A Riverdale Backyard New Garden Installation

Bye Bye Boxwood!

From initial meeting to cleanup to garden bed preparation to transplanting...for me, garden-making is relatively straightforward. After doing this for 15 years, I have a good idea of what plants "work" based on the site realities, client preferences and, not unimportantly, budget constraints.  I thought there would be few, if any, obstacles from start to finish with this Riverdale, Toronto garden renovation. Easy peasy, as it were. 

I assumed that the soil in the rectangular garden bed would be easy to dig into, making transplanting not painful and maybe even fun. It wasn't meant to be, of course. I started to dig a few preliminary holes and sure enough, I was hitting lots of surface roots from a spruce tree nearby. There was also a decent patch of lily of the valley to contend with.

So much for easy peasy...

I've profiled this backyard in an earlier post titled "A Riverdale Spring Cleanup in Preparation for New Plantings: An Old Boxwood Facing Its Final Days... " which showed some "before" and "after" pictures from the spring cleanup occurring in April 2019. 

After said cleanup, I provided the client with a list of plants to buy for the garden makeover. She politely arranged delivery and things were set.

Finally, I could put this old and unpruned boxwood out of its misery:

Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover Before 

What does a boxwood look like if it's ignored for many years? As the picture above shows, not very nice. This broadleaf evergreen hardly qualifies as a specimen unless it's clipped into a topiary (and regularly clipped). But this is what draws your eyes when looking down the path to the parking area and from the deck: a diseased and, well, ugly boxwood. A perfect focal point in the garden, for all the wrong reasons.

Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover Before 

The above view towards the deck and back of the house isn't much more inspiring. A half-alive euonymus/winter creeper and a shrub next to the deck is about it for visual interest.

Toronto Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover Before

There's also this small bed on the other side of the stairs. In part/full shade for most of the day, the peony on the right side will never thrive so out it comes.

Toronto Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover Before 

Here's the view from the top of the stairs and the deck looking down. Sorry that it's a bit out of focus but you see the general picture.

And afterwards...

Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover After 

Above is the view looking down the back half of the bed towards the gate and parking area. I replaced the decrepit boxwood with a fresh Serviceberry, placed a row of dogwood shrubs along the horizontal fence and planted an assortment of shade tolerant perennials like ferns, hostas and Japanese Forest Grass.

Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover After 

Toronto Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover After 

This small serviceberry should get to 15-20 feet tall if all things go well.

Riverdale New Backyard Garden Makeover After 

When the homeowners open the gate after parking the car, they'll see a mass of perennials and shrubs as they walk into the house. New transplants always look puny and underwhelming so let's be charitable and give them a few years to get established and really fill in.

Toronto Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover After

Looking down about 6 feet from the deck railing. I misjudged the number of Hakone grasses as we're about two short in order to fully form a border next to the interlocking brick path. 

The grasses can be planted anytime, easy peasy.