A Leslieville, Toronto Spring Garden Cleanup

A New Client, A Similar Job 

It's been a busy month so far with more spring cleanups on the way. This post covers a recent job back in a neighbourhood I often visit: Leslieville. The properties here are usually small in area and therefore easy for me to work by myself. 

I'll start with the cleanup in the backyard. As you can probably see in the pictures to follow, I pruned a lot of last season's growth:

Leslieville Back Garden Spring Cleanup Before

Leslieville Back Garden Spring Cleanup After 

Toronto Leslieville Back Garden Spring Cleanup Before 

Toronto Leslieville Back Garden Spring Cleanup After

Toronto Leslieville Garden Spring Cleanup After 

Leslieville Back Garden Spring Cleanup Before 

And in the front, I tidied up a very small bed:

Leslieville Front Garden Spring Cleanup Before

Leslieville Front Garden Spring Cleanup After 

Note the still small Colorado Blue Spruce to the right. I strongly recommended to the owner that this small tree need to be removed sooner than later. It's not a dwarf, You can easily imagine how massive this spruce will be. Simply the wrong tree for the wrong spot.

Spring Garden Cleanup in the Junction Triangle Neighbourhood

A Warm Spring is Nowhere in Sight!

The 2022 work season is underway with spring cleanups taking most of my time. It's been an unusually cold April so far with very few days hitting above 15 degrees C. and above. It feels like November rather than April so I continue to bundle up to keep warm working outside.

This post covers a visited to a new client in the west Toronto area called the Junction Triangle who hired me to tidy up her very small front yard. Here are the "before" pictures of this short project:

Junction Triangle Spring Garden Cleanup Before

Junction Triangle Spring Garden Cleanup Before

Junction Triangle Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

Junction Triangle Toronto Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

Junction Triangle Toronto Spring Garden Cleanup Before 

And the "after" results:

Junction Triangle Spring Garden Cleanup After 

Junction Triangle Spring Garden Cleanup After 

Junction Triangle Spring Garden Cleanup After

Junction Triangle Toronto Spring Garden Cleanup After

Junction Triangle Toronto Spring Garden Cleanup After

And as I write this, it's freaking snowing outside!

A Parkdale Spring Cleanup

Getting a Toronto Pollinator Garden Ready for Spring

Back to work. After another long Toronto, I'm ready to meet new clients and new gardens while trying to lose the weight I've gained over an inactive winter. And, not unimportantly, earning an income again.

My first spring cleanup occurred in Toronto's west end neighbourhood called Parkdale. It was a small job consisting of part of a small front yard and a shared strip of land between the neighbours. All of last season's growth were left over winter so there was a bit of pruning involved. This is proof that there's no need to raze your garden's autumn growth to the ground but, admittedly, some homeowners can't handle seeing this for over five months of the year.

Here are some "before" and "after" pictures of the cleanup which took me about three hours to complete:

Parkdale Spring Cleanup Before 

Parkdale Spring Cleanup After

Parkdale Toronto Spring  Garden Cleanup Before

Parkdale Toronto Spring  Garden Cleanup After 

A Parkdale Spring Cleanup Before

A Parkdale Spring Cleanup After

Parkdale Toronto Spring Cleanup Before 

Parkdale Toronto Spring Cleanup After

A Parkdale Spring Cleanup Before

A Parkdale Spring Cleanup After

Toronto Parkdale Spring Cleanup Before 

Toronto Parkdale Spring Cleanup After 

And my 17th work season is now off and running!

Wrapping Up the 2021 Work Season with a Fall Cleanup in Little Portugal

Tidying Up Before the Snow Arrived

Another successful work season is finally over and my reward is now having the time to read, rest and recover.  Every year it gets a little harder to work outside but that's just part of getting older. From April to November I get to see all sorts of gardens, good and bad, and all sorts of clients (all good, well...). Working in a cubicle performing the same tasks daily is definitely something I don't miss.

The fall cleanups went on right until the end of November since we didn't have a significant snowfall until a few days ago. I managed to see some new clients who approached me quite late but luckily, the bad weather held out until after I was able to work for them.

This post covers a very small weeding and pruning project in the Little Portugal section of Toronto. The lots in this neighbourhood tend to be narrow and shallow so the actual garden areas are on the small side. Still, if a garden has not been weeded all season, it tends to look like this by late autumn, regardless the size:

Little Portugal Toronto Fall Cleanup Before 

Little Portugal Toronto Fall Cleanup Before

Toronto Little Portugal Fall Cleanup Before

Toronto Little Portugal Fall Cleanup Before 

Working in the cold (just a few degrees above zero) is always hard but fortunately the front garden wasn't large so after a few hours of weeding and pruning, it looked much tidier.

Little Portugal Toronto Fall Cleanup After 

Little Portugal Toronto Fall Cleanup After 

Toronto Little Portugal Fall Cleanup After

Toronto Little Portugal Fall Cleanup After 

The backyard garden is typically (for this area) also small but similarly ignored all season:

Toronto Little Portugal Fall Cleanup Before

Little Portugal Toronto Fall Cleanup Before

I usually suggest that ornamental grasses be left alone for the winter to give the homeowners something to look at for five plus months but as per the clients' request, I cut them down. I also assumed that snow will be piled on to the bed anyway in order to access the garage so it will be easier to do this without the tall grasses getting in the way.

Toronto Little Portugal Fall Cleanup After

Little Portugal Toronto Fall Cleanup After 

A Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park

A Season's Worth (At Least) of Weeds

October's weather here in Toronto has been unusually warm and dry, making working outside for a person like me very enjoyable. Even weeding two large garden beds, as shown in this post, was almost enjoyable.

It was a straightforward project: The clients who live in the mid-town Toronto area called Sherwood Park hired me to tidy up the two backyard garden beds they inherited by having them weeded and mulched. Being tenants, they have no interest in buying new plants but instead the directive was to make things look respectable (I paraphrase but that was the underlying message.)

And who can blame them? If you were looking at the beds as shown in these "before" pictures all summer, you'd likely feel the same:

Sherwood Park Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup Before

Sherwood Park Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup Before 

Sherwood Park Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup Before

Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park Before

Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park Before 

Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park Before

Afterwards...

The clients chose the black-dyed shredded wood mulch that's commonly seen in many neighbourhoods. It is a relatively inexpensive product found in most home improvement stores and like any mulch, by spreading a 3 inch layer on the bare soil surface, it should suppress weed seeds from germinating.  This is an important function as these clients lead very busy lives.

So if you're ready to see a lot (a sea?) of black mulch, here you go...

Sherwood Park Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup After

Sherwood Park Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup After

Sherwood Park Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup After
 

Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park After

Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park After 

Toronto Backyard Garden Cleanup in Sherwood Park After

Not a spectacular garden makeover, I agree, but this post shows you what I usually do throughout the working season.