Big Time Weeding in Little Italy

Or "There's A Front Yard in There, Somewhere!"

At the end of every work season, I reflect back on some of nicer gardens I've worked in and some of the, well, not so nice. You may know some yards or gardens of the latter variety on your street; heck, you may even own one. That's o.k., I'm not here to judge but some cleanup jobs for me are simply more onerous than others due to the garden's size and amount of weeds, debris, etc. Occasionally, I'll just advise the prospective client that the scope of work is beyond what I can do and to hire someone else. There may be an awkward pause but it's better for me to walk away from this kind of project than take it on, find I'm overwhelmed and do a less than perfect job.

This post covers a recent cleanup I didn't walk away from (although when I first saw  the garden, I was tempted to!)

The owners of this property in Toronto's trendy Little Italy area didn't do much maintenance for their front yard this season, it's safe to say. The somewhat rectangular area is about 20 feet wide by 60 feet long and, more or less, covered with clumps of mature goldenrod, Yellow Avens, sow thistle, aster, burdock and lemon balm (all perennial weeds). Whatever remaining grass is overgrown and patchy.

They hired me to "tidy up" things so here are some pictures showing how the front yard looked like before and after my efforts:

Toronto Little Italy Front Garden Cleanup Before

Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup Before

The view from the sidewalk

Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup Before

Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup Before 

From the sidewalk, you may see the overgrown clumps of grass, sucker shoots from the base of the small maple tree, four mock orange shrubs and impressive stands of goldenrod and asters. What's not visible are several very-much-alive stumps of Siberian Elm (weed trees which were cut down in the past) and lots of thistles.

Mockorange shrubs in the forefront, 
goldenrods and asters behind them 

Toronto Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup Before

Above is the view leading 
towards the front door

And the view looking from the 
front door towards the street 
(Photo credit: picture taken by the clients) 

7 Hours Later....

How do you eat an elephant? Take one bite at a time, as the saying goes. In a severe clean up situation like this one, I start cutting down the stalks and leave the roots alone temporarily. Once all the vegetation above ground has been cut and carried away, I'll go in with my long handled shovel and start digging out entire root balls. All the mature weeds are perennials so just leaving them with their tops pruned looks nice but, of course, ineffective with dealing with them on a long term basis.

Fortunately, the weather was nice, dry and cool. Tackling this in the middle of July would not be fun!

Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup After 

Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup After

Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup After 

Little Italy Toronto Fall Front Garden Cleanup After 

Toronto Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup After 

Toronto Little Italy Fall Front Garden Cleanup After

Toronto Little Italy Front Garden Cleanup After 

Toronto Little Italy Front Garden Cleanup After

There Goes the Neighbourhood...

When Growing Goldenrod Upsets Your Neighbours

Having a garden should be an enjoyable process: you grow the plants you like and keep things a little tidy (or not) but people being people..

I work as a gardener in different parts of Toronto and notice that certain neighbourhoods have a distinctive landscaping style (as far as front yards are concerned.)  There seem to be unwritten rules about what plants should be displayed and how they grown and maintained (and maybe where you live, there are written by-laws defining what is a weed or not.)  Often, I see the same "landscape contractor" template being used: a mixture of broad-leaved evergreens (especially boxwoods, yews and "Emerald" white cedars), the ubiquitous "Bloodgood" Japanese maple for a specimen tree, and deciduous shrubs like "Annabelle" hydrangeas and burning bush.  And lo and behold, these plants and others can be easily found in the same big box stores from which you pick up your lumber, tiles, screws, etc.

So imagine if you don't like these common-as-nails plants or, shudder, you prefer something that has a "bad" and unwarranted reputation like native Canada goldenrod (Solidago canadensis)?  

Deer Park summer garden cleanup before 

I met a new client, Daniel, last week who asked me to weed his front garden and driveway (the latter has interlocking pavers) located in the Toronto neighbourhood called "Deer Park". To give you some context, Deer Park is one of the more tonier sections of our city and walking to Daniel's place from the nearby bus stop (I travel by public transit), the classic "template" was in full force: row upon row of boxwoods and yews with, surprise, surprise, masses of hydrangeas on display.

And then I came upon Daniel's front garden as shown above and below.

Toronto Deer Park summer garden clean up before 

Yes, the beds were full of weeds like Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)  but the biggest grievance Daniel had was with his neighbours complaining about his two clumps of goldenrod. A big horticultural myth is that goldenrod flowers cause allergies. It's guilt by association since goldenrod blooms around the same time ragweed does (the latter's wind-borned pollen causes hay fever while goldenrod's bee-borne pollen doesn't). I advised my client that wasn't true and more likely his neighbours didn't appreciate the "wild" look nestled among the other highly manicured front gardens.

Toronto Deer Park summer garden cleanup before 

You may be familiar with the term "NIMBY" which is an acronym for the phrase "Not In My Back Yard"  and describes the opposition some residents feel towards a new building or residence proposed to be built nearby. Toronto must be Canada's NIMBY capital and a recent proposed development even has one of Canada's most well known authors leading the charge.

What's going on with Daniel's front goldenrods is somewhat like the obverse of NIMBY which I call "NIYFY" or "Not In Your Front Yard" (if you are really upset with a neighbour's choice of plants and garden ornaments, you can add my favourite expletive and call it "NIYFFY"!) NIYFY, similar to NIMBY, describes a neighbour's opposition to a recent development in your front yard. I can imagine the letter discreetly placed in Daniel's mailbox containing a passionate plea to "remove that freaking cow pasture of a front garden which has caused property values along the street to plummet, etc., ad nauseum."

Daniel wisely ignored such (perhaps imagined, perhaps not) ravings about the blaming of Solidago canadensis being the source of some neighbour's kid's hay fever but realized that his case would be strengthened if the front was tidied up. So he found me via good old Google search....

Deer Park summer garden cleanup after

Toronto Deer Park summer garden clean up after 

Toronto Deer Park summer garden cleanup after 

Besides weeding the two beds and driveway, I pruned back the red-twig dogwood and "Bridal Wreath" spiraea shrubs. I'm sure some of Daniel's neighbours will still moan about the goldenrods  but these native weeds are very beautiful to pollinators and humans during late summer and early autumn in our fair city and, maybe your's too.

Summer's end at High Park



Spending an afternoon at Grenadier Pond

During the last days of summer, we had some sunny and gorgeous weather in Toronto. While we see a lot of green tree canopies, there are other unmistakable signs of autumn around us. The oaks and maples in High Park have not turned crimson and violet yet but the goldenrods are in full force.

Goldenrods exploding

I took the kids for a nice walk along one of the park's many trails starting at the north end. Our intention was to wind up at the southern boundary at the bottom of Grenadier Pond. We saw many other folks enjoying the sunny beautiful weather having picnics, fishing and good old fashioned loitering.




The north end of Grenadier Pond

It's hard to believe that a very busy highway (the Gardiner Expressway) is about a kilometer due south of this location. You can imagine the view from the houses behind the cattails. The perfect example of borrowed scenery. I seriously regretted not bringing my fishing rod as this is bass heaven! (For those inclined, fishing is allowed from shore. There are pike, bullheads and panfish to be caught, although eating your catch isn't advisable.)



Highly ornamental, for a "weed"

I don't know what attracted me to this flower. Obviously, it wasn't about the colour. I mean, a green flower?These were weeds growing among the naturalized goldenrods, asters and gray dogwood. Perhaps I didn't expect a green rosette and my brain was trying to fill in the centre with another colour. "Cabbagey" is the made up word that crosses my mind. I find the structure and symmetry intriguing.