Let the Fall Cleanups Begin...
October is around the corner which means, dear reader, you'll be subjected to more posts about fall cleanups. I realize showing you pictures of weeds, leaves and garbage around my clients' properties isn't too interesting but at least you'll see the types of gardens I work in around the city ranging from the the good, bad and ugly.
The label "fall cleanup" is used by many landscape companies at this time of the year to describe "raking" up leaves (almost always with a leaf blower, if this makes sense), cutting down soon-to-be-dormant perennials and wrapping up evergreens in burlap shrouds. In other words, a completely unnecessary exercise.
Yes, I realize I earn a good chunk of my income performing these types of exercises and don't intend to be hypocritical. But more often than not, I suggest to new clients that fall cleanups (and, worse, the term "winterizing") are not "required" and in more naturalistic gardens, even to be avoided.
All this to tell you that this post isn't covering a typical fall cleanup but about a cleanup that just happened to occur in autumn. I'll explain below....
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| High Park Toronto Back Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
I met the client, Doug, through a referral (thanks Nicole!) and his situation is common with many of my other clients: he travels a lot and has no time or interest in maintaining his gardens. When I get requests from new clients this time of the year though, it usually means that no weeding or pruning has been performed all season and, yet again, this was the case here.
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| High Park Toronto Back Yard Fall Cleanup After |
Over the course of a good six hours (and a little more), I tackled the front and back gardens of Doug's property in his Toronto's west end neighbourhood near High Park/Roncesvalles. Not many leaves were raked up (yes, I actually use a rake) since the huge Eastern Black Walnut (Juglans nigra) tree in the back isn't showing its beautiful yellow foliage yet but, more alarming, the heavy fruit were dropping periodically around me! I collected these green-husked fruits and tossed them out along with the other debris.
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| High Park Toronto Back Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| High Park Toronto Back Yard Fall Cleanup After |
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| High Park Toronto Back Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| High Park Toronto Back Yard Fall Cleanup After |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto Front Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto Front Yard Fall Cleanup After |
In weeding and tidying up the two front raised beds, I left most of the blooming asters alone as bees and other pollinators were feeding. These asters self-seeded themselves and while I do consider them "weedy", I didn't remove them since they're beneficial now.
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| Roncesvalles Toronto Front Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto Front Yard Fall Cleanup After |
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| Toronto High Park Back Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| Toronto High Park Back Yard Fall Cleanup After |
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| Toronto High Park Back Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| Toronto High Park Back Yard Fall Cleanup After |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles Front Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles Front Yard Fall Cleanup After |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles Front Yard Fall Cleanup Before |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles Front Yard Fall Cleanup After |
After tidying up things, Doug should be good to go for another year!
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