A New Toronto Native Pollinator-Friendly Garden in Rosedale (!)

An Oasis in a Desert of Euonymus, Cedars and Boxwoods

Look around your neighbourhood and you may notice many of the same perennials, shrubs and trees repeated in one front yard after another. I've always wondered why this is the case. Is it due to peer pressure, lack of horticultural knowledge, keeping up (or down) with the Joneses? 

From my experience in working around central Toronto neighbourhoods, there is often little diversity in front-facing public plantings. We get very similar plant groupings (or what I call "templates") regardless of where you are in the city. Not too often (or not often enough) do I see a garden that's a little different from its neighbours. 

And heaven forbid you try to grow vegetables in the front yard! 

I met this client who lives in a "nicer" area of Toronto called Rosedale ("nicer" just meaning the houses are a little more expensive than in other areas although these days a million Canadian dollars doesn't necessarily buy much in the real estate bubble we're experiencing) who was open to the idea of attracting pollinators to his front garden bed. 

A breakthrough in his area, to be honest, and this encouraged us to complete this garden makeover.

The small raised front bed as shown below isn't large in area but did have one large tree in the past (the stump still remains which I used as a "stepping stone") and, more significantly to me, contained a very old and mature red twig dogwood (Cornus sericea) shrub. 

Toronto Pollinator Garden in Rosedale Before 

Eventually, I managed to excavate the shrub stump (barely) and opened up the bed for the new pollinator-friendly perennials. The area faces east and gets full sun until mid-afternoon so the new purple coneflowers, black eye Susans and other bee and other butterfly-attracting perennials should have no issues getting established (as long as the client waters regularly for the first year or so).

Here are more "before" pictures of the garden makeover from various angles:

Rosedale Toronto Native Pollinator Garden Before 

Rosedale Toronto Native Pollinator Garden Before

Rosedale Toronto Pollinator Garden Before 

Rosedale Toronto Pollinator Garden Before 

Toronto Pollinator Garden in Rosedale Before 

And the "after" pictures:

Rosedale Toronto Native Pollinator Garden After 

Rosedale Toronto Native Pollinator Garden After

Rosedale Toronto Pollinator Garden After 

Rosedale Toronto Pollinator Garden After 

Toronto Pollinator Garden in Rosedale After 

Toronto Pollinator Garden in Rosedale After 

Odds are high that insects and perhaps birds will visit this oasis this summer and future years. (You just have to give them reasons to actually do so.)

The neighbours may not be ready for such a change!

A New Pollinator-Friendly Raised Bed Garden in Toronto, Part One

We Won't Be Missing Yew(s)

It's almost half way through my winter hiatus or hibernation and while "spring thoughts" shouldn't be in our minds yet, I am being inspired by some gardening books I'm reading now. I haven't posted anything in over a month and wonder why you, dear reader, even stick around this ghost town of a blog. But someone is reading so...onwards and upwards in 2020! 

Combing through my 2019 pictures, I realized I never wrote about a few design proposals for a courtyard complex I "maintain" (well, visit in the spring and fall only). I've posted some "before" and "after" pictures of the cleanups I've done for this condo board before. For example, here's a post titled Weeding Raised Beds in a Central Toronto Courtyard: Getting Gritty in Downtown Toronto that shows the beds before and after I work my magic!

There are about a dozen raised beds inside the private courtyard of various sizes and shapes. They all have yews (Taxus sp.), pruned into balls, ovals, alien spacecraft, etc. and most have hostas, that overused workhorse among perennials. That's more or less it. Lots of green.

Automatic irrigation is in place but no one looks after the plants' maintenance (i.e., no weeding or pruning occurs in the summer).

Some of the condo board members expressed an interest to modernize some of the beds as the feeling in the courtyard is definitely circa 1983. They asked me to come up with three drawings for three small beds as a start. In this post (and two future ones), I'll show the existing bed and my rendered sketch showing new perennial possibilities.

Here's "Bed A", for lack of a more scintillating description:

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden Design Before 

It faces west but will be shaded by early afternoon due to a large tree located nearby. For this and the other raised beds,the clients wanted more plants that offer seasonal interest and encourage more wildlife (pollinators and birds especially) to visit.

My proposal...

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden Design After 

The yews, I suggest, would be removed but the existing native serviceberry kept. Four types of shade tolerant native species would fill in the small bed:

• Cinnamon Fern
• Turtlehead
• Eastern Red Columbine
• Canadian Wild Ginger

What do you think of my plant selection?

