Garden Design and Transformation in Toronto

Lawn Care Maintenance DIY Toronto

2011-10-08T15:27:00.001-04:00

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

2011-10-01T08:23:00.002-04:00

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

2011-07-26T13:38:00.001-04:00

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

2011-06-16T14:20:00.000-04:00

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

2011-05-10T09:03:00.001-04:00

August 2009

August 2010

May 2011

City of Toronto Garden Awards

2011-05-09T14:11:00.001-04:00

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

2011-05-09T13:21:00.001-04:00

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

Lasagna Garden Bed

2011-04-13T10:18:00.005-04:00

The biggest challenge I found with the garden is the hard compact soil, with sporadic plantings, the open soil is a prime weeding ground. My previous posts last summer will show just has strong these weeds are.

As I am waiting for the garden plan layout, I am considering how to amend the soil. I am not in a rush to add in the plants to get an instant effect this summer. What instead I would like is to atleast address the soil so it is rich and fertile so when plants do go in, the soil does not draw water from them, instead the plants ideally would thrive.

I have recently learned of lasagna gardening (no till gardening). In essence, it eliminates the need for tilling, pulling weeds -- exactly what I have been looking for.

There is lots of information in terms of how to start the process. From what I have gathered the approach I will use is

--lay down wet sections of cardboard (tape , staples removed)
-add greens and browns in alternating layers to 24 inches

--top with mulch

Green Layers (1 part):

Grass clippings
Barn litter
Coffee grounds
Seaweed
Blood meal

Brown Layers (4 parts):

Newspaper (use as your first layer)
Cardboard (use as your first layer)
Shredded office paper
Fall leaves
Wood chips/twigs/shredded branches
Mulch
Peat moss
Hay
Straw
Sawdust

These tips from the City of Toronto are helpful as well

Make sure each layer of material is no more than 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) thick.
A compost pile consists of layers of browns (carbon sources), such as finished compost, soil or dried leaves, and greens (nitrogen sources), such as food waste, fresh yard waste etc... These materials must be alternated and added in equal layers.
A little soil goes a long way...
When adding food waste to the pile, bury it in the centre and cover with a 2.5-cm (1-in) layer of finished compost, soil or dried leaves. This prevents odours and adds helpful microbes to the pile.

I've been researching past few days what do you do after the garden bed is established.

The best answer I found is from this link

With ‘no-till’ gardening, once the bed is established the surface is never disturbed. Amendments such as compost, manure, peat, lime and fertilizer are ‘top dressed’, i.e added to the top of the bed where they will be pulled into the subsoil by watering and the activity of subsoil organisms. Weeding is largely replaced by the use of mulch. By adding material in layers, the underlying soil surface remains spongy, making it easy for the young roots of newly planted seedlings to work through the soil. This is similar to the way soil is formed in nature.

I think now of all the yard waste I put out to the curb last year and all those organic matters such as apples and pears from our tree that we didn't use and ended up being sent to the municipality when I could've just added it to the garden with all those leaves and would have been one step ahead this year with soil improvement.

Well, I'm glad to have come across this method of controlling weeds, improving soil in a sustainable and what looks to be relatively easy approach.

To start using this approach, as our tulip tree will shed sometime in May , I will sprinkle the petals in the backyard vs bagging as I have in past few years. This should save some time and is definately more environmentally friendly.

Landscape Plan

2011-04-12T08:43:00.000-04:00

So, 3 years owning our home, huge interior renos, I'm really excited for the landscape plan. I've been taking a jab at learning all I can about plants and tried out a few sketchings but my biggest concern was investing money, time and effort into planting that would not evolve well and end up with my yard looking like a jungle.

We visited the bloom show just moreso for fun and for me to get some ideas. Then I met a landscaper and I was totally impressed with her knowledge of plants , use what you have (vs. tear up and start all over).

She came to our home for an onsite visit and offered great examples how to use our space which we didn't think of before including addressing an old chain link fence and greening it up for privacy using trees and other materials to create sustainable privacy.

Our cost is $800 for the backyard plan , consisting of 3 visits, intitial onsite consult, on site measurements and grading assessments, presentation of first draft plan and one revision and presentation of final plan . A detailed planting list will be included.

From our initial discussion we'll be building an arbour, although now that my husband is more understand of what that is, he needs some more convincing! A seating area will be built, tearing down the deck and side addition, installing patio pavers to create a large dining area, building a pergola and greening it all up. I asked for a traditional design that has plantings that are "neat and organized" vs. a shabby cottagey look.

