A Leslieville, Toronto spring garden cleanup

A spring garden cleanup in Leslieville

Here are some before and after pictures of a recent garden cleanup for the front and back gardens in the Leslieville neighbourhood of Toronto.

For the front yard, I pruned the roses and hydrangeas, raked last fall's leaves and collected a half bag of garbage that blew in.

Spring garden clean up Leslieville
before Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Spring garden clean up Leslieville after
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto
Leslieville spring garden cleanup before

Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto
Leslieville spring garden cleanup after

Spring garden cleanup Leslieville before
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Spring garden cleanup Leslieville after
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Same type of cleanup in the backyard--removing sedum and peony stalks, pruning hydrangeas and raking up leaves.

Leslieville spring garden cleanup before
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Leslieville spring garden cleanup after
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Leslieville spring garden clean up before
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Leslieville spring garden clean up after
Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto

Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto
Leslieville spring garden clean up before

Paul Jung Gardening Services Toronto
Leslieville spring garden clean up after

A Toronto spring garden clean up in the Summerhill neighbourhood

A Toronto spring garden cleanup on Roxborough St. West

My first garden clean up of the season! I removed the stalks from last year's Purple Coneflowers, Russian Sages, daylilles, hostas and "Annabelle" hydrangeas from this front yard located just north of the Bloor-Yorkville area.

Roxborough St. West yard spring cleanup before 

Roxborough St. West yard spring cleanup after 

In the picture below, I'll plant annuals under the old purple leaf sandcherry s to punch up the front bed and add colour until late fall.

Summerhill neighbourhood yard
spring cleanup before

Summerhill neighbourhood yard 
spring cleanup after

Summerhill neighbourhood front yard
spring clean up before 

Summerhill neighbourhood front yard
spring clean up after 

Roxborough St. West spring cleanup before

Roxborough St. West spring cleanup after 

Centennial Park Conservatory Spring Flower Show 2015

More spring blooms in Etobicoke (under glass)

Toronto is not experiencing higher temperatures (say, above 60 degrees F. or 10 degrees C.) yet. Even tulips and daffodils are reluctant to emerge, although I did see a few winter aconites flower nearby. Most local gardeners, I suspect, are winter-weary, just aching to see some colour outside.

Several posts ago I showed some highlights from my recent visit to a local Conservatory to catch its Spring Flower Show ( you can click here: Centennial Park Conservatory 2015 Spring Flower Show ). I'll finish up with the remaining photos from that visit in this post.

I feel it's going to be one of those springs in Toronto in which the temperatures will zoom from about 5 to 20 degrees Celsius overnight. If that's the case, we should be seeing flowers and foliage exploding all over the city soon. 

Come on spring! Don't be coy!

Blue pink hyacinths at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show
 Tulipa "Green Wave" Parrot tulips 

Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show
white freesia 

Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show
white freesias

Centennial Park Conservatory
 2015 Spring Flower Show
 yellow daffodil 

"Fancy Frills" fringed tulip at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Fritillaria imperialis (Crown Imperial) at the
  Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Grape hyacinths (Muscari "Peppermint")
at the Centennial Park Conservatory
 2015 Spring Flower Show

"Green Wave" Parrot tulip
at theCentennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

"Green Wave" Parrot tulips at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Pale blue freesia a the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show
 

Red freesia and kumquat at the
 Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Red Kaufman tulips at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Red, white and pink tulips
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Red and yellow tulips at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Salpiglossis sinuata at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Tulipa "Gavota" Triumph tulips at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
 2015 Spring Flower Show

Yellow Clivia minuata at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Yellow freesia at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Centennial Park Conservatory
 2015 Spring Flower Show
red freesia 

Yellow hyacinths and red tulips at the
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

"Garden muses" turns four!

Baby, you're a big girl now!

Every March 29, I get kind of emotional. This blog that you're reading gets another year older, smarter and sassier (unlike the author who's simply getting older.) Like most parents  (indulge me while I anthropomorphize), I didn't know what the future held for my creation for the first few years--whether she would survive, what her personality would be, how long it would take her to be diaper-trained, etc.

Sorry, a lemon-poppy seed mini loaf
from the freezer will have to do 

 "Garden muses" is doing fine. As my real kids will attest to, my parenting skills comprise of Chinese-style nagging and benign neglect. I'm a classic Panda dad, which doesn't always play well with my better half, a Tiger.... Yet, the blog grows a bit every day ( with every post?) and I have to thank you, the reader, for providing the incentive, motivation and psychic compost for me to write.

Believe it or not, I do get compliments occasionally.  This number is less than the spam requests from recently-found relatives in Nigeria asking for financial aid, but a few nice readers have taken the time to write. Here's what Patricia from somewhere in the U.S. Pacific North West wrote recently:

(Note: for all you skeptics out there, you'll have to trust me that "Patricia" really does exist!)

Hi Paul -- I share your enthusiasm for plants and gardening...I haven't read any of your fellow garden bloggers but I can't think any are more fun and interesting than yours. I have forwarded some of yours to my former sister-in-law who lives in Alaska. She enjoys your photos. You must be a well kept secret. Keep up the good work. I appreciate receiving your muses.

Now, if a reader in Alaska can find value and entertainment in my posts, I'm doing something very right or very wrong!

Again, I appreciate you taking the time and effort to read my posts.  And, as I promise on every birthday, I'll do my best not to write about vegetable growing.

Ugh!

Centennial Park Conservatory 2015 Spring Flower Show

Spring blooms in Etobicoke (under glass)

"What am I going to do with the kids during March break this year?" was a question that many parents in Toronto had to grapple with.  After a couple days of  being couch zombies staring at their devices, enough was enough.  So, off to another Flower Show!

Tulipa "Green Wave" Parrot tulips 
Centennial Park Conservatory 
2015 Spring Flower Show 

We, Torontonians, are spoiled with having two Conservatories that:

• offer seasonal flower shows
• charge no admission fee
• accessible by public transit

I've written many times about my visits to the Allan Gardens Conservatory which is very close to home but there is another "sister" Conservatory in the west side of Toronto called the Centennial Park Conservatory which also holds similar seasonal flower shows. (Here's my post from the Centennial Park Conservatory's 2014 Spring Flower Show ). 

It's a bit of a trek to get out there by subway and bus but the kids and I did it anyway. It was quid pro quo: I got to take some nice pictures of spring blooms and the kids got to eat at their favourite restaurant. Kind of a win-win-win:

• I experienced more wonderful blooms without having to run through a gauntlet of vendors shilling this and that
• my kids received some visual stimulation that didn't originate from a screen
• you take in some more pictures of pretty flowers (I just wish you were able to smell the hyacinths and freesias. Absolutely divine!)

Isn't spring wonderful?

"Fancy Frills" fringed tulip
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Pale blue freesias
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Pale yellow narcissus (daffodil)
 Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Pale yellow narcissus (daffodils)
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Pink freesia
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Purple tulips
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Red freesia
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Red tulips
Centennial Park Conservatory
 2015 Spring Flower Show 

Red and white tulips (a kumquat tree tucked behind)
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Tulipa "Fancy Frills" fringed tulip
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Tulipa "Gavota" Triumph tulips
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Tulipa "Green Wave" Parrot tulip
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

Tulipa "Green Wave" Parrot tulips
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

"Voltage" yellow Osteospermum (African daisy)
 Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

White freesia
 Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

White freesias
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

White and red freesias
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show 

White tulips
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015 Spring Flower Show

Crown Imperial (Fritillaria imperialis)
Centennial Park Conservatory
2015  Spring Flower Show