The goals were:

-Reduce water by eliminating the lawn.
-Create something subtle, yet dramatic, to frame the main view.
-Lower maintenance.
-Create a context for her to rake the gravel in the tradition of the Buddhist monks in Japan.

We kept the plant design extremely simple, in keeping with Zen style:

-Rubus Pentalobus is the main plant, serving as ground-cover.
-Dark green Irish moss forms the green ground-cover around the stone in the Islands.
-Native Coffee Berry is an accent shrub.
-A single weeping blue spruce graces a stone, we repositioned.
-Red festival grass provides a little color.

Design accents include a rusted steel edging, a Mexican Pebble Border, and LED lights to see the garden at night.

http://www.mysticallandscapes.com/#/zen-garden/