A Toronto Garden Makeover in Dufferin Grove

From Messy and Overgrown To....

Heading into October, I usually don't get requests to transplant new perennials and shrubs. Many homeowners are entering "fall cleanup" mode and garden centres and nurseries understandably don't offer a large selection of plants anyway. But recently I was introduced to a new client (I'll call her Joanne) through another Toronto gardening blogger (Helen Battersby, no need to give her an alias!). Joanne wasn't happy with the state of her backyard in central Toronto's Dufferin Grove neighbourhood so she asked for my advice in "renovating" the garden beds. 

Here are some "before" pictures showing the small garden areas flanking the path to and from the back deck to the garage:

Dufferin Grove Toronto new garden renovation before 

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Renovation Before

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Makeover Before 

Dufferin Grove Toronto Garden Makeover Before 

Dufferin Grove Toronto Garden Renovation before 

And on the other side of the yard:

Dufferin Grove Toronto Garden Renovation Before

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Makeover Before

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Makeover Before

I usually encounter the following in many of the garden makeovers I do:

• beds not weeded
• beds not edged or have unattractive plastic edging
• shrubs haven't been pruned in many years
• plants aren't in scale with the size of the yard (as they haven't been pruned or simply too large and are the wrong plants in the wrong site)
• existing perennials are not grouped together, leading to a weak design  

The above pictures should hopefully show that most of these points were in play.

Where to start?

I suppose after many years of thinking and implementing small-scaled garden design, I intuitively think about the functions of the various garden spaces in relation to the site realities, namely, the amount of direct sunlight the garden gets, the presence of large trees, shrubs, hedges, the type and condition of the soil, etc.. In Joanne's case, I considered the low back deck and mature Kentucky Coffee tree as the dominant factors. The tree's shadow does allow for direct sunlight for a few hours around late morning into mid afternoon. The low deck that has no railing means that it was important to have low growing perennials around the seating (and main garden viewing) area. I had the opportunity to introduce shorter plants that flowered for most of summer into fall around the deck.

There are often "prized locations" in many gardens due to favourable sight lines, micro climates, or simply areas which receive more direct sunlight than others. The small area in front of (or immediately below if you prefer) the deck was prime real estate that was wasted due to presence of four old purple leaf sandcherry shrubs previously cut down to the stumps. Of course, such hard pruning doesn't usually kill them so new shoots soon emerged. There were also four small "Emerald Gaiety" Euonymus shrubs growing unchecked. The appearance was very messy looking to be honest. A neighbouring dwarf Korean lilac which hadn't been pruned in years added to the chaos. So with Joanne's blessing, I dug out all the sandcherries and Euonymus and pruned the lilac hard.

Here are some "after" pictures, showing this prominent section of the garden with new perennials. I also planted hundreds of species tulips, alliums and other bulbs to give early spring colour. The new perennials won't add colour until summer so we needed some interest in April and May.

Dufferin Grove Toronto Garden Makeover After

Dufferin Grove Toronto new garden renovation after 

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Renovation After

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Makeover After 

Dufferin Grove Toronto Garden Renovation After 

The bed on the opposite side has mature shrubs like a P.G. hydrangea standard, an "Emperor One" Japanese maple, a Korean dogwood and two large tree peonies. They all need some pruning in order to re-establish the correct scale which should exist in this garden. The hydrangea standard currently doesn't look like a standard, the maple looks like a multi-stem shrub, the tree peonies have many dead stems and the dogwood should not have planted in the tight corner as it will get tall and wide, even for a medium sized tree. But I'll do the corrective pruning next spring. For now, I weeded all the beds, removed the unattractive black plastic edging that was popping up in many places, dug a new "trench" using an edger around the beds, planted more daffodils, tulips and crocuses and placed back the mulch.

Dufferin Grove Toronto Garden Renovation After

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Makeover After

Toronto Dufferin Grove New Garden Makeover After 

 

This small project took about 10 hours from my initial meeting with Joanne to what you see above. I may do 3-5 similar micro garden (re)designs a season which keep the creative juices going in tandem with the more mundane weeding and deadheading. 

Speaking of mundane, the fall cleanups will keep me busy right until the end of November!

