A New Pollinator-Friendly Garden in Toronto's Garden District, Part Two

Let's Amp up the Insect Activity and Seasonal Interest, Shall We?

Another two months (hopefully) and I'll start my work season again. Perhaps I'll even execute this small project below which is the topic of this post. 

We're continuing from the last post and looking at three raised beds located in a condo courtyard somewhere in downtown Toronto. Here are bed number two's "before" picture and my proposal to makeover the small area to attract insects and birds while providing multi-seasonal visual interest for the condo owners who share the common paths and garden beds. 

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden Design Before 

The bed above contains many run-of-the-mill hostas so besides the one week in May the existing serviceberry (Amelanchier) shrub (small tree) blooms, there's very little nectar to attract bees and butterflies on a consistent basis from May to October. (It is true, though, that the serviceberry provides highly desirable berries in the summer. It's the best thing going on in this bed!)

Other things to note, if you're keeping notes, is that the bed faces west, receives full sun until late afternoon and is irrigated automatically. Zero manual maintenance occurs, besides the custodian occasionally shearing the evergreen yew macaron.

Here's my quick drawing below suggesting native species of perennials (besides the Coreopsis cultivar) which provide food energy for wildlife, look attractive to our eyes and require relatively fewer maintenance dollars (this last point is always important to a condo board.)

Here's the list of perennials:

• Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• "Zagreb" Threadleaf Coreopsis

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden Design After

I realize that not all the perennials will bloom at the same time as the drawing suggests but this is only a quick mock up for illustration purposes and to make it easier for these clients to visualize what the bed could look like, more or less, at any time during the growing season.

And, yes, that yew would be removed!

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden near Wychwood Barns

Giving Plenty of Reasons for Bees and Butterflies to Come Over

I wouldn't say removing front lawns and replacing turf with wildlife-friendly plants is my raison d'etre but when the opportunity arises, it's exciting to plan and execute such a sustainable idea. In the right situation, lawns are great to play on, easy on the feet, capture rainwater, etc. but let's face it, having a nice looking patch of grass takes energy, time and money to maintain. (For most lawn owners, especially it seems male ones, "nice looking" means a weed-free carpet of Kentucky Bluegrass mowed to 2.5 inches worthy of garden parties and weddings.)

What happens, though, when your small front lawn (say an area of 12 feet by 12 feet as in this post) goes to sh*t and you don't want to deal with re-sodding or re-seeding and get into the endless cycle of fertilizing, watering, and mowing your very expensive 144 square feet of Toronto property? What if, on the other hand, you (the homeowner) prefers to have plants which invite birds, bees, butterflies as opposed to raccoons and skunks ripping up your turf looking for grubs? 

There are options....

I've worked for Laura and Greg, the homeowners, for many years and seen the front lawn (aforementioned 144 square foot area) deteriorate from pests and weeds to the point that they pulled out whatever remaining patches of grass last year. Laura wanted to plant some hydrangeas but I suggested another strategy. She has three young children so perhaps she would be interested in teaching them about ecology, life cycles of plants and insects, etc. Maybe transplanting a range of native plants (perennials here) could be more informative and educational (best case scenario for the kids) while involving less work, aside from occasional watering and seasonal pruning (best case scenario for Laura and Greg.)

They were very open to the idea of ditching their rotary mower so asked me to come up with a list of native plants to Southern Ontario and "make over" the front. They got the plants right away (I love committed clients)  but I had to weed the front garden first in preparation.

Below are some pictures of the front garden before the renovation from various views. The site is in full sun, facing south, with no automatic irrigation system in place. The assortment of vigorously-growing weeds shows that growing nicer stuff was promising.

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Garden Installation Before 

Toronto Wychwood Pollinator Garden Installation Before 

Toronto Wychwood Pollinator Garden Installation Before 

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Front Garden Installation Before 

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Front Garden Installation Before

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Front Garden Makeover Before

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Garden Makeover Before 

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Garden Makeover Before

Toronto Wychwood Pollinator Garden Installation Before 

Stage One: Let's Get Rid of Those Weeds!

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Front
Garden Installation Mid Way 

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator Front
Garden Installation Mid Way 

Stage Two: Transplanting Perennials

Now that I had a clean "blank slate", planting the new native perennials was straight-forward. (What did I plant? Some of the usual pollinator-friendly stalwarts like Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Asclepias, and Monarda.)

I placed them in groups and formed a mulched pathway around the massed plantings. This allows for easier access to maintain the perennials (yes, I know "maintain" is a dirty word but "no maintenance" is an even dirtier phrase). Laura's kids can walk around easily to view the butterflies and bees in closeup while I can weed in the future without constantly worrying about stepping on things. 

Walking in this garden is greatly encouraged!

Toronto Wychwood Pollinator Front
Garden Installation After 

Toronto Wychwood Pollinator
 Garden Installation After 

Toronto Wychwood Pollinator
 Garden Installation After

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator
Front Garden Installation After 

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator
Front Garden Makeover After 

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator
Garden Installation After

Wychwood Toronto Pollinator
Garden Makeover After

And a Few Weeks Later...

