Weeding a Leslieville Corner Garden: Better Late Than Never, Part Two

Another (Really) Late Summer Toronto Garden Cleanup

We're into autumn but here's one last post about a summer weeding project I completed in Toronto's Leslieville neighbourhood in August. 

This corner lot faces two very busy streets and has many small odd-shaped garden sections which hadn't been weeded for a long time, as the "before" pictures will show. And, naturally, I had to deal with several large barberry shrubs which haven't seen the blades of clippers in a while. 

And you know by now how much I love working around barberries! (Sarcasm on).

I lived in Leslieville during the mid to late 1970s and passed by this very same house daily going to and from my middle school. And forty years later, I'm working on the same property, which I found amusing, in a circle of life kind of way.

Some of the beds leading to 
the front door (hidden from this angle) 
which were infested with 
foxtail weed (Setaria viridis)

Leslieville Toronto Front Garden Cleanup Before 

More lovely barberries! Why do they follow me?

Toronto Leslieville Front Garden Cleanup Before

 An "inner courtyard" section which 
the clients wish to be used as a dog run. 
This makes sense as the section 
is right outside the back patio door, 
in full shade for most of the day 
and the soil is (or will be literally) crappy.

At the busy corner the weeds are 
thriving in full sun. I also was amazed 
how much trash collected in this area.

 This section is full of one of the worst 
weeds I deal with: perennial rye grass

Proof that simply mulching an exposed 
area is not enough. Some maintenance 
is required eventually.

Afterwards....

Mulch is often a busy homeowner's best friend, 
especially if  she isn't into gardening like this client. 
I suggested that mulch be spread on top of 
all the newly exposed areas like these two above.

Ho hum hostas and hydrangeas. 
There's great potential for explosive 
flower colour and texture in these beds.  

Toronto Leslieville Garden Cleanup After

Toronto Leslieville Front Garden Cleanup After

 Leslieville Garden Cleanup After

 Corners like this one are usually more 
problematic since they seem to attract 
all sorts of weed seeds and garbage.
Mulch, mulch, mulch!

 This decrepit juniper needs to be 
shovel pruned, pronto!

Leslieville Front Garden Cleanup After 

Now, let the fall cleanups begin!

Weeding Raised Beds in a Central Toronto Courtyard

Getting Gritty in Downtown Toronto

Working as a gardener in Toronto over the past 15 seasons has given me many opportunities to see various city neighbourhoods. Some areas are enclaves for the extremely wealthy while others are occupied by those barely scraping by. The size, condition and the mere existence of gardens, of course, reflect these differences in income and wealth. I was reminded of this during a recent garden cleanup for a condo located in the downtown Toronto neighbourhood called the Garden District. 

To describe the area as diverse is an understatement: I walked by many renovated million dollar homes and condominiums (although in Toronto's frothy property environment, that dollar value seems not to carry much cachet) located next to garbage-strewn alleys and tired-looking rooming houses and hostels.  And while I don't intend to generalize, some of the folks living in the area are rather...interesting. (If you've ever been in the Moss Park area, you know exactly what I mean.) 

I usually don't work for/around condominiums as our needs normally don't coincide. Most condos have a few containers or shrubs by the front door, that's about it. So it was unusual for me to be contacted by a condo board member named Sheelagh to see if I could do some gardening around the building. We met recently and she showed me around the condominium's interior courtyard which is accessible only to the residents and not visible to the public. The courtyard, more or less, is a series of paths leading to the various homes with many raised beds. There's also a common sitting area nestled among some mature (but declining) Paper Birch trees. 

Looking around the various beds and all those yews (!), I considered such commercial work (maybe that's the wrong word) under the purview of a traditional landscape maintenance company. A crew would come in with their leaf blowers and gas-powered clippers roaring away and be in and out within a hour, tops. Weeding may or may not occur as, for some reason, many companies loathe to pay staff to hand weed: hence, the "mow-blow-go" moniker given to such maintenance companies. I asked Sheelagh if this was the experience in the past and she confirmed that it was but going forward, the board prefers to have a long-term relationship with one gardener. And that gardener, after our initial interview, would be me!

Since there are so many garden beds, I'll show you the "before" and "after" pictures of the same bed. I do like the curvilinear shape of the beds and paths which make the space seem larger than it really is. The plantings (and architecture), though, seem to be stuck in the 1980s: yews and wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei) of various shapes and sizes are everywhere and a deep love for Fiveleaf Aralia  (Acanthopanax sieboldianus) very evident. I can understand why these plants were chosen since the require very little care but being surrounded by all these yews especially gave me the impression I was visiting a cemetery! The exciting news is that the board is interested in remaking some of the beds and updating the plant selection. And, yes, that means getting rid of some of the beloved yews. This is a spring 2019 project and I'm looking forward in designing with and transplanting new perennials and deciduous shrubs at this location.

