Fine Gardening in Cabbagetown

Gardening in the...Parking Pad?

Perhaps there are some of my dozen or so readers (thank you!) who romanticize about being a paid gardener: working outside, surrounded by beautiful plants in other people's gardens and getting paid for this privilege. And I'd say this is more or less true, about three-quarters of the time (getting paid is always 100% of the time; otherwise, one is just a glorified hobbyist.)

But that other 25%... 

Toronto Parking Pad Cleanup Cabbagetown Before 

I'm making out things worse than they really are. This short post covers the less-attractive side of garden maintenance: I'll call it "parking pad weeding" (I just made this up but you can use it freely!)

I've cleaned up more than a few parking spots over the years. It's always an "add-on" task, when the client says: "Do you mind tidying up the parking area? There are just a few weeds..."

This small area in Cabbagetown is "only" 15 feet by 10 feet, I'm guessing, but as you can see, no car has been here for a few years. Opportunistic weeds, on the other hand, have taken full advantage of the bare soil.

Toronto Parking Pad Cleanup Cabbagetown After

Weeding by hand-digging instead of weed-whacker (line trimmer) is, of course, laborious and hard on the knees and back (hence, I was hired) and spraying with government-approved herbicides will take a while to show effect. To be honest, during these type of unglamourous and mundane jobs, I "zone out" and just focus on the square foot in front, dig out the weeds by their roots, move over, lather, rinse, repeat. It's my form of meditation: I think about what's for dinner, which clients I'll see the next day, the aching feeling in my lower back, etc.

Fortunately, there were no dog droppings (or worse) to deal with, just a litany of "Toronto's best weeds." I just count my blessing there wasn't any creeping bellflower to contend with.

Feel free to share this post with anyone thinking about becoming a "horticulturist". It's not just about pretty flowers, dahling!

Not the "Winter Interest" I Had in Mind

Gilding the Hydrangea

Christmas is around the corner, we've just put up the Christmas tree (well, my wife did) and there are seasonal decorations everywhere around the city adding to the festive feel. But I think at least one property owner has gone a little too far in applying the Christmas spirit in the garden. But let's first talk about that old warhorse of a garden design term, "winter interest."

Toronto gardens will look bare until next March aside from the presence of evergreens (boxwoods, yews, and cedars usefully provide the plant "bones" when your garden is denuded) and very early season blooming plants like witch hazel, hellebores, and crocuses which give us much needed colour. How bare depends on how much "clean up" occurs in October and November: one can ignore the garden as it goes into dormancy by leaving all stalks, flowers, berries and leaves alone, in situ. On the other end of the garden maintenance spectrum, you could also remove all leaves and dead material in order for the garden to be "clean and ready for next spring" (words used by a client in the past.) Why a garden is in such dire need to maintain horticultural hygiene has always been a mystery to me. I occasionally remind such clients that a vigorous fall cleanup doesn't occur in nature.

And of course a happy medium can occur by removing some plant material to make your spouse and/or neighbours happy.

By choosing shrubs and trees that have ornamental stem and bark features like vivid colour and interesting texture, horizontal branches, old flowers and berries to catch and contrast against the snow, you can extend the seasonal interest of your little patch of heaven. (I can't help you here if you're a veggie grower.) You can also plant many perennials with dormant leaves and stalks that hold up well under the weight of snow and howling winds (ornamental grasses fit the bill perfectly.) Given winter is easily more than a third of the gardening calendar here in Toronto, that goal may be worthwhile.

"Annabelle" Smooth Hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle') is very commonly used in Toronto gardens and I've posted many pictures of the shrub in my "fall cleanup" posts recently. In a nutshell, if you grow this shrub, every autumn you face the question: "should I leave all the dormant stalks and flowers [more accurately, the flower balls are "corymbs"] alone for winter?" like this:

Autumn "Annabelle" Smooth Hydrangeas 

Or "should I cut the aforementioned stalks hard to the ground?" like this:

Pruned "Annabelle" Smooth Hydrangeas 

I think either option is fine going into winter. I do recommend that in the spring, an older Smooth Hydrangea shrub which hasn't been pruned hard in a few years should undergo some sort of rejuvenation pruning to clear out the inevitable dead interior stems and branches. Since "Annabelle"'s flowers are produced on new wood, you won't go through a season without those beloved white pom-poms by doing this.