Spring Time in a Riverdale Ecological Garden

Gardening with Native Plants in Toronto: Spring Can Be Beautiful, Just Don't Expect Lilacs

What a spring it has been so far! Like last year, we've seen ornamental Flowering cherries, crabapples, magnolias and others display their glorious and short-lived blooms. Of course, tulips, daffodils and other seasonal bulbs offer their much-needed colour too, notwithstanding squirrel vandalism. But what if you don't want such traditional trees, shrubs, perennials and bulbs in your garden? Could it be beautiful too in the spring?

A garden I visit weekly to look after shows you that the answer is a resounding "yes!"

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica)
spring flowers in a Riverdale
ecological garden

I'd describe the philosophy behind this garden's plant choice and maintenance as "ecological" as the clients want a variety of insects and birds while choosing perennials and shrubs native to southern Ontario only. There's no use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, mainly due to the absence of a lawn.

White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)
spring flower in a
Riverdale ecological garden

I've profiled this garden many times in my blog's history (search "ecological garden"). It's one of my favourite gardens to work in due to omission: the plants here are simply absent for the most part in all the other gardens I maintain. So from purely a maintenance aspect, I find it very interesting to see how the garden changes from April to November. Buddha knows, I can look at mophead hydrangeas and boxwoods so many times before boredom ensues.

Wood violet (Viola odorata) spring flowers
in a Riverdale ecological garden

In May, many shrubs and perennials in this Riverdale garden offer their nectar and pollen to hungry pollinators. In high summer, the frenzy of activity peaks when other perennials like asters, Ironweed, and coneflowers are covered with hoverflies, many species of bees, moths and butterflies.

American Plum (Prunus americana)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

Canadian wild ginger (Asarum canadense)
in a Riverdale ecological garden

It's not only flowers which are attractive now. Like any "great" garden (well, to me), foliage plays an equally important part. Several clumps of Canadian Wild Ginger (Asarum canadense) like the one above have really established themselves over the past few years. The soft richly-veined new leaves are very ornamental. They remind me of Siberian Bugloss (Brunnera macrophylla). 

Canadian wild ginger
(Asarum canadense)
leaf detail in a Riverdale
ecological garden

Golden currant (Ribes aureum)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden 

Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

These nodding flowers will turn into "smoke" later. The fuzzy flower reminds me more of a Dr.Seuss character than anything else!

Prunus americana (American Plum)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

I'm mildly irritated when I read or hear the claim that using native plant species will automatically and magically mean much lower maintenance requirements (no pests, dieases, etc.) All I can say is "it depends." While the great majority of plants in this garden don't need fussing about, this Plum is the exception. It suckers everywhere and is very prone to scale, leaf curl and blight damage so parts of the tree look crispy later. The clients spray a mixture of horticultural oil mixed with a fungicide to control the damage to acceptable levels. If it was up to me, this plum would be replaced with a Pagoda dogwood (Cornus alternifolia) but...it's not up to me!

Red baneberry (Actaea rubra)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

Another shady character above. The globular flowers will produce brilliant red berries in autumn. Perhaps I should collect them and try to germinate them?

Serviceberry
(Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance')
spring blooms in a
Riverdale ecological garden

Sharp-eyed readers will look at the above and ask: "if native species are only found in this garden, why is a tree-form Serviceberry (Amelanchier) cultivar here?" That's a great question and I don't have an answer. If it's any consolation, there are three medium sized multi-stemmed Serviceberry shrubs nearby which fruit profusely (I enjoy a few ripe berries before the robins and squirrels beat me to them in July.)

And, yes, the fall colour is excellent on this small tree!

Serviceberry
(Amelanchier x grandiflora 'Autumn Brilliance')
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

Trillium grandiflorum (White Trillium)
spring flower in a
Riverdale ecological garden

Our provincial flower above in full bloom. We're trying to establish a colony under a cherry tree but it'll take time.

Below is a closeup from a clump of Wood violets. They can be "weedy" but since there's no lawn here, that's never an issue. The two patches of violets always die back (go dormant) in August's heat but recover nicely in the fall with fresh foliage.

Viola odorata (Wood violet)
spring flowers in a
Riverdale ecological garden

A front garden makeover in York Mills/St. Andrews: Natives? Non-natives? Does it really matter?

