A Very Late Fall Cleanup in Humewood--Oakwood Village

November's been a blur for me. One fall cleanup looks and feels like another. But posting "before" and "after" pictures gives you, dear reader, a better idea of what I do at the tail end of my work season.

I travel to an Toronto neighbourhood called "Oakwood Village" in this post to show yet another example of "getting a garden ready for winter" (as one of my clients calls it). I'm writing this post in December so I'm unofficially in the process of "getting a gardener (me) ready for winter"!

My clients' "lawn-less" backyard means much lower maintenance requirements (to be honest, I think they do nothing in terms of weeding, raking, etc.; hence, they hire me). No grass means no mowing, fertilizing, watering, etc. for this busy family.

Oakwood Vaughan Toronto Backyard Fall Cleanup Before 

Oakwood Vaughan Toronto Backyard Fall Cleanup After

Besides raking out the beds and cutting down soon-to-be dormant perennials like hostas and Siberian Bugloss, I pruned the P.G. hydrangea standard and Burning Bush (as shown above) by about a quarter to a third; otherwise, these shrubs will get very large and out-scale the small garden in a few years.

Oakwood Vaughan Toronto Backyard Fall Cleanup Before 

Oakwood Vaughan Toronto Backyard Fall Cleanup After

Toronto Oakwood Vaughan Backyard Fall Cleanup Before 

Toronto Oakwood Vaughan Backyard Fall Cleanup After

I also like the geometric design: all the planting and patio areas are rectangles, except for the small area in front of the back shed which is laid with random natural flagstone as shown above. Since the lot is narrow yet long, it's an efficient way to maximize the use of the space.

Toronto Oakwood Vaughan Backyard Fall Cleanup Before 

The small Rose of Sharon shrub shown above to the right, as usual, is loaded with seedpods which will release very viable seeds next spring. I prefer not to be pricking out the dozens of seedlings which will surely emerge in a few months so, as a preventative measure, I always prune away the pods.

Toronto Oakwood Vaughan Backyard Fall Cleanup After

York Humewood Backyard Fall Cleanup Before 

If you have hydrangeas, every autumn you face the existential question of "shall I remove the brown spent flower (heads) or not?" And the answer, like so often in life, will be "it depends." It depends if you want to see the snow collect on them (brown balls become puffy white ones). It also depends if you don't want to tackle the job of pruning the balls off next spring and rather have things "tidy" for the next 4 months during a Toronto winter. For me with this hydrangea standard (i.e., "lollipop" form), I'm sure heavy snow and ice will just weigh down the thin branches and possibly split the shrub in a catastrophic manner. So, again as a preventative measure, I "lightened" the load and cut off the conical flowers ("panicles" if you prefer a more accurate description). Knowing the clients don't care about "winter interest" in the garden makes the decision very easy as well.

York Humewood Backyard Fall Cleanup After 

And in the front....

Toronto Front Yard Oakwood Vaughan Fall Cleanup Before 

In the garden bed leading to the front door, the cleanup comprised of raking and blowing out the large amount of leaves. This narrow strip always "attracts" the leaves from both of the immediate neighbours' trees--the large linden tree to the left (north) and the large beech tree to the right (south). 

Toronto Front Yard Oakwood Vaughan Fall Cleanup After

You may notice that while I did prune the two shrubs in the backyard, I didn't touch the large clump of Maiden Grass ornamental grass (Miscanthus spp.) next to the railing. Reducing the clump to mere stubs in late fall would be silly yet I see this occurring all over the city!

York Humewood Fall Cleanup Front Yard Before 

York Humewood Fall Cleanup Front Yard After

York Humewood Fall Cleanup Front Yard Before 

York Humewood Fall Cleanup Front Yard After

!Hasta La Vista, Hostas!

A Fall Garden Cleanup in Toronto's Oakwood Village 

Hostas are perennials found in many Toronto gardens (to the point of being overused) so more often than not, I deal with removing their collapsed foliage during a fall cleanup. The picture below shows the typical "fall hosta flop" as these perennials are entering into dormancy. You could leave the foliage alone over the winter as the plants will send up new shoots faithfully next spring but most of my clients want to remove this type of mushy mess now.

Oakwood Village Toronto Fall Backyard Cleanup before

Oakwood Village Toronto Backyard Fall Cleanup before 

This burning bush above still has decent fall foliage. I'll remove the faded flowers from the Hydrangea paniculata "Grandiflora" standard since the client doesn't see this shrub from the house. If it was my shrub, I'd leave it alone until next spring as the flowers do collect the snow, providing some "winter interest".

