A Birch Cliff, Scarborough Spring Garden Cleanup

In Praise of Ornamental Grasses

I cleaned up this same garden last autumn in a "judicious" manner so it only makes sense the spring cleanup can be described as the same. You don't have cut down all your perennials in autumn in an orgy of cleanliness but I do believe you should be a little more proactive in the spring. The old stems and leaves have done their job by giving us "winter interest" for 5 plus months here Toronto (!) so now is the time (well, April is a better time as most plants are still dormant) to freshen things up with your pruners, loppers, saws, etc.

Coming out of winter, the front yard doesn't look too worse for wear:

Scarborough Birch Cliff Front Yard 
Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

Birch Cliff Scarborough Front Yard 
Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

Birch Cliff Toronto Scarborough Front 
Yard Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

And the after pictures..

Scarborough Birch Cliff Front
Yard Spring Garden Cleanup After 

Birch Cliff Scarborough Front
Yard Spring Garden Cleanup After 

Birch Cliff Toronto Scarborough Front
Yard Spring Garden Cleanup After 

Simple tasks included cutting last year's growth from the ornamental grasses and "Autumn Joy" sedum and clipping lightly the dead lavender tips.

A spring cleanup is also a good time to take stock of what plants died over winter and, more excitingly, what plants to add! One of the lavender died so out it goes and I suggested to Sophia, the client, to add more Moss Phlox (Phlox subulata) to create a border next to the sidewalk. And we're going to move two of the boxwoods which seem lonely and isolated from their brothers and sisters.

The backyard's big task was to clip down the several mature Maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis "Gracillimus" and Feather Reed grass (Calamagrostis acutiflora "Karl Foerster").

Scarborough Birch Cliff Backyard
Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

Birch Cliff Scarborough Backyard
Spring Garden Cleanup Before

I see the above occasionally where a wisteria has nothing to climb on so it wraps around itself or somewhere on the fence. Proof that this vine requires a sturdy (preferably indestructible) pergola to attach itself to. Likely this monster was planted as a little bitty one gallon baby and look at it now!

Birch Cliff Toronto Scarborough Backyard
Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

Good thing I bought new secateurs this season as pruning the old stalks takes sharp blades. I suppose a reciprocating saw with the appropriate blade would make quick work, especially if you have to cut down many at one time.

Scarborough Birch Cliff Backyard
Spring Garden Cleanup After

Birch Cliff Scarborough Backyard
Spring Garden Cleanup After

Birch Cliff Toronto Scarborough Backyard
Spring Garden Cleanup After

What's appealing about ornamental grasses is their maintenance regimen: Plant them in full sun, give them room to expand and show their form, and cut them down every spring to about 6" above ground level. As about "low maintenance" as you can realistically get with a garden plant but people still buy hydrangeas around this time of the year by the tractor trailer loads.

A Judicious Front Garden Fall Cleanup in Scarborough

There's No Need to Make Your Garden Look Like the Arctic Tundra in the Fall

Ahh, it's November and the fall cleanups are occurring fast and furiously across Toronto and maybe in your town too. They're hard to ignore: the high-pitch whine from gas-powered leaf blowers deployed by landscape maintenance crews destroy any sense of autumn tranquility, at least until they quickly go off to their next address to inflict the same.

(Now, for the record, I do use an electric battery-operated cordless leaf blower which is handy blowing debris off hard surfaces. It's light, quiet and doesn't produce gas exhaust. Why I don't see any/more landscapers use them is a mystery to me.)

A "fall cleanup" to most homeowners involves, well, "cleaning" up the garden beds. I've discovered that the level of "cleanliness" of course depends on the client who may find leaving a few old perennial stalks and seed heads up for winter interest and a food source acceptable versus a residential or commercial property owner who wants everything cut right down in and all leaves blown out of the garden.

(And when I write "everything", it pains me to include majestic ornamental grasses which are in their glory now. Why landscapers and gardeners who should know better do this is another mystery to me.)

I'm probably preaching to the choir but if you, dear reader, are a new gardener and don't know what plants should be cut down for winter (actually, none but that's for another blog post), keep on reading...

I recently spent a few hours tidying up (notice, not "sanitizing") a client's front garden in the Birch Cliff neighbourhood in east Toronto. Here are some pictures of the garden as it enters November (I admit, it's not looking shabby at all!):

Toronto Fall Cleanup Birch Cliff before 

Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup Birch Cliff before 

Birch Cliff Toronto Fall Cleanup before 

The plants are very common and I'm sure you're familiar with most of these perennials and shrubs: Sedum "Autumn Joy", Solomon's Seal, lavender, boxwood, hydrangea, and various ornamental grasses.

So, what to keep up and what to cut down?

Toronto Fall Cleanup Birch Cliff after

Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup Birch Cliff after 

Birch Cliff Toronto Fall Cleanup after 

You may be wondering "what did you do?" by comparing the "before" and "after" pictures and noticing not much of a difference. That's the point of this post: leaving those perennials which offer "winter interest" or some other functionality (especially the ornamental grasses) while cutting down those which don't (like the hostas and Solomon's Seal which have or are on the verge of collapsing.) I've left the lavender alone for the winter and will clip them lightly next spring. Next year's flower buds are present on the mophead hydrangeas so I'll leave them alone as well.

The wrong alternative is to cut everything except the boxwoods down to 6" or lower from the ground "in order to get a head start for next spring by really tidying up the garden."

Why the rush? Is it really a good idea to see "stubs" for the next 5 months until next May?

I guess one person's definition of a garden cleanup is to create a barren area. I'm glad my client here doesn't believe in such a philosophy. 

Birch Cliff (Scarborough) front garden spring clean up

A Toronto front garden rescued from variegated goutweed

"Part spring garden cleanup, part garden rescue" is the theme for this post about tidying up the front and back garden beds at this east Toronto home in the Birch Cliff neighbourhood.

Anyone who has to deal with Aegopodium podagraria (variegated goutweed or the all green-leaved thug) knows the pain in trying to remove it without relying on herbicides. You're guaranteed to leave just a little piece of root, regardless of how thorough you believe your weeding skills are, and then it's off to the races again. So when I saw this as part of a typical spring garden cleanup, I sighed a little but readied myself for it was time for a garden intervention!

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup
 goutweed removal before 

See that large green patch above?  Yep, that's variegated goutweed happily moving through the bed unimpeded. Not only did I prune away last season's stalks of the sedums and ornamental grasses, I had to deal with the goutweed,  pronto!


I dug most of the goutweed out but this area has to be monitored. I'm certain a few leaves will emerge in a couple of weeks and they'll need to removed right away. It seems like an endless cycle but this is the case with goutweed (and creeping bellflower and Japanese knotweed and...)

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup
goutweed removal after 

Here are some more "before" and "after" shots from the front garden. It was a shame the cherry wasn't in bloom for I'm sure it would have been stunning.

Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up before 

Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up after 

Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up before 

Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden clean up after

Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden cleanup before 

Birch Cliff Toronto spring garden cleanup after 

Moving on to the backyard, the biggest challenges were dealing with the large ornamental grasses and cutting away last year's stems and seedheads.  I used my pruning saw (which I normally use to cut off small tree limbs) to saw my way through the tough stalks. I would had taken forever to do this with secateurs (ok, slight exaggeration but my right wrist would had been out of commission for a day or so).

The beds were finally topped off with a thin layer of mulch to suppress weeds and reduce watering.

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden clean up before 

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden clean up after 

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup before 

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup after by 

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup before 

Toronto Birch Cliff spring garden cleanup after 

Yes, that's a wisteria desperately looking for a trellis or pergola to take down.