One thought was to plant a maple tree which will canopy a portion of the house in 16 years so the plantings will need to take future shade into account. albeit, DH and I are still a bit weary of planting such a large tree (and the associated leaf fall) but we'll see once it comes together

To give an idea of our budget, it started off as $1,000 just for plantings.

Now, we're thinking $10k but that's mostly b/c we will construct most of it and deal with demo/tree removal. Honestly, $10k doesn't go far I don't think especially if hiring it all out. we estimated we have about 1000 sq feet of patio stones to add in. A low ball estimated amount of $10/sq foot, there is pretty much our budget. our desire is to salvage about 700 sq feet of the existing pink type patio stones and blend in the rest with another stone. The fences , I hate, but will leave them with the assurance the new planting design will blend them so they're not the focal point as they currently are . irrigation system is a question mark. DH wants to install himself but I'm thinking depending on the design to use a soaker hose. I'd love to do all the bells and whistles and especially get it all contracted out coming out of an almost 2.5 year interior reno, i just don't have that type of budget to work with so here we are back at DIY.

Anyway, will be interesting to see how much it will cost to redo. that said, this is our 'forever' home and the timelines to implement will be over a number of years.

Fruitless Mulberry Tree Progress

2011-04-07T15:21:00.000-04:00

Stage 2 of our fruitless mulberry tree pruning was completed by my husband last week. There was no evidence of buds sprouting (still very cold here in Toronto) and he took shears and skillfully detangled all the branches . Reading up how to care of these trees, we didn't take more than 1/3 of the tree off. The mulberry tree was mature and by my guess has not been crowned before. Here's hoping for some more warmth and to see lots of new growth on this tree.

Spring is around the corner!

2011-03-16T09:09:00.000-04:00

I have been thinking for a while now I really haven't posted much on the site but that's more so because of winter and really not much to do. With the snow now melted, the garden show around the corner , my husband and I are starting to talk of our backyard plans.

First and foremost, I'm very much looking forward to the Canada Blooms Show . My husband and I plan to drop off the little guy with my parents and have a date night on Saturday. Tickets are a bit cheaper after 5:00 p.m. ($14.00)

I hope to get some great ideas and will post some pictures following.

Stay tuned for the transformation of our backyard garden!

http://www.canadablooms.com/

So If I havent' made a disclaimer , let me do so now

2010-10-14T14:16:00.001-04:00

Well, to start. Let me say, this blog is seriously just for entertainment. I in no way represent a knowledgeable gardener. What I hope to do is to share my progress and learnings and let me begin by disclosing a major no-no. I planted, yup, you guessed it goutweed in my garden. Looks pretty, a quick solution to groundcover. My oh my, did I not know how invasive this plant is. Actually I just learned today from reading from another forum a lady trying to identify her plant which everyone posted in sympathy yes it was goutweed. Now for me, I actually liked how it looked and knew it spread but figured I could contain it. I planted it last year and actually a big part of the spread seems diseased so perhaps it didn't take well to the ground. Either case, as soon as the rain stops, I have to definately dig out as much of that as I can before it gets out of hand. I think I inadvertently created much work for myself. So, my friends. Let me just again remind, have fun reading my progress but honestly that's all it is , progress. I really have much to learn myself. Here's a picture of the plant for those who are curious how it looks like.

Edward Scissor Hands Away

2010-09-30T12:42:00.000-04:00

It's been a few weeks since I posted and the reason is because September was mostly dry and I was unable to do much with the landscape. Otherwise we were also busy the past few weeks.

It is now fall. It feels still rather warm but very pleasant to start going back to the garden project.

I thought some trimming today would be a good idea.

This all sparked of course by a unsollicited but friendly suggestion by a neighbour who saw me the other day going back and forth to the garbage bin dumping our rotted fruit from the pear and apple tree. She said we need to take a serious shearing of the trees. And she even offered to help do it. LOL.

At some point, I think we will need to get a large bin to hold all the shrubs and oversize branches we will be removing. For now, I'm doing cosmetic work.

We have a fruitless mulberry tree planted on the east side of our house. These types of trees are quite lovely when well trimmed. Our tree is about 10 feet in height. The weeping branches however had not been pruned in years. They were reaching to the ground and the tree therefore did not have the proper appearance it should. I took some shears and went around the tree cutting it like a skilled hairdresser. I think the results are good and I hope the tree didn't mind the new cut too much. I also cut away some pine branches overflowing to the street. I think my husband will need to use some bigger tools to cut away at the larger branches but for now I think our passing neighbours will appreciate the extra overhead room. It was starting to feel like a maze navigating through that corner.

