Today we’re visiting with Bas Suharto.
I live in Ottawa, Canada, in Zone 5B. I have been gardening since 2007 when I was a student. Gardening in Ottawa is not easy, since the warm season lasts only two months.
The photos are of my back garden. The idea is a dry lake, in a Japanese-garden style. I built the garden in 2007. The ground cover is Thymus serpyllum (creeping thyme, Zones 4–8).
The carpets of creeping thyme in beautiful spring bloom run around the river of gravel. Carefully pruned shrubs and art create the sense of a Japanese garden.
Every detail of this garden is perfect, with every shrub and piece of sculpture working together to create a harmonious whole.
Creeping thyme makes a beautiful green carpet most of the year, and then in the spring it transforms into a sheet of purple blooms beloved by bees.
In traditional Japanese style, there are islands set into the gravel and a spot for sitting and looking out on the garden and perhaps meditating on the beauty of the scene in front of you.
The garden isn’t all gravel and thyme. Here a row of hostas (Hosta hybrid, Zones 3–9) and bearded irises (Iris hybrid, Zones 3–9) show off behind a neatly trimmed hedge.
Have a garden you’d like to share?
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, 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.
If you want to send photos in separate emails to the GPOD email box that is just fine.
Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter with #FineGardening!
You don’t have to be a professional garden photographer – check out our garden photography tips!
Do you receive the GPOD by email yet? Sign up here.
Comments
This was the most calming and stunningly beautiful garden I have experienced . Sheer joy. You have done a marvellous job and deserve to be congratulated. Very well done. Thank you for allowing us into your exquisite garden.
I also have a Japanese style garden in a more traditional style. I thoroughly enjoyed the lush plantings around the garden and on the islands. I'm sure I will be incorporating some of these ideas in my garden. Beautiful.
So manicured and tidy!
It's so pretty the way I can see in the close up photo how all the plants blend into each other just as it is written in the caption: "to create a harmonious whole".
Well done!
Lovely and so serene. So glad you shared this beautiful garden.
Hi, Bas. What a beautiful well designed place to be! All the plants seem mature and full. Not a leaf out of place... Love the dry lake and the precise pruning.
Oh, my, that creeping thyme is out of this world.
One can almost smell the creeping thyme looking at that picture. It is wonderful, magical. Alice
WOW, beautiful..so well put together. Loved it, thanks for sharing!?
Really beautiful - I can imagine how lovely that creeping thyme smells and can almost hear the droning of visiting bees! Thank you for sharing this wonderful space.
Simply stunning!!! What an amazing, meditative garden you have created! I'd love to see a winter photo as well. Yes, as all have said, thank you for taking the time to share with us.
thanks everyone. The garden is always evolving/growing.
In summer or autumn look different. I am also thinking to submit the photos of the garden from beginning to today, like my parterre (front yard).
Log in or create an account to post a comment.
Sign up Log in