I've been thinking a japanese meditation garden made of sand and rocks with a few concrete focal points like a garden lantern, a buddha or a bench might work perfectly for that spot. But we get heavy rains from time to time. How would I keep the sand in place? I would appreciate any ideas.

As fore keeping the rocks in place I would make sure you build a nice border with for example, larger size rocks that fit side by side well. Also be in mind that Japanese rock gardens can be a lot of maintenance in the way of having to rack the desired patterns in the gravel, which will probably have to be done fairly often. I would recommend placing stepping stones to make matennce a little easier.

There are books you can look for online books stores or elsewhere that give a lot of instructions and ideas if you are new to the subject. you might even find some good material at your local library.

Good luck with the rock garden.

-Mike

see.

http://roychettan.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-build-japanese-garden.html