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!'"
No comments:
Post a Comment