Garden Refresh

March 15, 2021 12:41 PM

I have a small garden in the front of my house in Toronto that I have never been happy with. Help me redesign it?

The garden space in front of my house is approximately 11.5" x 13.5". This is a photo of how it looked in early summer 2019. I've never been happy with how it has looked, and I've spent quite a bit of money on plants for it over the years that often ended up not taking. At present it has a white lilac bush in the back right corner and a bed of daisies in front of the lilac bush, as well as two small poppy beds, some red tulips, some yellow Oriental lilies, a white thrift, and four or five rose bushes.

I'd like to have a garden with a fuller look, to plant things that last so that I don't have to keep spending money on the garden, to have an environmentally friendly garden, and if at all possible to have whatever blooming flowers there are in red, yellow and white, since that will go with my house. I really want to keep the lilac bush and the poppies, but everything else I'm open to getting rid of/moving.

Suggestions?

posted by orange swan to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

Does the "cottage garden" look appeal? That’s a mix of loose, short-bushy plants, some perennial, some reseeding, maybe some edible. It never looks Done the way landscaping is supposed to, but it can also be different every day in a way that I prefer to tidiness, and is extremely pollinator-friendly.
posted by clew at 12:49 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

When do your plants die? Right after planting, high summer, over winter? Can you dig a little hole and show us the texture of the removed soil and of the side of the hole?
posted by clew at 12:51 PM on March 15, 2021

The best native plants for Toronto gardens. These you'll have to water for the first couple summers until they're established, but then they should be independent and thrive.

Dig a hole and bury a non-diseased tree stump in it. This will decompose over time, offering nutrients to the soil. Plant your new plants on top of it.

Grow some groundcovers (which you can divide as they establish themselves), low shrubs, big shrubs, and possibly a small tree.
posted by aniola at 1:06 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

PS - Unless you have something unwanted that's very invasive, I would leave anything that's already growing. They're not hurting anything. Just add more. You can fit a surprising number of plants into a small space.
posted by aniola at 1:10 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

Those tall grasses (aniola's link) will be pretty easy to care for as your back row. My best garden advice is find what works and then buy at least 3-4 and bunch them fairly close together. Most plants look spindly when they stand alone, and I personally find generic green shrubs to be boring.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:11 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Toronto Master Gardeners on pollinator gardens, with a plant list. It’s long enough to your last frost date that you can start a lot of things indoors from seed now, if that appeals.
posted by clew at 1:23 PM on March 15, 2021 [4 favorites]

First question is ALWAYS: how much sun does it get? What direction does this face? Southern exposure = full sun, but... are there trees or buildings shading it during the summer when the leaves are full and the sun is high? Eastern exposure means morning sun, during the time of day that it's cooler. West exposure gets as much as east, but the temps are much warmer later in the day.

I work in a retail fancy-pants garden center. These are the absolute, #1 most important factors to consider when choosing plants.

(as a side note, I am routinely flabbergasted at work when some people cannot even tell me direction their yard faces.)
posted by SoberHighland at 1:26 PM on March 15, 2021 [11 favorites]

I would add a flowering tree; I like apples, but they're a pain if you don't harvest them. I had a quince tree at my old house that had been poorly cared for; once pruned it was elegant. At this house I have a cherry tree, the birds and I compete for the harvest. It's nice to have 1 big element, and flowering trees are so pretty and fragrant in spring, though lilac may be your large element. I'm in Maine; sage is a perennial and grows very well for me, flowers nicely, and overwinters. Peonies are large, have stunning flowers, pleasant leaves after that. Globe thistle is tall and does quite well - the bumblebees love it. I finally have a patch of thyme in the yard, which the bees like.

Basil, parsley, and cilantro do well in the ground or in pots, and pots are an easy way to fill in places where something didn't take. Nasturtiums are an annual that may self-seed, they are pretty plants with edible flowers. A bench or 1 decorative object of some sort, and maybe an area with flat stones where you could have a chair or bench.

White, you say? Consider a Moon Garden.

Sketch out your garden with the existing plants, and draw in some different options, considering height. Absolutely plan based on amount of sun.
posted by theora55 at 1:36 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

What a lovely little spot! So much potential! This might sound counterintuitive, but I think one way to make it look fuller is by adding some hardscaping. You could do this a few ways: add some simple flagstones to make a few paths (it looks like there are a few rows where you walk on the mulch) or by adding some decorative elements like a birdbath, stones, statue, art, small bench, or whatever suits you. Instead of focusing on what kind of plants to have right now, it might be helpful to come up with a plan for the non-plant areas. A lot of full, lush gardens have wide paths of grass or mulch and then plant around those things. Here's an example of what I mean.

I'd say to add a path that curves through like a horseshoe or lollipop, and then use a different material than the mulch to define that area.