Re-thinking a Toronto shade garden

Sometimes a new garden project develops out of the blue. Here's what was growing recently in this Toronto front garden: areas covered by Yellow Archangel (Lamiastrum galeobdolon) in medium shade.

Lamiastrum galeobdolon (Yellow Archangel) 
York Mills front garden renovation

For anyone familiar with this groundcover, you'll know that it "likes to move quickly" which is a euphemism for being mildly invasive. And I find the leaves stink as well. But if you want quick coverage, Yellow archdevil archangel could work, maybe too successfully.


When I first visited this location in the St. Andrews/York Mills area of Toronto about two months ago, the client was asking for bids to remove large patches of groundcover and replacing that with new sod.

Another landscaper/gardener came by before and offered to rototill the Lamiastrum and put in new Kentucky bluegrass sod.

Now, let that sink in for a minute.

I'll wait.



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.

.

.

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Okay, I'm back. The goal was to sod over a lot of the area currently which is, to be nice, over-run by the lamiastrum. Obviously (maybe not to some "professionals") the existing groundcover should be removed. Or was the strategy simply laying down rolls of sod on top of chopped up stems of lamiastrum (wonderfully propagated when you think about it)?


When did rototilling become the new method of weeding? This is not the first time I've come across this reasoning, unfortunately.


Does this make sense to you? It didn't to me and I pointed out to the client the eventual failure of trying to grow sod in soil that was full of weeds (in this case, nicely-sliced up lamiastrum stems) and in, at best, dappled shade.


Instead, perhaps the lamiastrum could be confined to certain areas that were very shaded and dry (in which case, it's actually doing its job as an effective groundcover in "tough-to-grow anything" spots) and removed from a prominent area more visible by the neighbours. Space for an expanded shade garden, then, could be created for the introduction of shade-tolerant perennials and shrubs.


At this point, I was more concerned with not having a rototiller ripping tree roots and destroying the soil structure than "winning" new business. I guess "working with the site" doesn't carry much meaning when you have plenty of gas-powered machines rearing to go and loads of rolls of sod on the truck.


Literally, "landscraping" comes to mind.


I guess my thoughts made sense with the homeowner so she hired me to create a new garden from this:

York Mills St. Andrews 
front garden renovation before

York Mills St. Andrews 
front garden renovation before 

to eventually this:

Toronto York Mills St. Andrews 
front garden renovation after

Here's the same bed from another angle. I did leave a strip of the Lamiastrum on the left side because I felt it was on the neighbour's property. I would be ideal if all of it was removed but that's between the two homeowners.


After removing the groundcover and many turf seedlings (small clumps of grass), I mixed in many bags of composted cow manure to increase the organic matter in the soil. Sad to say that no worms were found anywhere.

York Mills St. Andrews Toronto 
front garden renovation before 

The question of what type of new plants should be put in, I find, is usually not tricky. Most clients don't know or care and just want me to "make it pretty/tidy/like someone gave a damn." This client, however, had a different vision and preferred mostly native species but open to the idea of "non-natives." That was fortunate because the supply of plants for sale in July is dwindling at the garden centres. Many times, my plant choices are sold out so substitutes are picked instead.


It's a version of the mantra "you get what you get and you don't get upset" I repeated to my children when they were young (I still do repeat it naively) and to more than a few clients (nicer wording though) when we try to buy plants in the dead of summer.
 

York Mills St. Andrews Toronto 
front garden renovation after 

St. Andrews York Mills 
front garden renovation before

St. Andrews York Mills 
front garden renovation before

St. Andrews York Mills 
front garden renovation after 

St. Andrews York Mills Toronto 
front garden renovation before

York Mills St. Andrews Toronto 
front garden renovation after 

Toronto York Mills St. Andrews 
front garden renovation after

Are you wondering what perennials and shrubs were planted in this Toronto shade garden? Here are some plants on the eclectic list:

• Hakonechloa macra ‘Albostriata’ (Japanese Forest Grass)
• "June" hosta
• Cornus canadensis (Bunchberry)
• Gaultheria procumbens (Wintergreen)
• Athyrium ‘Ghost’ (Ghost Fern)
• Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ (Siberian Bugloss)
• Anemone sylvestris (Snowdrop Anemone)
• Ligularia dentata ‘Osiris Fantaisie’ (Dwarf Ligularia)
• Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird' (Sweet pepperbush)
• Lindera benzoin (Spice bush)

Ecological gardening in Toronto with native plants

Not your typical Toronto garden?

