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Ross NW Watergardens
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/87037277/thumbs/modern-japanese-inspired-courtyard copied to clipboard
https://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/87037277/thumbs/modern-japanese-inspired-courtyard copied to clipboard

Modern Japanese-Inspired Courtyard

Elements shown here will translate well to a modern front courtyard where space and soil are limited.

The concept: There was an old Japanese garden in place that predated your home. Your deck fills in space around what remains of this garden. Beds that flank your front entry display artifacts (living and otherwise) from that garden.

Key Elements: A large moss studded boulder grouping, anchored by a tall vertical stone, will own the SE corner of the space. Perhaps the wall/fence can terminate into (not simply at) this grouping. A small water feature will be located in the NE corner. This could take many forms, but I see it as a ‘tsukubai’ (Japanese hand washing station). Key plantings will be pines that have been pruned and shaped in the Japanese style and bamboo. The pines will be dramatic focal points wile the bamboo will blend the other key features together.

There are other elements or concepts show below as well, but these would be accents, or perhaps would not make into your final design at all.
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Integrating this stone into the screen, rather than simply setting it in front, creates a feeling of age and authenticity- like the stone was there before the rest of the landscape. We can create a similar effect with your boulder grouping, by building the wall/fence into it.

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This large boulder grouping gives you a sense of the style and scale we would be looking for in the SE corner.

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The moss covered mound area here is the sort of thing we would do in the beds leading to the front door. Statuary, Japanese holly bonsai, maybe even a small agatized stump could be focal points.

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Tsukubai take many forms, from very traditional to modern. I would like yours to look ancient, with a basin that is rustic. Bamboo would provide the backdrop for this feature. We might even choose to have the spout coming out of the bamboo.

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Instead of a hand carved basin we could choose a small boulder like this.

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An example of the specialty pruned pines that we would like to use in a couple places.

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These bamboo clumps illustrate what it could feel like to have some bamboo grow up through the deck. They would be especially beautiful lit from below at night.

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The space just east of the deck would be planted with bamboo, providing a soft backdrop (illustrated well here). Perhaps the deck railing along this edge can be inconspicuous so it almost feels like you could walk off into the bamboo "grove".

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Stones set as ripples in water. This concept (here with rounded rock, in your book with slate chips) can be used with the tsukubai and perhaps as a way to tie some of the small beds into the larger concept.

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Would having somewhere to display a couple of bonsai be a nice touch?

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