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 Before

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation Before

Koreatown Toronto Front Slope
Weeding and New Installation Before 

Koreatown Toronto New Front
Garden 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

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!

A Riverdale 2020 Spring Cleanup

There's a Patio and Garden Somewhere Under All these Leaves!

We all lead busy lives and for many homeowners (lucky for me), cleaning up the various garden areas isn't a priority. I just think of it as job security!

This post goes over a recent spring cleanup in Toronto's Riverdale neighbourhood. Or, rather, a delayed fall 2019 tidy up since the bulk of the work involved raking up last autumn's leaves.

Here are some pictures from the backyard: As you can see, nothing intricate, most of the job involved scraping up the wet and matted maple leaves which were becoming nice leaf compost.

Riverdale Back Garden Spring Cleanup Before 

Toronto 2020 Back Garden Spring
Cleanup Before in Riverdale

Toronto 2020 Back Garden Spring
Cleanup Before in Riverdale

Toronto Back Garden Spring
Cleanup Before in Riverdale 

Toronto Back Garden Spring
Cleanup Before in Riverdale 

Toronto Riverdale Back Garden
Spring Cleanup Before 

This back raised garden area was full of weed tree saplings which germinated from nearby Tree of Heaven and maple trees.

Toronto Riverdale Back Garden Spring Cleanup Before

The front area shown below had a few weeds but pruning the overgrown spirea and yew shrubs near the front steps was the priority:

Toronto Riverdale Front Garden
Spring Cleanup Before 

Toronto Riverdale Front Garden
Spring Cleanup Before

Riverdale Front Garden
Spring Cleanup Before

Afterwards...

Riverdale Back Garden Spring Cleanup After 

My cordless electric leaf blower came in very handy in cleaning up the newly exposed flagstone.

Toronto 2020 Garden Spring
Cleanup After in Riverdale 

Toronto 2020 Back Garden Spring
Cleanup After in Riverdale 

Toronto 2020 Back Garden Spring
Cleanup After in Riverdale 

Toronto Back Garden Spring
Cleanup After in Riverdale 

Toronto Back Garden Spring
Cleanup After in Riverdale 

Toronto Riverdale Back Garden
Spring Cleanup After 

Toronto Riverdale Back Garden
Spring Cleanup After

And, again, in the front afterwards. Clear access of the paths and front steps ensured.

Toronto Riverdale Front Garden
Spring Cleanup After

Toronto Riverdale Front Garden
Spring Cleanup After

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:

High Park North New Front Yard Makeover Before 

High Park North Toronto New Front Yard Makeover Before 

High Park North Spring Cleanup and Makeover Before 

Toronto High Park North New Front Yard Makeover Before 

Toronto High Park North New Front Yard Makeover Before 

High Park North Spring Cleanup and Makeover Before

Afterwards...

High Park North New Front Yard Makeover After 

The front garden looks very sparse but the homeowners now can add spring bulbs and more perennials if they wish.

  High Park North Toronto New Front Yard Makeover After 

High Park North Spring Cleanup and Makeover After 

Toronto High Park North New Front Yard Makeover After

Toronto High Park North New Front Yard Makeover After 

High Park North Spring Cleanup and Makeover After

A New Pollinator-Friendly Garden in Toronto's Garden District, Part Two

Let's Amp up the Insect Activity and Seasonal Interest, Shall We?

Another two months (hopefully) and I'll start my work season again. Perhaps I'll even execute this small project below which is the topic of this post. 

We're continuing from the last post and looking at three raised beds located in a condo courtyard somewhere in downtown Toronto. Here are bed number two's "before" picture and my proposal to makeover the small area to attract insects and birds while providing multi-seasonal visual interest for the condo owners who share the common paths and garden beds. 

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden Design Before 

The bed above contains many run-of-the-mill hostas so besides the one week in May the existing serviceberry (Amelanchier) shrub (small tree) blooms, there's very little nectar to attract bees and butterflies on a consistent basis from May to October. (It is true, though, that the serviceberry provides highly desirable berries in the summer. It's the best thing going on in this bed!)

Other things to note, if you're keeping notes, is that the bed faces west, receives full sun until late afternoon and is irrigated automatically. Zero manual maintenance occurs, besides the custodian occasionally shearing the evergreen yew macaron.

Here's my quick drawing below suggesting native species of perennials (besides the Coreopsis cultivar) which provide food energy for wildlife, look attractive to our eyes and require relatively fewer maintenance dollars (this last point is always important to a condo board.)

Here's the list of perennials:

• Blazing Star (Liatris spicata)
• Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea)
• Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)
• "Zagreb" Threadleaf Coreopsis

A New Toronto Pollinator Garden Design After

I realize that not all the perennials will bloom at the same time as the drawing suggests but this is only a quick mock up for illustration purposes and to make it easier for these clients to visualize what the bed could look like, more or less, at any time during the growing season.

And, yes, that yew would be removed!

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?