I returned to clip the "L" shaped boxwood hedge, weed and add some more mulch. All the perennials are growing happily, I'm glad to report. (The Anise-Hyssop (Agastache) seemed to have doubled in size.) I saw many types of butterflies and bees visiting this small garden. 

It's gratifying to add beauty and food (for the insects and perhaps birds) to Toronto, one garden at a time. I don't miss planting hydrangeas at all and I'm sure Laura would agree.

Wychwood Barns Toronto Pollinator
Front Garden Makeover After 

Wychwood Barns Toronto Pollinator
Front Garden Makeover After

A Front Garden Makeover in Toronto's "the Beach" neighbourhood

Landscape Fabric: The Gift from Previous Landscapers that Keeps On Giving

Creating a little bit of beauty is hard enough for a gardener. You may have ideas about how a garden (maybe your own) can be improved visually and functionally but realities like the existing soil and light conditions, presence of mature trees and, more often than not, the condition of your finances can throw such ideas for a loop (or right out of the window.) Low on the list of limiting factors is and should be the presence of that gawdawful stuff known as weed or landscape fabric. But during this Toronto front garden makeover in "the Beach" area, that nasty black material reared its ugly head not once but twice.

Shari and Andrew, the clients, hired me to weed and re-design their small front garden that faces a very busy street. The site receives full sun until about noon with a medium-sized ornamental pear tree shading about half of the garden. Due to the garden's proximity to the lake (Ontario), there's usually a prevailing wind which brings in plenty of weed seeds. There was no mulch on the garden's soil so, of course, the weeds took full advantage as shown below:

New Front Yard Garden Makeover Before in the Beach

(Keen eyes will notice the Colorado Blue Spruce to the left in the above picture. The root ball was planted on the neighbours' side of the property line by a few inches undoubtedly but trees have a bad habit of actually growing so this conifer that was likely planted as a cute "Christmas tree" is slowly but sure on its way to achieving a mature height and spread of, hmmm, say 50 feet (minimum) high by 20 feet wide. The clients aren't too happy with this, understandably.)

Here's the garden from other angles, "pre-makeover":

The Beach Front Garden Makeover Before

New Front Garden Before in the Beach

Front Garden Makeover Before in the Beach 

The Beach Front Garden Weeding Before 

The weeding itself wasn't too bad for me since the garden isn't large. It's always interesting to note what weed species will dominate an area based on soil and light conditions. In this case, I yanked out mainly Petty Spurge and Toadflax and little else.

Shari wanted new perennials which had green or chartreuse foliage and white flowers only so we came up with a list including the "Holy Shade Garden Triumvirate" of Hostas, Heuchera, Hakonechloa in the shadier sections while a white flowering perennial sage (Salvia) and annual Alyssum were to be planted in the sunnier area near the fence.

Transplanting should be an exciting time, even if the soil isn't perfect loam and free of roots and construction waste. For this garden, however, it became a "challenge" when I quickly discovered that a previous gardener and likely the builder had installed not one but two thick layers of landscape fabric under the first 3 inches of commercial topsoil. Of course, digging through these layers with a shovel is impossible so I had cut through and shape something resembling a circle to allow me to dig to the proper planting depth. Repeating this for a dozen 1 gallon sized perennials was maddening and I created some new expletives in my mind for the professionals who put this fabric down for me.

Why is this practice continued? As the "before" shots wonderfully show, the fabric does nothing to prevent wind-borne weed seeds from germinating on top or weeds travelling by underground rhizomes from moving below and occasionally up and through the fabric. I just marvelled at the idiocy of rolling out fabric and then putting down a 3 inch layer of topsoil without mulch. 

Anyway, back to nicer topics like freshly-transplanted baby perennials:

New Front Yard Garden Makeover After in the Beach

The Beach Front Garden Makeover After 

New Front Garden After in the Beach

Front Garden Makeover After in the Beach

Alyssum (a sweet scented annual for us) was planted at the front next to the path leading to the door. Behind there are Heuchera, Hostas and Salvia in keeping with the green and white colour scheme.

The Beach Front Garden Weeding After 

Originally I thought to plant the Alyssum along this sidewalk border shown above but the "soil" was mainly pea gravel so for the sake of simplicity and minimal maintenance, I placed some mulch on top instead.

All in all, this was a lovely makeover to plan and execute but I'd love to have the previous gardener explain his/her thought process about spreading down the landscape fabric under some fresh topsoil you added afterwards. 

Idiot.

Tiered Front Garden Makeover in the Beach: A Mini-Rant and Case Study

Gardening Beyond Boxwoods, Hydrangeas, Yews.... 

The longer I work as a gardener in Toronto, the more I notice how similar many front gardens are (I can't speak for the backyards, just what I see travelling from one client's residence to another by public transit.) Maybe they're not similar in design (although "foundation planting" is still alive and well) but many share a  general lack of imagination and excitement. Maybe you see it where you live. I call it, off the top of my head, the "Big Box Store Plant" template: the over-using of shrubs and perennials found for sale in the same place you buy your lumber or paint. For us in Toronto, these plants include the ones listed in the title along with lilacs, spirea, "Stella D'Oro" daylilies, purple leaf Sandcherry, Burning Bush, ad nauseum.

