A new garden in the Danforth/Greektown area of Toronto: a case study

Formally informal or informally formal...you decide

As you, gentle reader, may know, I occasionally design gardens and when I do, I remember and implement the design principles I learned as a student of landscape design, oh, about ten years ago. We (the students) were taught the process of:

• creating a preliminary scaled site drawing
• site review of existing conditions and deficiencies
• speaking with the client to determine needs, wants and budget
• drawing a functional diagram with "bubbles", based on specific uses and activities
• considering certain geometric styles (square, rectilinear, circular or free-form)
• considering certain garden styles (informal, formal, Western, Eastern)
• creating several preliminary designs, one of which will be selected
• creating a planting plan
• creating a final master plan

Oh, and a last point not usually included in textbooks: getting paid in full.

Of course, to roughly paraphrase German military strategist Helmuth von Moltke, no landscape plan survives contact with the client. (His quote was "no battle plan survives contact with the enemy.") Assumptions surface and promptly blown out of the water. Material and plant lists change depending on budgets or lack of them. And on and on...

But creating the final plan wasn't painful with these clients at all. They're really sweet people!

Since I'm not a landscape architect, landscape gardener, landscape designer, or their variations, I haven't gone through this formal checklist since my final landscape design assignment. But they are ingrained and I recalled them more or less automatically when I was asked to create a planting plan for this garden:

the danforth Toronto garden design before by Paul Jung Gardening Services

Greektown Toronto garden design before by Paul Jung Gardening Services

the danforth garden design before by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

the danforth new garden design before by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Greektown garden design before by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Here's my thought process:


A) Site analysis:

The area:

• is a 16' x 14' rectangle with the side bed measuring about 2 ' by 25'
• has compacted clay, mainly due to construction equipment
• receives full sun until mid-afternoon so about 6 hours of direct sunlight
• is in front of the new garage, wall colour is a dark grey or charcoal if you want to get fancy
• bounded by, as you can see, grey concrete pavers making up the patio and path to garage

B) The clients want:

• perennials with a specimen tree or standard
• a green and white motif (green leaves, white flowers only)
• lower garden maintenance, and agree to water with a hose regularly
• an informal garden design (after rejecting my first formal style plan)

C): Functional bubble diagrams not required

 This area was the last piece of the puzzle when the backyard was rebuilt. I imagine the owners viewing the garden mainly from the patio table when entertaining or from the kitchen door. Creating a bio-diverse garden environment isn't important to them.

D) Plant selection:

Based on the green leaf and white flower request, I suggested:

• "Guacamole" Hosta
• "Bridal Veil" astilbe
• "Honorine Jobert" Japanese anemone
• "David" summer phlox
• "Seiryu" Japanese maple as a focal point
• Maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis "Gracillimus" for the side strip) 

There's a flowering sequence from late spring (the astilbes) until fall (the Japanese anemones). The specimen Japanese maple has green foliage until turning a lovely crimson/orange in the fall.

There's a contrast in foliage texture as well between the finely dissected foliage of the "Seiryu", the hostas' bold lime green and rough, almost hairy, astilbe leaves. 

The maiden grass would accentuate the length of the path, spills over nicely and softens the paver edge and requires very little care.

E) Garden style:

• clients prefer the plants sited informally, no rows or quadrants
• I sited them ad hoc, based on intuition and feel.

F): Soil amended:

25 bags of triple mix dug into the compacted clay. A 2-3" inch of black mulch (clients' preference) applied on top after planting.

Here are the immediate results:

the danforth Toronto garden design after by Paul Jung Gardening Services

Greektown Toronto garden design after by Paul Jung Gardening Services

the danforth garden design after by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

the danforth new garden design after by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Greektown garden design after by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

The monochromatic colour scheme lends to a formal style but the plant placement (in small groups co-mingling with one another) feels more informal.

I returned recently to clean up the gardens a little (weeded and trimmed away the wilting hosta leaves) and had a perfect opportunity to see the Japanese anemones on full display. The clear white blooms contrast so well against the dark grey garage wall. The "Seiryu" Japanese maple is just starting to change colour but won't peak until November. Lastly, the maiden grass is just forming its seedheads. They will not be cut back until net spring, providing winter interest until, yikes, March.

the danforth Toronto garden design after autumn by Paul Jung Gardening Services

Greektown Toronto garden design after autumn by Paul Jung Gardening Services

the danforth new garden design after autumn by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Greektown garden design after autumn by Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

It will be interesting to see how this garden evolves over the years. I imagine the plantings will get bigger and lusher to balance the hard edges and surfaces of the pavers. And just maybe the clients will invite me over for dinner outside one evening so that I can truly admire the design!


Update as of September 2015:

Yes, the plants have really filled in nicely! It's late September and the "David" summer phlox is still blooming while the "Honorine Jobert" anemones are the real stars now. The clients planted two columnar hornbeams as well in keeping with the green and white monochromatic colour scheme.

 "Honorine Jobert" Japanese anemone x hybrida
and "David" Summer Phlox (Phlox paniculata)
fall blooms in Toronto

"Honorine Jobert" Japanese anemone x hybrida as part of monochromatic colour scheme

Monochromatic green garden design
in this Danforth backyard

 Paul Jung Gardening Services
Danforth new backyard update

Danforth new backyard installed by
 Paul Jung Gardening Services: an update

Their gardens, my babies?

Who are the parents of a new garden?

It's late November in Toronto. We haven't had snow yet and most of the leaves have fallen or melted on the perennials. If you're a student of tree bark or (dormant) plant structure, this may be an interesting time (and will be for the next 4 months or so.)  For me, there isn't very much to look at in the garden. The glorious blaze of colours we had up to several weeks ago is replaced with bare limbs and stems. On the positive side, pruning strategies are more obvious for the shrubs and trees in the backyard, I guess!


Work is slowing down for the year so now is the time to evaluate the business' financials for trends. It's been another good year, considering the lingering effects of a recession. I've met quite a few clients from my Paul Jung Gardening Services website this year and look forward to meeting more next year as the business grows. I've also been privileged to maintain gardens for outstanding customers again who are really more like friends. Working in their gardens (many have been profiled in this blog) over the years has been a treat.


A new client, C., said something that I found very interesting and profound. She asserted that (a), the new garden I installed for her below doesn't really "belong" to her. Yes, of course, it's part of her property but she felt that my imprint on it via plant selection and placement (with her consultation) made it mine, somehow. And (b), the more time I maintained it, the more it became my garden. I was initially perplexed by her observation but upon further reflection, maybe she was on to something.

Here are the before and after shots:

Not much interest going on with the evergreens and sedum

We have more seasonal interest with some flowering shrubs and perennials

This wasn't a complex makeover. For her front garden, I removed most of the overgrown "foundation" plants like junipers and euonymus that were sheared into balls/vases/disks. They were replaced with perennials and shrubs she had in the back (e.g., 3 yellow variegated weigela, sedum, maiden grass, moss phlox) that now offer multi-season interest. Several dozen allium bulbs will start the show next spring. We now have the beginnings of something special, it is hoped.

Will this front garden ever be mine as C. believes? And what if she moves? Will the new owners know or care of its genesis? I always have a fond connection with the gardens I design, install and maintain. What started as a jungle or horticultural wasteland became a blank canvas then became a work of art and science, or, to mix metaphors, became my baby. And as anyone who has the experience of raising babies (I have two older babies) will tell you that it is a work in progress, the end results may never reach perfection even with the requisite amount of love and discipline.

Still, this never stops some of us from having them.