Bas Designs a Front Yard Garden in Ottawa

Happy Monday GPODers!

The garden goes quiet, colors become more muted, and the snow flies. Winter has officially arrived and our garden chores have switched from active participation to reflective planning. To make the most of your growing season, these are the months to compile all of your ideas and inspiration. Thankfully, Bas Suharto is here to show us an another incredible garden he designed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada that will get anyone’s creative juices flowing. Bas has shared several of the stunning gardens he has helped bring to life, often utilizing Japanese garden design principles (Check out some of his previous submissions: The Small World of a Japanese-Style Courtyard Garden, A Japanese Dry Garden in Quebec, Building a Garden With Bas, and Building a Japanese-Inspired Garden). Today’s front yard transformation is no different, and he has all the photos to demonstrate how an boring entryway was transformed into a lush and welcoming landscape.

I would like to share Garden Photos of the Day of Debby and Michael. I know Debby and Michael after their visit the garden of their friends in summer 2024. The garden is the courtyard garden which I worked to bring back the spirit of Japanese style garden.

Summer 2025 is the first year of Debby and Michael’s garden as the result of their work on planting perennials, lifting and arranging the stones, installing stones and lawn borders and arranging black pebble stones one-by-one!

The proposed 3D model of ‘the island’ with the lantern and perennial ground cover and pebble stones and 3/8″ river wash stones. Some boxwood shrubs around. In the far sight are variegated irises, oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia, Zone 5–9), peonies, and yellow barberries.

Here is the black pebble stones they have arranged around the rocks, it is a small area as dry garden and it has an island covered with thyme (Thymus serpyllum, Zone 4–8).

This is their front yard in 2024 before the new garden built, it has boxwood shrubs, peonies, hostas, and the mock orange.

After some discussions, I created 3D images based on Debby’s sketch and existing condition, and I proposed some perennials and keep some of the existing hostas, peonies, boxwoods, and mock orange. The size of their front yard is 46 ft X 36 ft, and the big mature trees are existing silver maple tree (Acer saccharinum, Zone 3–9).

Early summer 2025, the thyme in bloom, the Japanese forest grasses (Hakonechloa macra, Zone 5–9) planted between the boxwood. Unfortunately, boxwood moths invested boxwood shrubs in their neighbourhood with voracious leaf eater caterpillars. These moths affected their garden too, so some boxwood shrubs have rolled/yellowing-white leaves.

Other plants are: variegated bearded irises (Iris pallida ‘Variegata’, Zone 4–9) and oakleaf hydrangeas. They added some annuals, like red begonias.

Along the pathways toward the sidewalk, there are some boxwoods with round shape and in between are hakone grass. Along the curve lawn, they planted Stella D’Oro daylilies (Hemerocallis ‘Stella de Oro’, Zone 3–10). The tall shrub is standing Korean dwarf lilac (Syringa meyeri ‘Palibin’, Zone 3–7). Under the window, on the left, there are 3 American arborvitae (Thuja occidentalis ‘Degroot’s Spire’, Zone 2–7) and hostas. Debby added some Boston ferns (Nephrolepis exaltata, Zone 10–12) and herbs in the pots at the entrance steps.

The view from the outdoor seating area next to their house with the gate which has Japanese stye roof built in the summer 2025. In front of the gate is the lantern and the ‘island’ with river-washed stones and pebbles. The mock orange shrub is standing to break to view of the street.

Thank you so much for sharing this gorgeous garden with us Bas! The way you collaborate with your clients is always impressive, a perfect mixture of your design sensibilities and their personality.

Did you complete any garden upgrades or transformations this year? From adding a new garden bed to completely redesigning your landscape, we would love to hear about the process and see some photos. Follow the NEW directions below to submit your photos to Garden Photo of the Day!

We want to see YOUR garden!

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, fill out the Garden Photo of the Day Submission Form.

You can also send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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