Garden Muses: A Small Toronto Gardening Services Company Blog: new garden installation

Showing posts with label new garden installation. Show all posts

25.5.22

New Gardens in East York, Toronto

Adding Colour and Form to an Empty Canvas

I come across, occasionally, requests to plant gardens in newly constructed spaces which has its pros and cons. On the con side, the soil that's unceremoniously dumped in the garden by the contractor can be full of pieces of brick, glass and used coffee cups. On the other hand, if the contractor is kind and considerate, the new space (in this post, a raised bed) has brand new topsoil:

East York Front Garden Installation Before

I didn't want to show the front of the house, for privacy reasons, but the bed is located right below the front windows. New stucco can have an overpowering look so some short plants are needed to soften the house's appearance. I avoided planting shrubs which would hide the windows sooner than later so I chose shorter (3 feet tall or less) perennials which offer flowering throughout the season and give pollinators a reason to visit.

East York Front Garden Installation After

In the backyard, the client wanted to develop this small area below the deck which is also clearly visible from the backyard:

East York Back Garden Installation Before

I wanted to show you more proof that, long term, landscape fabric is useless. The weeds you see have germinated on top on or grown up and through the black textile. I pulled his "rug" of weeds off and dug out the many deeply-rooted weeds in order to prepare the bed for new perennials.

East York Back Garden Installation Before

The existing soil was adequate in texture but I added more composted manure to give the new perennials a head start. The picture below shows gaps between the plants due to a small tree stump which wasn't dug out. The client also didn't get all the plants I suggested for this area as the garden center was short stock. Hopefully, she'll get the rest of the list this season to fill in the spaces.

East York Back Garden Installation After

9.7.21

Gardening Under a Maple Tree: A Sisyphean Task?

Installing a New No Lawn Front Garden in the Fairbank/Belgravia Neighbourhood of Toronto

Gardening under a big maple tree is often an uphill battle. Much like Sisyphus being condemned by Zeus to push the same boulder up a hill, seeing it fall back down and repeating this task for the rest of eternity, a gardener who is foolishly optimistic and plants a new garden under a thirsty maple often sees the new plants die due to the dense shade and losing the competition to the tree for nutrients and water and feels the need to replace them. The process is repeated often until the gardener runs out of patience or funds.

I suppose it's a little better than what Sisyphus is currently dealing with, according to the myth.

But it's also a myth that establishing a garden in dry shade cannot be done. I've seen many gardens under mature trees which seem to thrive in seemingly inhospitable conditions. (Although, to be fair, I'm not privy to the homeowner's water bill if irrigation is constantly needed).

With this foolish optimism, I created this new garden in less than favourable conditions.

Here's a picture showing the client's small front garden in Toronto's west end, under and around a maple tree before I "renovated" ("resurrected"?) it:

Fairbank Toronto No Lawn Front Garden Installation Before

This space was a small patch of lawn until last year when the homeowner decided to remove it. She was tired of watering and mowing such a small patch of grass and the lawn was probably patchy anyway, being in the shade of the maple.

As you can see, weeds have taken advantage of the bare soil before I arrived!

The soil itself was very compacted due to construction (house renovation) so digging holes for the new transplants was a challenge. The maple's extensive surface root system didn't help with the transplanting process either, especially near the base of the trunk.

But I managed to find pockets of soil to place the small starter perennials.

Here are more before and after pictures of the no lawn garden makeover:

Fairbank Toronto No Lawn Front Garden Installation After

Belgravia Toronto No Lawn Front Garden Installation Before

Belgravia Toronto No Lawn Front Garden Installation After

Belgravia Toronto No Lawn Front Garden Installation Before

Fairbank Toronto No Lawn Front Garden Installation After

Toronto Belgravia No Lawn Front Garden Installation Before

Toronto Belgravia No Lawn Front Garden Installation After

Toronto Fairbank No Lawn Front Garden Installation Before

Toronto Fairbank No Lawn Front Garden Installation After

Toronto Fairbank No Lawn Front Garden Installation Before

Toronto Fairbank No Lawn Front Garden Installation After

With regular watering by the homeowner, the new perennials should overcome the typical challenges of living under a maple. But then again, I'm a half full glass kind of gardener!

28.6.21

Renovated Garden Beds in Riverdale

Another Toronto Shade Garden Makeover

The garden makeover requests continue to pour in! Here's one I recently completed in the east Toronto neighbourhood of Riverdale.

The client has a long and narrow backyard with four small garden beds which were ignored for many years so, not surprisingly, they were filled with weeds and other "undesirables". Here are some pictures of the to-be-renovated beds, before I dug out the lily of the valley, goutweed, and wild daylilies:

Riverdale New Backyard Garden Makeover Before

Riverdale Toronto New Garden Makeover Before

These two beds above face each other and are easily seen from the back deck.

Similarly, there are two small beds in the back corners facing each other as shown below:

Riverdale Toronto New Garden Makeover Before

Toronto Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover Before

Toronto Riverdale New Backyard Garden Makeover Before

I chose, with the client's input, a variety of native and non-native perennials and small shrubs while leaving the existing herbaceous peonies and P.G. hydrangea.

Here are some pictures of the beds after transplanting and mulching. Again, I'll start with the two front beds:

Riverdale New Backyard Garden Makeover After

Riverdale Toronto New Garden Makeover After

Toronto Riverdale New Backyard Garden Makeover After

And finally the back beds:

Toronto Riverdale Backyard Garden Makeover After

Riverdale Toronto New Garden Makeover After

We're heading into another hot and humid summer in Toronto. I hope you're enjoying your gardens wherever you are!

23.7.20

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 After by Paul Jung Gardening Services--a Toronto Gardening Services Company

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New 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

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!

7.7.20

A Shade Garden Makeover in North High Park

Under An Ancient Oak, A New Garden Emerges

Surprised to hear from me? I haven't posted anything in a while so I'll apologize now and get that out of the way.

It's been a very strange 2020 so far due to COVID-19: I wasn't allowed to work by the provincial government until early May and my clients had a very difficult time finding plants in general at the garden centres. Still, after all of this, one of my iron laws of garden maintenance is in effect: weeds continue to grow and my clients would prefer going to the dentist than being in their gardens weeding. Job security, I guess.

Today's post goes over one of my early May garden makeovers in the High Park North area of Toronto. The clients, a busy young couple with children, requested a new front garden under a very large and mature oak tree. They didn't want to spend too much on plants so I suggested about 15 shade tolerant perennials under the oak's high canopy.

Here are some "before" and "after" pictures of the shade garden around the oak: