How about a Zen Garden?

With the word ‘drought’ on everyone’s lips, maybe we
should think of having gardens with more drought tolerant plants, with stones
and gravel instead of lawn, adding statues or stone lanterns to create a garden
with a zen garden feel.

Zen gardens convey simplicity and tranquillity, and are
known as karesansui, translated as ‘dry-mountain-water’ – dry gardens contain
minimal plants, but natural elements of carefully arranged rock or pebbles,
with gravel or sand raked to look like water. With the raking of the sand being
considered a relaxing, thoughtful practice, the sole purpose of the gardens was
to offer monks a place to meditate on Buddha’s teachings, a truly calming
garden.

Strictly speaking, Zen Gardens have trees and mosses
to represent islands in the raked sand, but here it is not always possible to
replicate these, but we can use some of the following colourful drought
tolerant plants to get a similar result. You could even add a water feature – a
small one typically uses less water than a couple of toilet flushes a week.

Crown of Thorns (Euphorbia milii) also known as Christ plant, or
weirdly, Siamese Lucky Plant, is a prolific bloomer requiring minimal care, and
can be grown outdoors easily in frost-free areas. It produces colourful bracts
around the mini flowers, similar to a poinsettia, and has a stem of wicked
2.5cm (1”) spines. New plant growth has a few narrow, green leaves, but the
leaves reduce in numbers as the stem ages.

Money Tree/Plant (Crassula ovata), has many names, including
Jade Plant. With glossy, oval-shaped, dark green leaves, it produces delicate
star-shaped flowers that range from white to a delicate pink. It grows
successfully outside in the garden in the warmer regions of Portugal, but
doesn’t like the cold, so further north would be safer as an indoor plant.

Hardy Ice Plant (Delosperma cooperi) or Purple Ice Plant, or
Cooper’s Ice Plant. This is a great groundcover plant with fleshy
needle-like leaves but has daisy-like purple flowers blooming all summer long
and autumn. Growing about 3-4 inches tall, it spreads quickly in a sunny,
well-drained dry area.

Echeveria ‘Afterglow’ – resembling a rose, Echeveria ‘Afterglow’ is a pretty evergreen
succulent with large rosettes of fleshy, powdery lavender-pink leaves adorned
with delicate bright pink edges. This throws up rosy-red flowers in
summer, which last several weeks.

Echeveria Elegans ‘Mexican Snowball’ – This is another echeveria, but has grey-green
leaves with pink-reddish margins. The pink colour becomes more pronounced when
the plant is ‘stressed’ or exposed to extreme temperatures and drought. It
produces beautiful, bright pink-coral bell-shaped flowers that stay in bloom
for weeks.

Aloe Vera (Aloe
vera) Native to the Mediterranean and Africa, most people will be familiar
with this plant’s purported medicinal qualities, but it is also a lovely
ornamental succulent that grows in clumps of upright leaves. In late
winter and on into spring, it sends up vibrant yellow spikes. The grey-green
leaves add a nice spiky texture to the garden even when the plant is not in
flower, and does well in containers or pots.

Super Red is
another aloe that produces multiple candle-like flower heads. This large,
tall stemming hybrid is also capable of branching and forming a shrub, and is
suitable for landscape use or as a feature plant in any garden

Pincushion Cactus (Mammillaria crinitais) Add this for its flowers and overall ball
shape – although technically it is a cactus, it’s very easy to grow – even
indoors, provided the plant has at least 4 hours of direct sunlight. But
beware, this one has hooked spines, so handle carefully and keep it out of the
reach of children and pets.

Lithops – also
known as Living Stones or Pebble Plants, its name comes from Greek for ‘stone
face’ – low growers being unique for their unusual shape. They come from 2
plump succulent leaves that are almost fused together. New leaves and flowers
emerge from between the two leaves, causing them to split apart. The fat leaves
can be in brown, grey, cream or green, and have a bumpy texture. When it
flowers, it produces white or yellow flowers.