A Whole Lotta (Matted) Leaves...
With apologies to Led Zeppelin, it certainly feels like the autumn of 2018 again as the leaf raking continues! I've returned back to my client, Marli's, back and front gardens in the east-end Toronto neighbourhood called Leslieville for a spring cleanup.
In the backyard, as shown in the pictures below, a massive Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum) casts its shade (and leaves) over most of the area. The perennial beds usually have a nice 3 inch layer of leaves keeping the dormant plants protected over a harsh winter (a thick and persistent layer of snow also helps reduce the damaging effects of periodic freeze-thaw cycles.)
There's very little colour in the gardens at this early part of the year (a witchhazel would help!) but many spring blooming bulbs we planted over the years like tulips, hyacinths and alliums are popping up.
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| Leslieville Toronto Spring Back Yard Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Toronto Spring Back Yard Cleanup After |
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| Toronto Leslieville Spring Back Yard Cleanup Before |
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| Toronto Leslieville Spring Back Yard Cleanup After |
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| Leslieville Toronto Spring Back Yard Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Toronto Spring Back Yard Cleanup After |
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| Leslieville Back Yard Spring Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Back Yard Spring Cleanup After |
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| Leslieville Back Yard Spring Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Back Yard Spring Cleanup After |
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| Leslieville Back Yard Spring Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Back Yard Spring Cleanup in Toronto After |
Here's the front yard, pre- and post-tidy up:
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| Toronto Leslieville Spring Front Yard Cleanup Before |
What's noteworthy, from a garden maintenance aspect, is that one shouldn't correlate the size of a garden with its care requirements. Often the surroundings play a great role with the amount of weeding, raking, etc.. Marli's front garden is a typically small Leslieville area (maybe 20' x 30') and is anchored by "lower-maintenace" shrubs like smooth hydrangeas, a "dwarf" mugo pine and a Korean lilac (also "dwarf" in name only as I had to prune it hard last summer.)
It's a very exposed site, faces north and receives full sun for most of the day. It seems all the leaves from the park across the street funnel into this pocket garden due to the prevailing north and north-west winds (an exaggeration admittedly.) The pine and two woody lavenders sited next to the sidewalk make perfect leaf and garbage collectors, naturally.
There are also many pedestrians coming and going and more than a few have no regrets about littering. So besides raking out many leaves, I collect all sorts of coffee cups, cigarette butts, candy wrappers, etc. which have emerged out of the ice and snow.
I guess I'm performing a spring "cleanup" you hear about when the city asks its citizens, as part of their civic duty, to go around with trash bags and gather up all sorts of nasty things found in ravines, laneways, etc. around this time of the year.
Somehow, the glamorous concepts of trash collecting weren't covered in "hort school" many years ago!
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| Toronto Leslieville Spring Front Yard Cleanup After |
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| Toronto Leslieville Spring Front Yard Cleanup Before Gardening Company |
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| Toronto Leslieville Spring Front Yard Cleanup After |
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| Leslieville Toronto Spring Front Yard Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Toronto Spring Front Yard Cleanup After |
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| Leslieville Front Yard Spring Cleanup Before |
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| Leslieville Front Yard Spring Cleanup After |
So different from Maryland where everything's blooming! (although skies are still too often gray) Hope you get some good weather soon. Wishing you a great gardening season!
ReplyDeleteThanks Carole! It's still cooler than usual and besides crocuses and snowbells flowering, there's very little colour now in the gardens (although the witch hazels are wonderful at the moment.) It should be another busy work season, my hibernation is over, lol...
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