Gardening is perhaps one of the healthiest possible activities one can do in terms of both physical and mental health. Why pay for a gym membership if you have a yard or access to a community p-patch and can spend an hour or so a day maintaining and beautifying it? But there are some feng shui related hazards that one should be aware of so as to avoid injury. Of course keeping the interior of your house in balance with the help of a flying star practitioner is always a good idea but today I want to talk about the exterior. The qi pattern of your yard changes annually just like the interior and you grid your yard the same way you grid your interior, by dividing it into 9 even squares. To find your directions outside you will need to stand in the middle of your yard with a compass but you can pretty easily eyeball the general thirds on each side. Measuring makes it more precise. The reasons for going to all this trouble is so that you can find the areas/directions that are bad for digging.
My own experience with this has been nightmarish this year as I tried to find the narrow band of degrees that is bad in the NE. I found it by disturbing the dirt in that area while replacing a section of a brick wall. I injured myself mildly that day but qi is relentless and much like bacteria when it gets on your fingers and suddenly makes your nose itch. Qi compels you to revisit the spot. I went back to the spot and was compelled to dig up a tree that I had been thinking about moving. The tree was about two feet into the ground and pulling it out made my injury slightly worse, but still not severe enough to limit activity. I took some ibuprofen and went about my normal activities. The next day I went swimming with my nephew and he challenged me to a race. I agreed and swam my heart out but still lost and injured myself so badly I had to go get a steroid injection in my spine.
I recount this story so that you can get an idea of how bad the injuries can be if you dig in the bad qi areas (even if your interior qi is well managed as mine is). It will be worse if your interior isn’t well managed and you happen to be sleeping in an area that is always bad or just bad this year. So, all of this to say DO NOT DIG in NE, SW, S, SE areas of your yard. You may feel compelled to do so and if you want to put it to the test, well, I cannot stop you, but I do implore you to avoid digging in these areas at all times until February 5thish when the annual qi shift happens and different areas will be bad. If you do happen to injure yourself after digging in one of these directions I highly recommend seeing a good accupuncturist as the qi enters the body through the same spots they use to place needles and thus acupuncture can be helpful.
I hope that you have a bountiful and safe gardening season!