Oakwood Village Toronto Fall Backyard Cleanup before

The shrub on the right side of the picture above is a ubiquitous Rose of Sharon. I'm not in love with this plant but the client wanted to keep it during this garden's makeover which I profiled in this post titled "Establishing Proportion in a Toronto Shade Garden ("Yes, these junipers will get big!") I find the Rose of Sharon just self-seeds everywhere so as a preventive measure, I cut off as many seedheads right now but it's guaranteed that I'll also pull out a dozen seedlings by next summer.

Oakwood Village Backyard Fall Cleanup before 

The side bed has faded Astilbe, Brunnera and Chelone (turtlehead) stalks and stems, which I'll cut down. At the front of the border, the row of sweet woodruff is filling in nicely, except for one spot to the right where it died. I'll need to replace it next spring!

And here are the corresponding pictures afterwards:

Goobye hostas until next May....

Oakwood Village Toronto Backyard Fall Cleanup after

Oakwood Village Toronto Fall Backyard Cleanup after

Oakwood Village Backyard Fall Cleanup after 

A perennial that hasn't collapsed (and won't) is a very useful sedge (Carex) shown below called "Ice Dance". Toronto had two nights of very atypical and extremely cold temperatures in the minus 10-15 Celsius range last week but these sedges didn't care.

They are not touched at all right now as they will keep their form all winter. By next spring, yes, they'll look a little beat up with many of the leaves turned brown. I just grab the old leaves "by their hair" if you can imagine and clip down to 6 inches or so. New and fresh-looking shoots will emerge by May. 

Carex morrowii  'Ice Dance' Japanese Sedge 

Establishing Proportion in a Toronto Shade Garden

Or: "Yes, these junipers will get big!"

A common error many new gardeners make when planting new perennials, shrubs and trees is not to consider their mature size looking out five, ten, or more years into the future. While moving most perennials isn't too onerous a task (exceptions would include large ornamental grasses and plants with deep taproots), it can be a real pain dealing with shrubs and trees which were planted, frankly, in the wrong spot.

Which brings us to this post....

Humewood Toronto backyard garden makeover before  

My client Shirin renovated her backyard about five years ago and one of the garden beds is shown above. It's approximately 4 feet wide by 15 feet long and gets partial shade from being under a big Norway Spruce in the neighbour's yard behind.

Humewood Toronto backyard garden makeover before 

The original plantings included three Blue Pfitzer Junipers (Juniperus x pfitzeriana 'Pfitzeriana Glauca'), one Dappled Willow (Salix integra 'Hakuro-nishiki'), and two "Wine and Roses" Weigelas. 

All in the same 60 square feet garden bed. 

I can only speculate on the decision making process of the contractor who originally bought and planted these shrubs: "Yep, I'll pick up these plants at the same place I'm getting my lumber, shoehorn them in and let the homeowner deal with them when the shrubs get wider and taller. I'll be long gone by then."

Oakwood Village Toronto backyard garden makeover

Of course, the unsuspecting garden owner doesn't know any better.


After about five years later, I get the call (I originally met Shirin last year). The junipers by then almost filled the bed's space with the willow and weigelas fighting desperately to get any space. And the prickly evergreens were only going to get wider every year. Pruning them into contorted shapes wasn't the solution given their natural (more or less) horizontal growth habit.

So out they went.

Oakwood Village Toronto backyard garden makeover

I removed the junipers and willow in 2016 in preparation for new plantings in this bed. We decided to keep the two weigelas, a Rose of Sharon and the "Jack Frost" brunnera. My idea was to create a shade garden with perennials that offered some flower and foliage interest during the spring to fall period and were proportional (sympathetic?) with the bed's dimensions. The client doesn't look at this section during the winter so having broadleaf evergreens and other plants that give "winter interest" here is unimportant.

Humewood Toronto backyard garden makeover after

While I'm not in love with the weigelas here in the partial shade, they do flower reliably in the summer and only need some pruning occasionally. I removed two large, leggy and woody lavenders to free up the space for shade tolerant perennials like astilbe, sweet woodruff, "Ice Dance" Carex, and turtlehead. I also divided the two existing large clumps of brunnera as I adore this plant in shady spots. The picture above is seen from the back deck looking down a few feet.

Humewood Toronto backyard garden makeover after 

Oakwood Village Toronto backyard garden makeover after 

Please excuse the lovely blue recycling bin to the left above. It's not a garden ornament!

Oakwood Village Toronto backyard garden makeover after 

I'll need to prune the Rose of Sharon (upper left corner) to control its size and shape. While it is a very common shrub here in zone 5 Toronto, it does flower like clockwork every late summer and early fall. I advised Shirin that the astilbes need regular watering to prevent their leaves from going "crispy"; otherwise, they don't need a lot of fussing with. The same could be said for the other perennials too.
Luckily, my client here understands that the concept of a "low maintenance" garden isn't the same as a "no maintenance" one and is fine with dragging the hose out once in a while.

This idea can be a challenge to get across to some homeowners at times!