Backyard Fun Features: Walking a Labyrinth

 

I decided to share some fun features you can add to your yard to make it a real getaway extension of the home and to make you want to come out back. 

I have an area in my yard that I don't want to water here in the desert and nothing grows. It has a layer of wood mulch, but nothing happening there. I've always wanted a labyrinth. Walking them is an experience of redirecting anxiety and creating focus. 

Walking the weaving path to get to the center is a practice of patience, slowing down, focusing on your footsteps.

The labyrinth I laid out was a standard 7-layer one. I defined the paths first with a hoe to make wee trenches the rocks would go into. I made the path wider than two feet side by side. I haven't decided what goes in the center yet. Right now, I have two large chunks of quartz there, but I am likely to put a homemade sculpture or a pile of powerful rocks.

Backyards should be about encouraging health, stress relief, and activity. 

Whether you line it with rocks or turn it into a hedge maze, dig trenches into the ground or lay down pavers, this path will become part of a ritual that can be an auto reset for yourself and your family and friends. My dream was to put one in the front yard to encourage neighbors to walk the path but the HOA nazi force isn't cool with that. 

Here's my final labyrinth.

I placed a quartz rock stack in the center. As I go along over time, I hope to add some cool elements that look like wee offerings.