 

A Koreatown Front Garden Cleanup and Installation

A New Front Garden on a Slope

Gardening on a slope can be difficult if retaining walls and tiers are not constructed but not impossible. In this post, I'm returning back to a sloped "garden" in the Toronto neighbourhood of Koreatown. 

My first visit in September 2019, profiled in a post titled "A Front Garden Cleanup in Koreatown: Labouring on Labour Day" , involved heavy duty weeding. It became apparent quickly during my second and most recent visit that no maintenance occurred between visits, as the "before" photos show:

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation Before

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation Before

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation Before 

Koreatown Toronto New Front
Garden Installation Before 

Koreatown Toronto New Front
Garden Installation Before 

Toronto Koreatown Front
Garden Installation Before 

Toronto Koreatown Front Garden
Weeding and New Installation Before

Toronto Koreatown Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation Before 

The client requested a new garden with some sort of groundcover, with the aims of filling in the exposed slope surface (and reduce future weeding), retaining the soil that naturally wants to spill to the bottom with every heavy rainstorm, and creating some curb appeal. Simply throwing a layer of mulch on top of the slope just means a nice big mound at the bottom over time.

The slope has no retaining elements (e.g., boulders) and the client does not wish to pay for the construction of tiered beds. The area faces west so receives full sun all afternoon. 

After removing the wonderful thistle and other large weeds, my plan was to create a rock garden look, without the rocks. Unfortunately, she couldn't find my suggested plants like moss phlox and rock cress but was able to purchase other "alpine" type of perennials.

And afterwards....

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation After

Admittedly, new "baby" perennial transplants seem puny (they are) but with regular watering during the first season, they should fill in over time.

Koreatown Toronto New Front
Garden Installation After

Koreatown Toronto New Front
Garden Installation After

Toronto Koreatown Front
Garden Installation After

Toronto Koreatown Front Garden
Weeding and New Installation After 

The new garden is prone to heavy weed infestation with all the freshly exposed soil so I advised the client to keep on top of the weeding and watering. It will be interesting to see if these maintenance tasks were actually done!

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!

Me, the Goutweed Removal Machine!

Saving a Bedford Park, Toronto Front Garden Bed

The proverb "Give them an inch and they'll take a mile" applies to many weedy perennial groundcovers plaguing Toronto gardeners. You may know the culprits by sight, if not by name: creeping bellflower, lily of the valley, plain green and variegated goutweed and let's not even dare mention Japanese Knotweed! 

In this short post, I'll show you how aggressively the plain Jane green version of goutweed or ground elder (Aegopodium podagraria ) can move through a garden bed and cause havoc with other plants. I've dug out as much of the goutweed last year but obviously by the "before" pictures below, not enough was removed as it has come back with a vengeance.

This view below is from the front door looking towards the street. The goutweed has travelled uninterrupted to cover about two-thirds of the rectangular front bed. You'd never know there many "choice" perennials engulfed by the goutweed but they will be revealed...

Bedford Park Toronto Front Yard
Goutweed Removal Cleanup Before

Here's the view looking across the bed:

Bedford Park Front Yard Goutweed
 Removal Spring Garden Cleanup Before

And from the other side...

Bedford Park Toronto Front Yard
Goutweed Removal Cleanup Before

Looking up the path leading to the front door:

Toronto Bedford Park Front Yard
Goutweed Removal Cleanup Before

Post Goutweed Removal:

Bedford Park Toronto Front Yard
Goutweed Removal Cleanup After 

Bedford Park Front Yard Goutweed
Removal Spring Garden Cleanup After

Ironically, this cleanup forced me to divide many perennials like hostas, daylilies and irises that had goutweed stems and roots infiltrating their own root balls. 

Bedford Park Toronto Front Yard
Goutweed Removal Cleanup After 

The new mulch will help reduce airborne weed seeds from germinating (and lower watering needs) but is completely ineffective in stopping weeds that travel by underground stems or roots. The goutweed ignores this surface layer and happily moves through the bed unless you do something about it.

Toronto Bedford Park Front Yard
Goutweed Removal Cleanup After 

My g(o)ut(weed) feeling is that the infestation problem will occur unless this client hires me or someone to dig out new baby goutweed plants which inevitably will return, even with my best efforts.