Annual Garden Maintenance in Leslieville

Weeding Your Toronto Garden Once a Year

Is such a thing even possible? Lately, I've been dealing with gardens which haven't seen the sight of a trowel or hoe in 2018 or earlier and some of the weeds have been, well, atrocious. So while I don't recommend you ignore your favourite (and likely expensive) patch of green space, working on it (or paying someone) annually may be feasible, as shown in this post.


My client, J-F (I'll use his initials), calls me only once a season to weed, prune and tidy up his very small backyard garden in Toronto's Leslieville neighbourhood. The garden bed is only about 15' wide by 20' long and, plant-wise, is comprised of several large shrubs and hostas with a tall white cedar hedge acting as a backdrop. 



I've worked here before so I know that while the weeds will be large, the scope of work isn't extensive. Here are some "before" pictures showing the growth since my last maintenance visit in the summer of 2017:

Leslieville Back Garden Cleanup Before 

Leslieville Toronto Garden Cleanup Before 

I also weed this small paved area connecting the front and back of the house:

Toronto Garden Cleanup Before in Leslieville 

This year, J-F has asked me to weed his driveway and a small raised bed under the stairs:

Hire a Toronto Gardener in Leslieville Before 

Toronto Garden Cleanup Before in Leslieville 

Afterwards......

Leslieville Back Garden Cleanup After 

Leslieville Back Garden Cleanup After

I prune back the red-twig dogwood (Cornus alba 'Elegantissima') above on the right  by about 2 feet to control its size. The spirea below the dogwood hasn't been pruned in many years so I reduced it by about half in order to rejuvenate it.



And here are pictures of the interlocking paver path, driveway and street-level raised bed after weeding:

Toronto Garden Cleanup After in Leslieville 

Hire a Toronto Gardener in Leslieville After 

Toronto Garden Cleanup After in Leslieville 

I'll likely revisit this space next summer and anxiously await for what the garden will present to me then!

Weeding a Riverdale Corner Garden and Driveway: Better Late Than Never

A (Really) Late Summer Toronto Garden Cleanup

It's September and I'm still weeding? Well, yes. Weeds don't stop growing simply because of a calendar date and when I'm hired to do a garden cleanup at this time of the year, more often than not, it usually means that the garden hasn't been touched at all since...who knows when.

This post covers recent cleanup session for a house with a corner garden and parking pad in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood. The "before" pictures illustrate wonderfully what occurs when no one looks after a large area of un-mulched soil: air-borne weed seeds set up shop and happily grow unmolested. 

To give some background information, this house is another rental and the owner lives off-site. Out of site/sight definitely means out of mind, but not for the other homeowners living nearby. I suspect a tenant received some complaints about the state of affairs and suggested to the owner to "do something about this." 

I dropped by, took a look, came up with an estimate and was hired soon after. I'll walk you around and show you the scope of work:

Looking towards the front door

From the front door to the sidewalk

Part of the retaining wall at the sidewalk

The very visible corner area

The raised bed around the corner 

 The raised bed from above. 
This area was completely filled 
with Lamb's Quarters or 
Goosefoot (Chenopodium album)

Mulberry saplings and 
part of the raised bed

 The raised bed and mulberry 
trees from the sidewalk

The mulberry saplings near the AC unit

The base of the retaining wall

The base of the sidewalk at roadside

The unused parking pad

At the base of retaining wall

Inside the backyard, 
two Siberian Elm saplings

Afterwards...

The cleanup took about 12 hours, mulching included. It will be interesting how the space will look next year since, I think, no weeding will be done/hired out until "things get out hand" again.

Riverdale Toronto Garden Cleanup After 

Riverdale Summer Garden Cleanup After 

Riverdale Summer Garden Cleanup After

Toronto Garden Cleanup in Riverdale After 

 Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After:
The raised bed was mulched

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After

Riverdale Frontyard Garden Cleanup After

Mulberry saplings removed

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After:
The sidewalk weeded and swept

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After

Riverdale Front Garden Cleanup After 

The unused parking pad that no 
longer looks unused

The Siberian Elms cut down. 
My four legged friend certainly 
appreciates this!

Such a large and extensive cleanup reminds me of what a former garden cleanup client said to me many years ago: "We're not re-creating Versailles, we just want the garden to say 'someone gives a damn!'" 