The template isn't correlated to a neighbourhood's property values either: tonier sections of the city share the same plants with those found where the unwashed masses (me included) live. The former just have the ability to pay for pristine upkeep at the price of incessant noise and air pollution from gas-powered mowers and blowers. I half-jokingly think to myself that neighbours are paying a lot in property taxes for this privilege.

(I'll the the first to admit that my front yard is s*it but the neighbour's huge silver maple does limit planting options a little. So I let the horde of lily of the valley do its thing and wait for the neighbourhood's anonymous letter "suggesting" that I fix the front.)

I'll chalk it up to mental and physical fatigue: I'm more than a little jaded (and tired) right now and part of this is due to a bad habit of noticing plants and front gardens (call it an occupational hazard.)  There are few "aha!" moments, more like "meh" or "gosh, that's really fugly" thoughts. The last thoughts usually involve garden gnomes, miniature windmills or sadistic pruning examples.  

I'll do something about this instead of moaning on. In fact, I have been avoiding using and planting these "common as nails" landscape plants for a while now.

My modest goal, then, is this: I'm going to try not to add another mundane Toronto garden.

Accomplishing this with clients is a fine art though. If I come across as either arrogant or indifferent, things will end up badly. So gentle persuasion is required, especially if I'm spending someone else's money. The ideal client, when planning for and planting a new large garden, is one "committed to the vision" and has the means and desire to pay for it. These two elements need to be present; otherwise, the client really should have bought some trays of annuals and call it a day.

I met this particular client, Wendy, several months ago. She lives in "The Beach" area of east-end Toronto and normally I don't travel that far for business but she seemed (and is) a nice person and the project was interesting at first glance. Her front garden is composed of many raised beds (I'll call them "tiers" from here on) to deal with the change in elevation from the sidewalk to the front door. 

The Beach Toronto Tiered 
Front Garden Before 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Tiered Garden Before

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier One Before 

There were many of the aforementioned common shrubs in these tiers: half dead globe cedars, one very dead Serviceberry, a spireae, a purple leaf sandcherry and several euonymous. That is, plants that you cannot avoid seeing walking down almost any street in Toronto and, I suspect, many other places.

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Two Before

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Four Before 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Five Before

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Six Before 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Seven Before 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Eight Before 

I asked Wendy what type of gardens and flowers appeal to her and consistently she showed me pictures of perennials with silver-leaves and/or blue flowers. The tiers face west so I could choose perennials which prefer full sun, drier conditions and pump out flowers for as long as our short growing season allows. I also chose plants that offer pollinators a reason to visit in the summer and birds to visit in the winter.

Wendy and I went back on forth on my choices, subject to what she liked and what was available in the garden center until a master plant list was finalized.  Off she went shopping and while her credit card took a bit of a hit, most importantly, she "shared the vision" and bought everything on that list.   

Before we took delivery of the new plants, the beds had to be emptied and weeded. I "shovel-pruned" everything to give us a blank slate. Wendy wasn't sentimental about any of the existing plants (and neither was I) so out the plants went into the compost bags.

The soil in the tiers was mediocre to average so I added many bags of composted cow manure as added insurance to get the puny one gallon containers of perennials established.

After this grunt work was completed, the fun part of any new garden makeover and installation began: actual transplanting! I showed Wendy some of the basics of transplanting small plants (digging a hole wider than deeper, making sure the plant is placed at the proper soil level (not too deep or shallow), etc.) and she keenly helped.

And here are the tiers after transplanting and mulching:

The Beach Toronto Tiered 
Front Garden After 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Tiered Garden After 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier One After 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Two After

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Four After

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Five After

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Six After 

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Seven After

The Beach Toronto Front 
Garden Tier Eight After

The gaps in some of the tiers were due to some of my plant choices not being available at the garden centers. I offered alternatives and she'll get these later in the season.

What was planted? Mainly perennials which prefer full sun like

• Daylily
• Rudbeckia
• Echincea
• Catmint
• Speedwell
• Tufted Hair Grass
• Variegated Iris

The business of gardening, like any other business, is mainly about managing client expectations. If you're not paid and just volunteering your time, that's fine and noble too but if payment isn't received, you don't have any "skin the game." So, as in the case of any new garden I put in, I always stress the after-care requirements. This also serves as a CYA ("cover your a*s) so no one can claim "you didn't tell me to water them regularly!"

I don't offer a warranty for dead plants since clients pay me just for my time on site so, in a way, this gives them an incentive to look after their new plants. For Wendy's new garden beds, the critical factor is regular watering by hand (there's no automatic irrigation in place) for the first summer at least until the plants' root-balls achieve the size suggested by the Holy Grail of a transplant's evolution: "once established." 

I would love to come back in the future to see how the perennials and shrubs fill in. 

And not one boxwood or hydrangea in sight!