A Toronto front garden rescued from variegated goutweed
"Part spring garden cleanup, part garden rescue" is the theme for this post about tidying up the front and back garden beds at this east Toronto home in the Birch Cliff neighbourhood.
Anyone who has to deal with Aegopodium podagraria (variegated goutweed or the all green-leaved thug) knows the pain in trying to remove it without relying on herbicides. You're guaranteed to leave just a little piece of root, regardless of how thorough you believe your weeding skills are, and then it's off to the races again. So when I saw this as part of a typical spring garden cleanup, I sighed a little but readied myself for it was time for a garden intervention!
Anyone who has to deal with Aegopodium podagraria (variegated goutweed or the all green-leaved thug) knows the pain in trying to remove it without relying on herbicides. You're guaranteed to leave just a little piece of root, regardless of how thorough you believe your weeding skills are, and then it's off to the races again. So when I saw this as part of a typical spring garden cleanup, I sighed a little but readied myself for it was time for a garden intervention!
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup goutweed removal before |
See that large green patch above? Yep, that's variegated goutweed happily moving through the bed unimpeded. Not only did I prune away last season's stalks of the sedums and ornamental grasses, I had to deal with the goutweed, pronto!
I dug most of the goutweed out but this area has to be monitored. I'm certain a few leaves will emerge in a couple of weeks and they'll need to removed right away. It seems like an endless cycle but this is the case with goutweed (and creeping bellflower and Japanese knotweed and...)
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup goutweed removal after |
Here are some more "before" and "after" shots from the front garden. It was a shame the cherry wasn't in bloom for I'm sure it would have been stunning.
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| Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up before |
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| Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up after |
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| Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up before |
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| Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up after |
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| Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden cleanup before |
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| Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden cleanup after |
Moving on to the backyard, the biggest challenges were dealing with the large ornamental grasses and cutting away last year's stems and seedheads. I used my pruning saw (which I normally use to cut off small tree limbs) to saw my way through the tough stalks. I would had taken forever to do this with secateurs (ok, slight exaggeration but my right wrist would had been out of commission for a day or so).
The beds were finally topped off with a thin layer of mulch to suppress weeds and reduce watering.
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden clean up before |
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden clean up after |
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup before |
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup after by |
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup before |
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| Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup after |
Yes, that's a wisteria desperately looking for a trellis or pergola to take down.
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