Susan Ediss is incorporating new harmony into her garden, using feng shui.
Ediss, a master gardener with the Ohio State University extension office in Montgomery County, lives in Harrison Twp.
“I took my feng shui training in Hilton Head from Nancilee Wydra Feng Shui Institute of America in 2002,” Ediss said. “Feng shui is about the flow of energy so it affects every aspect of one’s life.”
Adam Ravestein recently led a feng shui garden tour at Ediss’s home for the master gardeners, who received one and a half credits of continuing education. Nearly 60 people attended the tour.
Ravestein is the landscape manager at Scarff’s Nursery, in New Carlisle. He has worked as a landscape designer since 1978 and manager since 1998 for the 600 acre wholesale nursery.
Ravestein and Ediss have worked together for many years on her personal garden.
“My father was the original designer of her landscape over 40 years ago,” Ravestein said. “I’ve been working with her with updates and changes for 35 years. A good feng shui landscape takes years to develop, with many adjustments along the way.”
The project included input from Ediss, who was an art education major in college. Ravestein has a degree in landscape architecture from Ohio State University.
Feng shui embraces designing a garden for health, wealth and happiness. The goal of Ravestein’s tour was to help visitors understand feng shui gardening.
“Feng shui has a few basic principles, and everything else is based on them,” Ravestein said. “First and foremost in feng shui is living in harmony with your surroundings. It’s also very simple, it needs no embellishments.”
Feng shui can be accomplished in an already existing garden through simple changes, such as moving a garden seat, rerouting a path or transforming a flower bed.
Ravestein regularly incorporates feng shui principles into his work.
“I didn’t realize it until I did some reading and started working more with Susan, that I have been using many of the principals of feng shui in my designs for a long time,” Ravestein said. “One principle that I find most interesting in feng shui is about placing yourself in your environment in the right place at the right time.”
For more information, go online to www.scarffs.com or call 937-845-3130.
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