Tree of Heaven leads to Garden From Hell

An East York, Toronto Garden Cleanup

A character in a Robert Frost poem opined that "Good fences make good neighbors" and I find after living and gardening within a large and congested city like Toronto, this sentiment is often true. Small postage stamp-sized (people still use stamps to mail or even mail letters anymore?) backyards in which I usually work tend to focus the attention inwards towards (usually) a patio or deck close to the back door and the concept of a "borrowed view" is not appropriate or even desired.

Privacy is also often very important for many homeowners and since there are by-laws here concerning the maximum height of a fence you can put up, people often plant hedges at the base of their fences in the hope of someday walling themselves in from the noise and perceived unwanted attention of their neighbours.

And, yes, when it comes to gardening, "outdoor room" design, plant choices, etc., your tastes and aesthetics will naturally be a little (or a lot) different from your neighbours'. For example, you may have spent much time, effort and money to design, build and maintain your piece of Paradise in the back (or paid some company to do so). In short, you "give a damn about your garden" as one of my clients stated after I asked him why he hired me.

But what if your neighbour doesn't give a damn about her garden and a fence is useless in ensuring goodwill between adjacent garden owners, horticulturally-speaking?

Tree of Heaven Saplings in
an East York, Toronto Backyard 

From the street, Nadia's (my client's) home and her neighbour's look very average and unremarkable, like houses you pass by everyday without giving a second thought. She hired me to weed and tidy the backyard and as I was walking towards the back garden, I seen the above, looking into the neighbour's "garden" (there was no gate).

You'll have to use your imagination a little here and think of a narrow and long (easily 30' x 100') area completely covered by Tree of Heaven saplings and suckers, annual and perennial weeds and G*d knows what.


The picture above shows Ailanthus' distinctive large pinnately compound leaves which, frankly, stink of burnt rubber (to me) when rubbed or crushed. It's truly a pest: an fast growing and invasive tree that self-seeds and suckers readily in all soils and settings.

At first, I assumed the homeowner was deceased and the house empty of years but Nadia reassured me: "Oh no, she's very much alive."

And here's the view from Nadia's side looking over the fence into her neighbour's yard. The garden, too, is "very much alive":

Tree of Heaven Saplings in
an East York, Toronto
 Neighbour's Backyard 

And the culprit and the source of all these Ailanthus altissima saplings and suckers? It's this huge tree in the same yard:

Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus altissima)
in an East York, Toronto Backyard

If you're on the lookout for a Tree of Heaven, you'll soon find the tree almost anywhere in the city: laneways, alleys, front gardens, back gardens, abandoned lots, at the base of buildings, anywhere! The tree produces a ton of winged seeds (samaras) which often stay attached to the tree over winter, drop in spring and germinate readily. More problematic is the relentless suckering the Tree of Heaven is well-known for which is not surprising as it's in the same family as sumacs (and often confused for them). While the seedlings are easy to pull out by hand, the suckers are not. Cutting a sucker or sapling down to the ground will only encourage it to re-sprout even more vigorously.

(For more details about this pest tree, here's a great link by the PennState Extension: Tree-of-Heaven)

Dealing with a Neighbour's Tree of Heaven during a Garden Cleanup

Nadia contacts me once a year to weed and tidy up her East York, Toronto back garden and while the severity of weeds can vary yearly, what doesn't change is the existence of Tree of Heaven seedlings and suckers growing in her garden. 2018's cleanup wasn't any different from 2017's visit and likely 2019's cleanup will be similar: pulling and digging out dozens of baby Ailanthus altissimas.

Here are some "before" pictures of the backyard cleanup:

East York Toronto Backyard
Summer Garden Cleanup Before 

Toronto Backyard Summer
Garden Cleanup Before East York 

 East York Toronto Backyard
Garden Cleanup Before 

East York Toronto Backyard
Garden Cleanup Before

Toronto Summer Weeding and
Garden Cleanup Before East York 

East York Toronto Backyard
Garden Cleanup Before

You'll notice in most of the pictures, Tree of Heaven progeny are growing quickly.

After the Cleanup:

East York Toronto Backyard
Summer Garden Cleanup After 

Toronto Backyard Summer
Garden Cleanup After East York 

 East York Toronto Backyard
Garden Cleanup After

East York Toronto Backyard
Garden Cleanup After 

Toronto Summer Weeding and
Garden Cleanup After East York

 East York Toronto Backyard
Garden Cleanup After

While it was gratifying to remove the weeds and, particularly, the Ailanthus seedlings and suckers for Nadia, it was also sobering to think that they will return in a year's time and for gosh-knows how long since there are no plans removing the giant parent tree next door.

Tree of Heaven, pffft!