All trimmed away

Oh the wind

2010-09-05T18:48:00.001-04:00

What a week -- from hot and humid days starting Monday to rain and gusty winds on Saturday. A branch about 12 feet long tore off our (city owned ) tree. I wasn't there to see it and was glad no one got hurt. I called the City of Toronto through 311 and was surpised to find they sent a worker the same day (Saturday) to take a look . I recall a neighbour had a branch fall down and it lay there for weeks no kidding. I guess they figured someone else would take care of it or it would magically go away. Anways glad I made the call because the workers will haul it away on Tuesday.

Harvest Time!!!

2010-09-03T22:41:00.002-04:00

So it has been incredibly hot and sticky in Toronto for weeks! We got some rain today and the weather says it will continue thru the weekend. Thank goodness! I don't like hot weather!!! We have an apple and pear tree and both trees have ripe fruit for picking. The pear tree produces great fruit. The apple tree is another story. A good solid tree providing shade but the apples are very sour and have been plagued with some bug bites since we bought the house , probably they had bugs before too. In talking with my husband , I think we are considering cutting down the plum tree (a failue each year) and possibly cutting the apple tree or trimming it back A LOT so we can get some easy flow to the backyard. The apple tree branches right now create an obstacle to enter the backyard. Not good with a 6 month ready to grab anything and everything that comes anywhere near his stroller.

Our apples are ready for picking

Lots of Tulips to Dig Out

2010-08-20T08:45:00.002-04:00

It's hard to believe how much downhill the garden went over the summer. While looking at some photo folders on my laptop, my husband and I came across some pictures we took earlier this spring. We laughed how did the garden take such a turn for the worst. In these pictures you can see the tulips that had been planted over the past 2 years along with the lilac tree in blum. The tulips I want to keep and just replant somewhere else this fall. The patch where are on has to have a tarp placed on to kill off the weeds because it has just become a mini jungle. On top of that, I need to add compost to add nutrients to the overworked soil. Tulips are really fantastic low maintenenance flowers but at the same time they have to be carefully placed. The reason is that once they bloom there is a lot of yellow wilting leaves that need to be left be until they completely die off which is usually around mid- Late June. I really need to give some thought where to replant these tulips and with which flowers (gladiolous being not one of them!). Now to the lilac. I guess I forgot it does give nice blooms in the spring after a long grey winter. Maybe I'll just leave the lilac be for this summer. Oh the decisions to make!

Weeding it all out

2010-08-16T13:07:00.000-04:00

Today I start my blog on my gardening project -- a project that started 2 years ago, didn't go much far and well now I have no other choice than to do something about my garden or well, just sod it out and forget it.   I chose to try one more attempt at gardening, for the beautification of the space, for the feeling of accomplishing a project and well hopefully to share my progress and inspire others.

How it all began. My husband and I bought our 1960s home in central Etobicoke in August 2008 from a couple in their late 80s and 90s.   The home was begging for a remodel. This is where my husband took over with his skillful plans creating a home that is beautiful modern and oh so comfortable.   The house was bought truly for its great curb appeal.   A beautiful corner lot surrounded by million dollar homes.   Our home was a little jewel among these homes. The landscape wasn't too bad. An advantage of buying in the 416 area is the landscape such as trees are mature. The disadvantage is we inherited a lot of trees and shrubs that don't please my eye.

When we took over the house, the garden was huge full of wild flowers.   The old owners were nice enough to plant some tomato plants for us so when we took over the house in August 2008 we had tomatoes ready for picking in September. Back to the garden.   The soil was overworked., hard clay.   The end of that summer my mom and my mom in law came over to lend a helping hand and pull out some of those flowers.

The wildgarden -- shown as we moved in.

Over the winter I went to the library , researching as much as I could to learn more about flowers. Well, I went to the typical landscape stores, bought a bunch of bulbs, planted them randomly and well, the result was poor. Mixed tulips and gladioulous growing in an abundance of weeds. That summer was truly disappointing for the garden. Add to that I discovered I was pregnant (wooohooo), gardening was the least of my priorities.

My little boy was born in Februay and well, yet again the garden suffered from neglect over the spring and summer. This time vigourous weeds took over. That wildflower garden was 100x better with what I have now.

YIKES!!!

Grass is burned out, the bushes are way overgrown, superweeds growing everywhere.

The lilac will need to be cut down. It blooms ok in the spring but in the summer it is looking half dead.

All those bushes going over the fence will be cut out too. Its way over grown.

Super weed!!

So moving forward, I truly want to create a special place for my family in our own backyard.

This blog is for all those who know nothing about gardening ( like me, hahaha) , have a yard that needs dire attention and have a desire to create a beautiful landscape.