Putting the 2019 Gardening Season to Rest

A Final Fall Cleanup in Cabbagetown

Better late than never: that's my attitude with getting my autumn work completed before a big snowfall occurs and in posting these garden cleanup examples. This will be my last one this year, I promise!

I have quite a few clients in the downtown neighbourhood of Cabbagetown, The size and location of these gardens fit well with my capabilities (one person company who travels by public transit). The properties tend to be small and I often consider the gardens like jewel boxes: tiny but filled with glittering objects.  Many mature trees line the streets and laneways and make growing a lawn on a postage stamp-sized front or back area impractical in most situations. The emphasis, then, is on hardscape and specimen trees and perennials.

The front and back yards shown in this post will show, again, "no lawn" gardens typical in Cabbagetown. 

I'll start in the front first:

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Front Yard Before

Nothing complex with the front cleanup: just raking out the large amount of maple leaves which have been collecting since October in this very small Cabbagetown front garden.

There's no real "right" or "wrong" answer with not removing leaves from your garden beds every autumn. If you're lazy, busy or prefer to give your perennials and overwintering insects (pests or not) a cozy home with a nice thick layer of natural insulation, it's o.k. that you don't bother raking the leaves. I think it's also fine if you prefer to remove them in the fall as you may consider the look messy. Since winter here in Toronto lasts into April, that's a long time to see an "untidy" area for many homeowners and certainly for those clients who have hired me in the fall.

Given the amount of property taxes one pays for a Toronto now, you should be able to decide about your leaves one way or another without public shaming or moral judgments.

They're just tree leaves!

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Front Yard After

Cabbagetown Front Yard Fall Cleanup Before

Cabbagetown Front Yard Fall Cleanup After

Cabbagetown Front Yard Fall Cleanup Before 

Cabbagetown Front Yard Fall Cleanup After 

In the backyard...

Cabbagetown Backyard Fall Cleanup Before 

Cabbagetown Backyard Fall Cleanup After 

I cut down the herbaceous perennial stalks and leaves from the peonies, hostas and phlox. I also left alone the "evergreen" coral bells (Heuchera), a woody Tree Peony and, of course, the various boxwood beach balls. The latter, I admit, do provide winter interest as the snow collecting on them will make them green and white beach balls!

Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard Before

Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard After 

Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard Before 

Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard After 

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard Before

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard After

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard Before

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard After 

Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard Before 

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard After 

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard Before 

Toronto Cabbagetown Fall Cleanup Backyard After 

That's it for the fall cleanups this year. I'll start posting blog entries which will show flowers, lush foliage and vibrant colour as several seasonal indoor flower shows are/will be occurring soon at a nearby Conservatory.

You've put up with seeing nasty brown bits of dead and dying vegetation in this blog recently so it's the least I can do!

Returning to Bedford Park for Another Fall Cleanup

When the Gardener is Away, the Goutweed will Spread

Winter is firmly entrenched here in Toronto as I write this blog entry. It's hard to believe that only up to a week ago I was working outside and finishing up my work season. Now's the time to "rest, read and recover"!

I have a few more fall cleanups to show you and that'll be it, I promise. Well, until next fall.

This entry goes over some work I performed in a front garden I visit maybe twice a year. The property is located in the Bedford Park neighbourhood of north-central Toronto. The garden faces north but receives full sun for most of the day. With the client's help, we've planted many lower-maintenance perennials over the past few years like purple coneflower, Oriental poppy, aster, and Japanese anemone.

There's quite a bit of variety in terms of plant material in the front. I "inherited" many common (over-used?) shrubs and perennials like holly, euonymus, daylilies and irises. Admittedly, they are hardy so I can't be too harsh in my criticism. However, I also inherited a very persistent clump (to be more accurate, clumps) of one of the worst perennial weeds I have to deal with: goutweed or ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria). I wouldn't say it's number one on my top ten list of "bad" weeds (I reserve that spot to Japanese knotweed) but it's been a challenge trying to control goutweed in this garden. (I've profiled my goutweed "eradication" attempts in a post titled "Me, the Goutweed Removal Machine!: Saving a Bedford Park, Toronto Front Garden Bed" for your amusement.)

I'll get back to goutweed travails a little later. First, here are the "before" and "after" pictures of the fall cleanup:

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup Before 

The garden area is rectangular and requires very little maintenance, aside from occasional watering during very hot and dry spells. Many of the neighbours have grass which, of course, involves regular mowing, watering, fertilizing, etc.

Typical for fall cleanups, I cut down dead or dying perennial foliage and stems and prune, as needed, the woody plants like the euonymus and Black Lace Elderberry for shape and control.

The biggest maintenance headache is trying to remove, once and for all, the plain mean and green goutweed without using a non-selective herbicide like glyphosate.

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup After

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup Before

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup After

You likely can't see them very well in the "after" pictures but there are many small clumps of goutweed just waiting to spread aggressively next spring when temperatures rise again. I did dig out most (obviously not all) of the goutweed in May 2019 but since no one has tended this garden since then, any small piece of goutweed rhizome left in the soil has grown unchecked.

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup Before

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Front Yard Cleanup After

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Cleanup Before

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Cleanup After

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Cleanup Before 

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Cleanup After 

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Front Yard Cleanup Before

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Front Yard Cleanup After

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Front Yard Cleanup Before

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Front Yard Cleanup After 

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Cleanup Before

Toronto Bedford Park Fall Cleanup After 

And in the backyard...

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Back Yard Cleanup Before

Bedford Park Toronto Fall Back Yard Cleanup After 

I'll contact the client again next April to schedule yet another "goutweed removal session"; otherwise, this front garden that holds lots of promise will be smothered again by the green menace!

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