A garden of bold forms and vibrant plantings designed for a young family to grow, play, and unwind in Toronto.
Designed to balance play and pause, the garden layers soft, native meadow-style plantings with crisp architectural forms. Each space offers its own rhythm and purpose, yet the whole remains unified through materiality, geometry, and an ecological approach to planting.
Hi, I’m Sarah — founder of BVSH Studio.
BVSH is a landscape design practice crafting refined, ecologically grounded spaces for private homes and public life.
Trained as both an anthropologist and a landscape architect, my path into design moves through a deep curiosity about how people and all living and non-living systems inhabit space. Landscape design is never one directional; it’s a reciprocal process where site and client each inform the other. Listening closely to both is what allows for spaces that are harmonious, resilient, and enduring.
This page shares the process — the ideas, palettes, and behind the scenes moments that guide the work.
#bvshstudio #landscapedesign #gardendesign #highendresidential #torontodesign #ecologicaldesign #outdoorliving
Work by Sarah Turkenicz, ‘In The Forest, Don’t Touch Anything’, on working with archives of community-built networks from the Holocaust (pp. 246-257).
Now available in PDF form at https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/scaffold/article/view/46370
A great garden always has somewhere to land.
Not just a place to sit — a place that draws you outside. That holds you there. That makes the garden feel complete and discovered.
Images via @botanichorticulture@the_gardenists · @charleygreyantiques ·
An inviting garden begins with a sense of arrival. An enchanting moment from our Glengrove Project.
Layered woodland planting, climbing vines, and a weathered timber arbor create a quiet threshold between spaces — inviting movement, shade, pollinators, and seasonal change into the everyday landscape.
#landscapedesign #torontogarden #urbanoasis #woodlandgarden #gardensofinstagram
A quiet retreat on the edge of Georgian Bay. Moodboard for our Parry Sound residential project.
Situated on a sloping site cascading down towards the Georgian Bay shoreline, our design approach to this project is all about highlighting the beauty of the existing landscape.
Floating wood decks nested between windswept pines, pathways designed to incorporate the majestic granite outcrops emerging from the land, and lookouts to capture expansive views of the Bay and the soft rhythm of the shoreline create a residential landscape which feels both picturesque and effortless—where design dissolves into its surroundings.
Designed for slow mornings, long summer evenings, and a deep connection to the land.
#landscapedesign #outdoorliving #landscapearchitecture #georgianbay #naturalmaterials
Elevated, not chlorinated. The rewilded pool.
Natural swimming pool designs that inspire us.
In anticipation of the hot summer days just around the corner, we have been researching the growing movement of those opting for the chemical-free (and beautiful) alternative to the traditional fiberglass pools; Natural Swimming Pools.
Perfectly suited to Ontario’s climate, which provides summer temperatures warm enough to make a pool inviting, natural pools are designed to adapt to seasonal changes. In summer, plants are active, keeping water fresh and vibrant. In winter, the system goes dormant, but the structure remains intact allowing for plants to re-emerge in spring without affecting water quality. Proper design ensures that freeze-thaw cycles don’t cause damage, making them well-suited for Ontario’s winters.
Unlike a conventional pool, which uses chlorine, bromine, or salt systems, a natural swimming pool maintains clean water through biological (regeneration zone filled with plants) and mechanical filtration (low-energy circulation pumps) to maintain water clarity and safety. There are no chemicals, no artificial sanitizers—just a balanced ecosystem designed to mimic nature.
Natural pools are more than a trend, they’re a shift toward designing water as a living system. Think less “pool,” more “landscape.”
Some Natural Swimming Pool designers we are currently obsessed with:
@organicpools@ellicarpools@waterartisans@quietnatureltd1999
#landscapedesign #naturalswimmingpool #outdoorliving #organicpool #wildswimming
Currently obsessed with table designs by Allan Wexler Studio and how they function as landscape architecture/public art/ literal tables.
Image 1-2
Farm is Table, 2025
Earthwork / dining table created from and within the farm soil conceived by Allan Wexler Studio in collaboration with Michael Yarinsky curated by Office of Tangible Space at Trieber Farms on the North Fork, 2025.
Photography by Claire Esparros
Image 3: Table With Boulder
Image 4: Table With Tree
Image 5: Table With Walk Through Path
Image 3-5
Tables of Content, 2000
Installed in Douglas Park, Santa Monica, CA
By Allan Wexler Studio in collaboration with Ellen Wexler commissioned by the Santa Monica Department of Cultural Affairs, 2000.
A selection from a series of eleven tables installed throughout Douglas Park functioning simultaneously as artworks and functional park elements positioned throughout the park to draw visitors to explore areas they might have previously avoided.
@allanwexlerstudio@tangible.space
#publicart #landscapedesi̇gn #table
Framing space with living structure; selected climbing vines and roses for our clients garden room.
Defined by layered trellis planting of Clematis virginiana, Rosa ‘New Dawn’, and Parthenocissus quinquefolia—each vine contributing a different rhythm of growth, texture, and seasonality. From the softness of clematis blooms to the romantic flush of climbing roses and the dense, enveloping canopy of Virginia creeper, the composition builds a sense of enclosure without solidity.
Rather than walls, the space is shaped by growth—filtering light, shifting with the seasons, and creating a room that feels both intimate and alive.
#landscapesesign #gardenroom #verticalgarden #plantingdesign #climbingvines
Designing with an ephemeral wave.
A woodland planting strategy designed in time as much as space; structured around a sequence of spring ephemerals—like bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) and Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica) —that emerge, peak, and recede in a carefully timed progression. As the canopy closes and light conditions shift, this early wave disappears, allowing a grounded matrix of perennials to quietly take over.
Rather than a static composition, the landscape moves through time—where moments of intensity are followed by absence, and change becomes the primary design driver.
#landscapedesign #plantingdesign #woodlandgarden #seasonaldesign #springhassprung
Custom latticework and treillage design for our client inspired by traditional French gardens.
From the ornate gardens of 17th-century France to today’s private landscapes, treillage has long been a defining element of classical garden design—bringing structure, rhythm, and a sense of enclosure to outdoor spaces.
For this project, we reinterpreted this timeless feature to transform a space bounded on either side by the walls of two garages. Utilizing the enclosure as an opportunity to create an intimate Garden Room adorned with climbing vines and roses. The result is a space that feels both rooted in history and tailored for modern residential spaces.
#landscapedesi̇gn #frenchgarden #treillage #gardeninspirations #timelessdesigns
Materials are the building blocks of your design and can make or break how a vision is executed in real life.
Today we wanted to highlight one of our favourite materials; Adair Sepia Limestone. Quarried in the regions of Wiarton, Ontario, this uniquely Canadian natural stone is characterized by its blueish-grey hue and ribbons of darker streaks and shades. The stones unique colour combination is what sets it apart from other types of limestone and is what gives it a distinctive and visually appealing appearance.
This highly durable, versatile, and elegant stone can only be found in Ontario. In addition to reducing transportation costs and supporting Canadian industries, we love using local materials to create a design which exhibits a unique sense of place in harmory with the surrounding landscape.
Plate Images and Abstract text sourced from “The Geology Of The Adair Marble Quarry Wiarton, Ontario” by Julian V. Kanarek
#naturalstone #ontariolimestone #landscapedesign #designinspiration
