Lawn Care Maintenance DIY Toronto

I found a good schedule of actions needed throughout the year to help keep the lawn healthy and green.  We already placed a fall fertizilzer treatment which we had not done so previously. Next another application of grass seed.  I still find myself weeding the lawn but it seems to be improving, or atleast I have myself convinced of that!

Late Summer Slow-release Premium Organic Based Granular Fertilizer

Fall/Winterizer Slow-release Premium Organic Based Granular Fertilizer

FALL - Core Aeration (Reduces thatch allowing air, water & nutrients to reach the root zone.

FALL - overseeding

Spring & Fall Natural Weed Management with a weed control application (applied spring & Fall when weeds are present to try and help reduce the overall incidence of weeds on your lawn. )

Spring Slow-release Premium Organic Based Granular Fertilizer

               Top dressed with compost and overseed

Early Summer Slow-release Premium Organic Based Granular Fertilizer

Hydrangeas Grandifloras

I initially bought 2 incrediball hydrangeas and I really liked this plant.  What I discovered though, is that the flowerhead turns green much sooner than I would've liked.  There's a house nearby that has 2 beautiful hydrangeas and that was the variety I was actually seeking. 

One of the two incrediball hydrangeas I bought dried out. So instead of buying a few more of the incrediballs, I opted instead to transplant the hydrangea to a new bed I established at the front of my house and bought 3 hydrangea grandifloras.  They were on sale at Loblaws at $15 each so a great buy.

Right now, I just planted them but they definately will need a good pruning next spring to train the branches to grow upright.  This plant I think is beautiful, flowerheads stay white longer through the season and grows fast.

Planting in Summer

Well we did the inevitable. We ordered $1000 worth of trees and shrubs and planted in July.  Yup. July.  In the biggest heat wave for decades in Toronto.  And , besides one shrub having extreme shock and losing all its leaves, the rest of the plants are looking fine.  We planted horn beams, a serviceberry shrub, a flowering dogwood, catmint and an incrediball hydrangea and 3 weigelas.  We brought in also a total of 5 cubic yards of mulch.  That was a lot of work to spread it out.

Garden bed update for June 2011

We've proceeded with quite a bit of work over past few weeks

-established a bed of japanese spurge under the pine tree
-built a retainer wall of wood against the fence
-transplanted remaining plants including
      -day lillies now grouped together at the front of the house
       -transplanted the black eyed susans and the rose of sharon in front of the fence


Next on the plan is to prepare the garden bed on the west wall.  While I'd like to do the lasagne method for this section, the timing isn't right as we'd like to finish the plantings over the next coming weeks.  We're going to till that section afterall.

I suppose I will use the lasagne method to develop the garden beds under the pine trees at the front of the house this fall so it would be ready for next year.
     

***Backyard Landscaping***

August 2009

August 2010





May 2011



City of Toronto Garden Awards

There's a neat program run by the City of Toronto in which there is a contest for garden design.  I had to do a bit of research on this as I noticed some houses in the area had plaques awarded and displayed on the front lawn so I wanted to learn more.  In a nutshell, the gardens are judged only from the sidewalk so only front and side gardens are eligible. 

Here's the link for more info
Toronto Garden Awards 2011

Digging Tulips in Spring

A lovely Mother's Day here over the past weekend.  We spent some time replanting and getting the ground ready.  

I did something quite unconventional too by moving my tulips in bloom!

I did a bit of research on this and while the conventional methods , tried and true, say to never move bulbs until fall there is some information I gathered on digging up tulips while in bloom

I just did that on the weekend as our yard is undergoing landscaping and part of the plan is I need the areas where the tulips were scattered about cleared. I tried waiting until fall last year but I couldn't locate them (in the mess of weeds)

My options for the tulips were to

a) attempt to rescue them and try to replant (with green foliage) so they die back and hopefully rebloom next year. I dug them up carefully

b) forget about it , leave them there.  I don't believe most would have survived as we are digging up the yard in a few weeks to start the tree plantings and I have already started the process of covering the ground with cardboard to smother the weeds (by that right, the tulips would've been smothered prematurely too).

I chose A hoping to give the bulbs some time to get teh carbs they needs from the green stems and hoping for some / most to survive for next spring

I suppose our best option would've been to start all this in fall (replanting tulips), buying the trees / shrubs at that time (usually on sale too) but I tried that approach last year and by the time fall came I lost interest ...

so that's the reason I replanted the tulips on the weekend.

As a bonus (or not ), the tulips that didn't come out with their bulbs attached, I just put a beautiful vase of tulips stems together and they're sitting now in my bedroom and living room.   Just gorgeous.

May 2011