I've been in business as a gardener over the past 12 years and worked in many different types of gardens for as many different types of clients. No two gardens are ever the same just as no two people are identical. (Ok, identical twins excepted. Maybe such gardens belonging to identical twins would be similar?)

We have our strengths, weaknesses, preferences and idiosyncracies. Same with our gardens since they are a reflection of our values. Even having no garden implies a certain set of values.

I work in mainly small to medium-sized gardens in Toronto's central core, more or less, and many sites have similar plantings and designs.The shrubs, trees and perennials are often inherited by the new owners or simply bought at local garden centres. In zone 5 Toronto, I see many common plants like boxwoods, yews, "Emerald" cedars, lilacs, rhodos,  hostas, etc. as I travel to and from job sites I also take care of gardens  which contain these ubiquitous plantings and, not surprisingly,  they are common because such plants are relatively inexpensive, readily available (especially in big box stores during the spring retail rush) and generally easy to maintain. 

Seriously, when was the last time you successfully and willfully killed a hosta?

April is around the corner so likely (hopefully?) I will get a call to return to one garden I've been weeding and watering for several years in Toronto's  Riverdale neighbourhood. I profiled this garden originally in a post titled Another tale of two Toronto gardens A Toronto ecological-based garden: functional or ornamental? Or both? back in August 2014. What I find atypical about this garden, in my limited gardening experiences throughout the city, is the diversity of wildlife I see every visit. The reasons for the presence of birds, insects and other pollinators lie in the type of native plants found here.

Agastache foeniculum (Giant hyssop)
Toronto ecological gardening 

The plants shown in this post are found in and around the clients' rain garden that was built to collect rainwater from the garage and part of the house's main roof. These pictures were taken last August to give you an idea of what is blooming in late summer. There was so much activity going on with the bees, hoverflies, and butterflies feeding everywhere.

(I also looked after two raised beds containing tomatoes, kale, cucumbers and nasturtiums in case you're worried that food production was not involved. I just don't find pictures of staked vegetables particularly beautiful!)

Blazing star (Liatris spicata)
Toronto native plants 

Are there "problems" found in this garden? Sure, if you define some pest and disease damage as problems: the American plum usually gets leaf curl, we had to remove an American cranberry bush (Viburnum trilobum) due to persistent Viburnum leaf beetle damage and the slugs I don't collect chew up the kale. The owners, though, accept this rather low threshold of damage and don't use herbicides.They see the gardens as part of the larger ecosystem that accepts the reality of "pests" (a human definition). There's a high level of resiliency built into the space, partially accomplished by choosing and planting a large number of different native plant species.

I think resilient gardens are part of the future. For me, they require fewer inputs and maintenance needs while still being beautiful and functional. Xeriscapes and rain gardens are examples of resilient gardens that should be more common in Toronto but are property owners open to the idea?

Common fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus)
Toronto native plants 

Hibiscus moscheutos (Swamp rose mallow)
Toronto native plants 

Impatiens capensis (Spotted Jewelweed)
Toronto native plants

Lobelia cardinalis (Cardinal flower)
Toronto ecological gardening 

Rudbeckia laciniata (Great coneflower)
Toronto ecological gardening 

Tall Ironweed (Vernonia gigantea )
Toronto ecological gardening 

White wood aster (Eurybia divaricatus)
Toronto ecological gardening

Blazing star (Liatris spicata)
 Toronto ecological gardening 

Common fleabane (Erigeron philadelphicus)
Toronto ecological gardening 

Hibiscus moscheutos (Swamp rose mallow)
Toronto ecological gardening 

Impatiens capensis (Spotted Jewelweed)
Toronto ecological gardening

Jewelweed (Impatiens capensis)
Toronto ecological gardening 

(Lobelia siphilitica) Great Blue Lobelia
 Toronto ecological gardening 

(Rudbeckia laciniata) Great coneflower
Toronto native plants

Tall Ironweed (Vernonia gigantea)
Toronto native plants 

Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis)
Toronto ecological gardening 

If you're in the Toronto area, the North American Native Plant Society holds a plant sale every May. Details for 2016 haven't been posted on its website yet so check it out later in spring. (The plants shown in this post were bought at the NANPS sale in the past.) 

It might be worth a visit. Who knows? You may think about your garden and the gardening process in a new light afterwards.