Toronto Downtown Garden
District Courtyard Cleanup Before

Toronto Downtown Garden
District Courtyard Cleanup After 

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Courtyard Cleanup Before 

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Courtyard Cleanup After 

Toronto Downtown Courtyard
Cleanup Before

Garden District Toronto Downtown
Cleanup After 

District Toronto Downtown
Cleanup Before

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup After

Toronto Downtown Courtyard
Cleanup Before

Toronto Downtown Courtyard
Cleanup After

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup Before

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup After

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Courtyard Cleanup Before 

A herd of newly shorn Fiveleaf Aralia 

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup Before 

Clipped meatballs

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup Before 

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup After 

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup Before

Garden District Toronto
Downtown Cleanup After

The weeding and pruning took up the entire day but thankfully the weather was cool and dry. I'm looking forward to the glorious weather coming up later this month and October which means, for you dear reader, many posts about fall cleanups.

I apologize in advance....

Annual Garden Maintenance in Leslieville

Weeding Your Toronto Garden Once a Year

Is such a thing even possible? Lately, I've been dealing with gardens which haven't seen the sight of a trowel or hoe in 2018 or earlier and some of the weeds have been, well, atrocious. So while I don't recommend you ignore your favourite (and likely expensive) patch of green space, working on it (or paying someone) annually may be feasible, as shown in this post.


My client, J-F (I'll use his initials), calls me only once a season to weed, prune and tidy up his very small backyard garden in Toronto's Leslieville neighbourhood. The garden bed is only about 15' wide by 20' long and, plant-wise, is comprised of several large shrubs and hostas with a tall white cedar hedge acting as a backdrop. 



I've worked here before so I know that while the weeds will be large, the scope of work isn't extensive. Here are some "before" pictures showing the growth since my last maintenance visit in the summer of 2017:

Leslieville Back Garden Cleanup Before 

Leslieville Toronto Garden Cleanup Before 

I also weed this small paved area connecting the front and back of the house:

Toronto Garden Cleanup Before in Leslieville 

This year, J-F has asked me to weed his driveway and a small raised bed under the stairs:

Hire a Toronto Gardener in Leslieville Before 

Toronto Garden Cleanup Before in Leslieville 

Afterwards......

Leslieville Back Garden Cleanup After 

Leslieville Back Garden Cleanup After

I prune back the red-twig dogwood (Cornus alba 'Elegantissima') above on the right  by about 2 feet to control its size. The spirea below the dogwood hasn't been pruned in many years so I reduced it by about half in order to rejuvenate it.



And here are pictures of the interlocking paver path, driveway and street-level raised bed after weeding:

Toronto Garden Cleanup After in Leslieville 

Hire a Toronto Gardener in Leslieville After 

Toronto Garden Cleanup After in Leslieville 

I'll likely revisit this space next summer and anxiously await for what the garden will present to me then!

Weeding a Riverdale Corner Garden and Driveway: Better Late Than Never

A (Really) Late Summer Toronto Garden Cleanup

It's September and I'm still weeding? Well, yes. Weeds don't stop growing simply because of a calendar date and when I'm hired to do a garden cleanup at this time of the year, more often than not, it usually means that the garden hasn't been touched at all since...who knows when.

This post covers recent cleanup session for a house with a corner garden and parking pad in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood. The "before" pictures illustrate wonderfully what occurs when no one looks after a large area of un-mulched soil: air-borne weed seeds set up shop and happily grow unmolested. 

To give some background information, this house is another rental and the owner lives off-site. Out of site/sight definitely means out of mind, but not for the other homeowners living nearby. I suspect a tenant received some complaints about the state of affairs and suggested to the owner to "do something about this." 

I dropped by, took a look, came up with an estimate and was hired soon after. I'll walk you around and show you the scope of work:

Looking towards the front door

From the front door to the sidewalk

Part of the retaining wall at the sidewalk

The very visible corner area

The raised bed around the corner 

 The raised bed from above. 
This area was completely filled 
with Lamb's Quarters or 
Goosefoot (Chenopodium album)

Mulberry saplings and 
part of the raised bed

 The raised bed and mulberry 
trees from the sidewalk

The mulberry saplings near the AC unit

The base of the retaining wall

The base of the sidewalk at roadside

The unused parking pad

At the base of retaining wall

Inside the backyard, 
two Siberian Elm saplings

Afterwards...

The cleanup took about 12 hours, mulching included. It will be interesting how the space will look next year since, I think, no weeding will be done/hired out until "things get out hand" again.

Riverdale Toronto Garden Cleanup After 

Riverdale Summer Garden Cleanup After 

Riverdale Summer Garden Cleanup After

Toronto Garden Cleanup in Riverdale After 

 Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After:
The raised bed was mulched

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After

Riverdale Frontyard Garden Cleanup After

Mulberry saplings removed

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After:
The sidewalk weeded and swept

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After 

The unused parking pad that no 
longer looks unused

The Siberian Elms cut down. 
My four legged friend certainly 
appreciates this!

Such a large and extensive cleanup reminds me of what a former garden cleanup client said to me many years ago: "We're not re-creating Versailles, we just want the garden to say 'someone gives a damn!'"