Garden Muses: A Small Toronto Gardening Services Company Blog: Bye Bye Spireas! A Moore Park, Toronto Front Garden Partial Renovation

21.6.21

Bye Bye Spireas! A Moore Park, Toronto Front Garden Partial Renovation

Creating a Pollinator-Friendly Patch in the Front: It's a Start

I loathe to call myself as a garden designer since the term can mean anything, at least here in Toronto. (But for those reading who are licensed and accredited as such, kudos.) I rarely create a new garden from scaled blueprints with details for hardscaping, lighting, etc. as this is much too complex for me and I'm busy as it is with more mundane tasks like weeding.

I prefer the term "plant editor" as I'm often hired to tweak an existing (small) garden, suggest plants to add and remove and move things around for better visual impact. Thus, I edited this established Moore Park, Toronto front garden and limited the scope of work to a relatively small but visually prominent area.

The client approached me and asked what could be done with this space right at the street (there is no sidewalk):

Moore Park Toronto Pollinator Friendly Garden Makeover Before

We have an older P.G. hydrangea standard to the upper left, emerging ornamental grasses in the lower right and several Spirea (a.k.a. Spiraea) shrubs. The tangled mess at ground level is made up of periwinkle (Vinca minor), which, on a positive note, is suppressing weeds from germinating.

The client asked me what we should do in this area. I thought about it, briefly, and suggested we dig out all the spirea shrubs and the periwinkle up to the hydrangea. In this cleared out space, I would plant many native species of perennials to encourage more insect and bird activity. And, yes, we may even have flowers this summer!

I didn't know if she was receptive to this idea (some homeowners can be sentimental about shrubs, even spireas) but luckily she was. Here are more "before" pictures of this small area being edited: