Every culture has a different idea of what a garden ought to be-as characteristic as its national cuisine. Many people are familiar with the classic Japanese garden. In common with art and architecture in Japan, its finest gardens are breathtakingly subtle and understated- like haiku poems formed out of rocks, sand, wood, and plant material.

For most of us, building a full-scale Japanese garden isn't practical-our gardens often double as outdoor living spaces in ways that aren't suited to the structure of a Zen garden. But this tabletop version contains the same basic elements and offers opportunities for peaceful contemplation and reflection without requiring a huge investment of time or money. Besides that, it's just plain fun-you can design patterns, rake sand, and rearrange elements to your heart's content.

It's best to use redwood or cedar lumber for the table. You can seal the lumber to maintain its fresh color or let it weather to a rustic gray-either is well suited to the earth- color schemes typical of Zen gardens.

Visualize your tabletop garden as a larger landscape and set the stage with sand or fine gravel. Then fill it with rocks, driftwood, an oriental sculpture, and maybe a bonsai tree or a tiny palm. But take care not to overfill it-you need room to "draw" gently curving patterns in the sand.