Zen Buddhism Messiness?

Zen is not, or does not have, a philosphy to discuss or explain, so I’m not sure what you, or maybe he, was talking about.
If you asked him, ‘Why is your garden full of weeds?”, and he answered, ‘It’s because of my zen philosphy.”, I’d say that’s bullshit.
If you asked him, ‘What is zen philosphy?’, and he answered, ‘It’s like my garden. I want to keep it natural, so I do this and don’t do that, etc…”, then I’d say that was also bullshit.
If, however, you asked him, ‘What is zen philosophy?’, and he answered, “No weeds, no weeding.”, then I would smile and bow.

It was symbolic.

One thing about Zen Buddhists is that they often appear lazy to other people.

As said in another response…
A big part of Zen (and Buddhism in general) is recognizing that if you grasp an object too much, it will cause you pain.
Example of the garden… If you REALLY want a perfect garden… and spend lots of time in it…
1:Theres always a couple leaves that wont be where you want them
2:A animal will mess it up
3:Its impermanent… Basically it wont last.
So instead of making it “perfect” .. you let it get “perfect on its own and just get amazed on how its surprising you.
Its not about being lazy… its about not putting focus on whats not truly important… and still rejoicing in the beauty of the randomness

Don’t concern yourself to much with words and letters, here have some tea. *sip* : )

People can use spiritual practice to justify virtually any behavior. In this case, your friend had some “idea” about what is “natural.” And he used Zen to rationalize his gardening style.
But Zen practice trains us not to hold onto *any* idea — let them all go.
In Zen, any kind of garden is OK — Japanese style, wild style, weed style. It doesn’t matter.
However, if we’re telling ourselves a story about our garden (“It’s natural style!”), then it matters a lot, because it’s self-deceit.

You don’t find nature lovely? Too bad, since he probably sees the beauty in letting things be.

he was letting go of the illusion of control

Zen Buddhists are notoriously incompetent philosophers. I think he really meant what he said.
A messy yard or a natural yard. Same yard.

Consider yourself pushed off a bridge