And then you can add plants slowly, over time, seeing what does well and going from there.
posted by bluedaisy at 1:44 PM on March 15, 2021 [3 favorites]

Contact LEAF: https://www.yourleaf.org/local-enhancement-appreciation-forests

we got a free tree and great advice from them.
posted by biggreenplant at 1:46 PM on March 15, 2021 [2 favorites]

I like to use stones to accent our gardens. Small rocks or timbers can be used create a raised bed or border, which adds a visual element. A large uniquely shaped boulder can also anchor a small plot, and small crushed stone can create a path. Old rusty tools, birdbaths ( or a colorful bird house) can add elevation as well as decoration. Lastly, lots of seasonal flowers to keep the colors changing. Trellises made with sticks are another way to add elevation...you can grow beans on them !
posted by lobstah at 2:52 PM on March 15, 2021

I also have a Toronto front garden that eats plants - mine tends to be pretty dry, and I'm not good at remembering to water it. One plant that has been doing really well, is pretty and has been covering more ground over the years is periwinkle. Shiny dark green leaves and nice purple flowers, it's great.
posted by 5_13_23_42_69_666 at 2:54 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

SoberHighland raised the important question: which way does your garden face? Is it sunny most of the day?

To me, what's ideal for a small space like this is a mix of low flowering shrubs, short and mid-size perennials including a few peonies, early bulbs like daffodils and snowdrops, summer bulbs like lilies, and tall asters for the fall. Personally, I'd cram in as much as I could but that's because I'm greedy.

theora55, I also am enthusiastic about peonies! They come up early and have big fragrant flowers in late spring, then provide leaf interest till fall. They die back over the winter so can provide a handy place, say by the path, to dump snow on.

I've never grown a ground cover that didn't eventually become a garden enemy.

What kind of poppies do you have? If perennial, as you know they die back after flowering, so you'll need something like a clematis or annual climber to cover up the blank spot.

A low shrub would hide that plumbing thing in the corner, maybe something fragrant.

I just remembered a wonderful website, the Paintbox garden. Here's a link to something she wrote about a very lush front garden.

https://www.thepaintboxgarden.com/visiting-marjories-garden/
posted by sevenstars at 5:30 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: My house faces east, so the front garden gets the morning sun. There are no trees nearby at present.
posted by orange swan at 6:09 PM on March 15, 2021

Depending on the level of shade/moisture and height you want white blooms could include a tiarella (foam flower, spring bloom), rose mallow (late summer/autumn bloom), white phlox (mid-summer) or peony (early summer). Japanese anemones are gorgeous. I lost mine in my garden, probably too cold (Montreal) but you might be ok in Toronto. For yellow day lillies are super easy, though I find they don't bloom that long in my east facing garden. Yellow evening primrose grows with zero effort where I live and blooms for a long time through the summer. I personally love having tons of daffodils in yellow and white but that will be for next year at this point. If you are ok with perennials marigolds are super cheap to buy or very easy to grow from seed, and they last all season. I had great luck with sunflowers in my east facing garden last year also. For red consider red coneflowers. There are some gorgeous varieties and they are very tough, just give them a lot of sun.

For a basic book about gardening The Garden Primer is good. It covers more than you need but she includes some garden plans and has lots of solid, basic information about how to keep things alive.
posted by Cuke at 8:24 PM on March 15, 2021 [1 favorite]

My gardens are "cottage gardens" and I love the look. I second keeping the plants you have and adding a winding path of stones or grass (my front garden has a wide grass path, and the back gardens have narrow winding dirt paths flanked with slate.) for visual interest and so you can get in among the plants for weeding and spot watering.

I would begin with a handful of perennials. Coneflower can be found in yellow and (off)white now as well as red and the blooms last a long time. I would seed some chives under the rose bushes. Then I would get a mix of local wildflowers and seed them everywhere else. This will make the bugs happy and give you a season of lovely blooms with minimal effort and planning. If you don't like how some of them look when they bloom, you can always pull them out. I would also get some spring bulbs in (maybe some yellow crocus and some snowdrops) this fall. Also, sunflowers! They add height, and the birds go crazy for them. They seem so common, but they can be really beautiful.
posted by RobinofFrocksley at 6:26 AM on March 16, 2021 [1 favorite]

I use superbena to fill in space around perennials that are still establishing themselves. It keeps the colour well into the fall, and I had a ton of compliments over the summer. My house faces south east, so morning sun as well. Its an annual

Here
posted by Ftsqg at 8:47 AM on March 16, 2021

An arch with a climbing rose or other climbing flower would be lovely, climbing roses in particular are rather hardy and you can get some absolutely gorgeous ones that repeat flower for the whole summer. Add a birdbath or other firm structure that catches your fancy underneath.

East facing means you will probably have good success with growing annual herbs if that takes your fancy (except basil, which prefers more sun).

I cannot recommend borage enough to everyone. It's lovely to look at, comes back year after year (you might have to start picking out babies beyond a year or two), the bees LOVE LOVE LOVE it and the flowers are edible and taste like cucumber. They're amazing in a lemonade on a hot summer day.
posted by daysocks at 5:13 PM on March 19, 2021