A New Toronto Dry Shade Garden
Gardening under a maple tree can be a challenge as your valued perennials and shrubs will constantly fight the tree for light, moisture and nutrients and usually end up losing. And if not losing outright (dying), they'll be forever competing with the behemoth above them, look stunted and lead to disappointment.
But some maple trees are more forgiving than others and will allow you to at least dig a small hole for new transplants.
My client in the west end area of Toronto called Roncesvalles recently rebuilt his front yard's raised bed with a new retaining wall and wanted to "celebrate" by having me choose and plant a variety of shade and drought tolerant perennials. I advised him that gardening under a tree with a thick canopy and aggressive shallow roots like a maple is usually not easy and he'll notice a higher-than-normal water bill but he agreed with these caveats in mind so he hired me to choose plants and get them in the ground.
Here are some "before" and "after" pictures of the new raised bed that is about 3 to 4 feet above the sidewalk. I saved as much of the Muscari or grape hyacinths as possible which are blooming now but dug out and discarded everything else. (A surprise awaits you at the very end!)
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| Roncesvalles Toronto shade garden installation before |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto shade garden installation after |
Yes, I used up two types of cedar mulch (both undyed) as the lighter coloured material was lying around and the client told me to get rid of it. Luckily, it all fades to grey in a few years.
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| Roncesvalles Toronto shade garden installation After |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto shade garden installation before |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto shade garden makeover before |
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| Roncesvalles Toronto shade garden makeover after |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles shade garden installation before |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles shade garden installation after |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles shade garden installation before |
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| Toronto Roncesvalles shade garden installation after |
The transplanting process wasn't too maddening (which can be the case trying to dig under a maple) but there were small areas of Creeping Bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) infestation. If you've ever tried to remove this particular weed from your flower bed (my sympathies), then you know the pain of seeing roots like these:
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| Creeping bellflower (Campanula rapunculoides) roots |
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