on it each season.
Find it here → https://urlgeni.us/amzn/stacylingbook2
🌿 My new houseplant book Filling Your Home with Life is now available — perfect for bringing your garden indoors:
Grab your copy → https://urlgeni.us/amzn/stacylingbook3
🌸 About Stacy
Hi, I’m Stacy Ling, a lifelong gardener in Zone 6b New Jersey and the creator of Bricks ’n Blooms, where I share practical tips for growing beautiful, easy-care flower gardens.
Grow easy. Live beautifully.
Subscribe for more flower gardening, shade garden design, and low-maintenance planting ideas.
If you enjoy the way I garden and talk through things here on YouTube, these books go much deeper and walk you through the process step by step.
🌸 The blog is where I slow things down and go into more detail. Read it here: https://stacyling.com
🌸Are you ready to get your bloom on? Shop Bricks ’n Blooms Merch here: https://stacyling.com/store/
🌸Check out curated list of gardening supplies I use here: https://urlgeni.us/amazon/shopforgardensupplies
🌸 Sign up for my email here and get a free Everblooming plant list:https://stacyling.myflodesk.com/freeplantguide
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9 Comments
You inspired me so much ❤❤❤
Beautiful space. If I could make one comment, I would mention the white hand rails. I see that they echo the colors of the house trim. Looking the other way , out towards the garden space , they stand out rather than blend. Maybe a darker shade would blend rather than stand out and stop the eye.
You nailed it, as I do try to make every plant the star, and that is the ‘root ‘ of the problem, pun intended!🤣I am trying to rejig my garden, so it does have more movement and rhythm! I always add compost to new plants and I use it instead of mulch. It has significantly helped. Your gardens look beautiful!
Beautiful looking garden, its the bees knees. We live in rural Ireland and have a small front garden with eight pots of annuals, fifty four pots of perennials and four flowerbeds. My wife has no interest in gardening and has told me more than once it looks like a mini garden centre and if she sees one more pot I will be sleeping out in the garden.
Well said! Thank you, Albert
I agree, Stacy. Good soil is the answer. I’ve worked a few years on an area in our yard, and the results are finally starting to show. Beautiful area to transform.
Less can never be more. More does not define better.
YES! LOVE all the green plants in the zen garden. I think that the white railing is too bright. I suggest a softer neutral color, maybe a tan that's similar to the stone wall.
It looks so beautiful. It does take time to figure out the best design of each garden room. Your inspiration to move in this new direction has created such a lovely and calming space. I continue to think and rework the design of my courtyard. Have been adding more trees and shrubs in large containers so that I have green all year long. Still some annuals & perennials but not as many. The garden can never be done!