Now getting back to the Christmas theme, what I don't recommend you do is this, as recently seen in my neighbourhood:

Spray painted "Annabelle" Hydrangeas 

Spray painted "Annabelle" Smooth Hydrangeas 

From a plant health care perspective, spray painting dead flowers shouldn't affect the shrub. You can make the argument that the flowers are going to be pruned away next spring and I'd agree with you. And for all I know, the owner/artist will prune away Hydrangea arborescens "Metallica" (trademark pending) on December 26.

Since beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I'll leave it up to you to decide on the shrub's artistic merits going into Christmas and the New Year. I think it's gosh-awful ugly.

On this positive note, I wish everyone well wishes over the holidays! And leave the spray painting to poinsettias...

Sex and manure: the missing link now revealed

Why this Toronto gardener won't think about composting the same way

File this post under, literally, scatalogical humour or simply, WTF, but this is a gardening blog after all and an irreverent one at that. (There are way too many how-to-grow-this-plant blogs out there. I refuse to add to the tedium.) Anyway, I can't make this stuff up.

I'm a big fan of composting: either doing it yourself in your backyard with some sort of contraption (bin, pit, pile, whatever you have handy) or diverting your organic green waste via the municipality's recycling program (if offered in your area.) So it was with a tinge of curiosity, disapproval and arousal that I re-discovered about the benefits of composting offered in the calendar (and video!) below:

Apparently, the Fertile Earth Foundation in Miami wondered aloud

How many people think about their poop as often as we do? How often do you ponder your #2? It tells us a lot about our health and what we need to eat, if we are dehydrated and so on. Plus, did you know there are safe ways to turn even our waste into Humanure? Yes, that is composted human poop! Your poop could be turned into to super rich black gold! Ok, maybe we're grossing you out. Let's change the subject. How often do you think about sex? Or beautiful women? This project is a tasteful synergy of those 2 things: The Ladies of Manure  2013 Calendar.

Now, don't start flaming me for bringing this non-profit organization's eco-friendly message to your collective conscience (something about not shooting the messenger.) I think we can all agree that while the goal of composting your coffee grounds and apple cores is noble, using sex to sell the message is cynical and unsettling to most people. (One can't say unsuccessful though as the Foundation has raised over $5 000 to date.)

Which got me thinking about sex and gardening, off the top of my head. There's always been an uncomfortable association in the West between the two topics, going all the way back (for believers) to Adam and Eve. To add human waste in the mix, metaphorically, is really too much for some tender gardeners. Since I'm from the East (China) where fertilizing with human manure is still common and not taboo, the concept isn't gag-me gross or mind-blowing.

I didn't think someone had the "vision" to incorporate three human needs (to excrete, to pro-create and to garden) in a calendar so either kudos or arrows to the creator.


By the way, this is what our fair city's recycling and waste containers look like if you're curious:

Source: Source: insidetoronto.com

A little less sexy, I'd say!







By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"

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Do cacti need viagra?

Or: Why we keep plants

Limp cactus is not the name of a punk band, yet...

The garden muses took me to my dad's place today. Going near his crumbling front stoop I noticed this cactus propped up, trying to achieve horticultural turgidity.

I didn't bother asking him why he's keeping and nurturing this guy (it has to be a guy!) as I doubt dear dad sees any irony with the composition.

My father's an interesting fellow, a bit of a well-educated hoarder. Why is he keeping the cactus?  Maybe it could be as simple as not being willing to throw away something living and "perfectly fine." I see variations of this affection among my clients as well: grandma's monster forsythia overtaking the front porch, the row of bridal wreath spiraea last pruned in 1978, the decrepit juniper bought as a baby 1 gallon plant now threatening to block out the second floor windows.

I always ask my customers before pruning if there's any sentiment attached to said-to-be-pruned shrub. New  homeowners who inherit a garden are often perplexed. "Why would we be possibly attached to this overgrown green blob?" is often communicated verbatim. Older garden-owners appreciate the question.

As I get older, I'm starting to understand the reluctance of letting go of objects which have meaning and significance. I need to remind myself that it's easy enough for me to say that "it's only a plant", let's shovel prune it and put something newer and cooler in. A plant can be a symbol of better days and of family and friends no longer here.

By Paul Jung, author of "garden muses: a Toronto gardening blog"Google Google Find us on Google+ Find us on Google+