A Front Garden Cleanup in East York

Small Front Yard, Large Potential

Having a house on a busy street can have its advantages but if the frontage isn't kept tidy...it may be known as "that house". You know, that house which the sanctimonious neighbours gossip about because, after all, if things are left to set to seed (literally) outside, it must be the same with the seedy owners inside.

Some homeowners do care about their local reputation while others don't give a flying fig and usually I'm contacted by the former who need to do something to re-establish some sort of baseline with their yards. This baseline doesn't necessarily mean new construction or new plants. I'm reminded of this "minimum standard" of a tidy front yard when a former client advised me during a garden cleanup that "we're not trying to re-create Versailles, we just want to show (the newly weeded and pruned garden) that someone gives a damn."  

East York Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before

I think the owner of this East York (an area in Toronto), similarly, just wants to show and prove to her neighbours and anyone walking or driving by her place set on a busy street that she does indeed give a damn about the front yard's appearance. 

East York Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before 

The front yard is very small (maybe 30 feet by 20 feet), composed of four small beds surrounded by turf and bisected by an interlocking brick paver path leading to the front door. It faces east and gets full sun until early afternoon. 

East York Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before

Toronto East York Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before

Toronto East York Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before

Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before in East York 

Pre-cleanup, the beds and paver path were full of weeds. One pumpkin plant had mildewed leaves and yielded one small pumpkin, which wasn't Hallowe'en worthy!

Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup Before in East York 

East York Toronto Front Garden Cleanup Before 

Post-Cleanup:

East York Toronto Front Garden Cleanup After 

The turf/grass is mediocre and weedy but the homeowner expressed an interest to remove all the grass and install random flagstone or some other type of hardscape. She's simply sick and tired of "mowing" the very small area of turf using a "weed whacker" (line trimmer). I can't blame her!

East York Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup After 

East York Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup After 

The garden beds next to the front porch hold a lot of promise. She could plant many full-sun pollinator-friendly perennials and introduce blocs of colour and texture. In other words, increase the house's "curb appeal" to the many onlookers who pass by for relatively low cost. 

Take it from me, there's minimal competition from her immediate neighbours for East York's "Front Garden of the Year" award, if such a thing exists, so it's a very low bar to cross over.

East York Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup After 

Toronto East York Front Garden Fall Cleanup After 

Toronto East York Front Garden Fall Cleanup After

Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup After in East York 

Toronto Front Garden Fall Cleanup After in East York