Fall Colour at Mountain Equipment Coop Greenroof

One of my favourite parts of the job is the surprise of seeing something new. The large and colourful mushrooms, new Hawkweed, Alliums flowering in October, amazing fall colour on the sedums and the spread of Asters to the west side made my day.

Sourcing plants

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The Aquilegia chrysantha (Colorodo columbine) pictured above was planted at David Archer Coop last year. After trying all my regular suppliers (and failing), I purchased every single last one that Humber Nurseries had grown. I believe it was 51! Unlike 2x4's sourcing plants can be time consuming as you need to know the quality, size, quantity availability and price.

Exterior Property Inspection: Episode 3

Another garden inspection for your viewing pleasure.

Lynwood Residence

Here is a great example of how plants can evoke a feeling in a garden. This space is owned by one of our gardening clients. These shots are of the back garden complete with koy pond and waterfall. We have been gardening here for several years and are slowly adding/editing the plant composition to enhance the space. There are existing beeches, Japanese maples and sumac. We planted a carpet of lime creeping jenny interspersed with Heuchera in the grass area. We have also been training the massive wisteria (not pictured here). Sometimes the bones of a garden are in great shape and our job is to help with plant selection and care.

Mystery Plant ID

Last summer a new client had requested a garden cleanup and during the course of our conversation it came up that the tree pictured here had been a mystery to the homeowner for years. The client had gone so far as taking cuttings to the local nursery and they too were unable to identify it. After doing some research it was positively identified as Celtis occidentalis or common hackberry. According to Dirr (1975), this tree is native to North America and grows from Manitoba to Quebec and south to North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia and Oklahoma. One might wonder why a native tree with such a large range would stump local gardeners and nurseries. Although this is not always the case, many native trees are not widely cultivated, this would explain why nursery staff were unfamiliar with it. What got me was the timing of my visit in early spring gave only three clues as to the mystery tree's identity: the unusual corky bark, the fact that the flowers emerge before the leaf and the alternate arrangement of the buds (see below for what I had to go on initially). In addition its large size makes it somewhat unsuitable for the small urban downtown Toronto gardens we usually spend time in, so in 10 years of gardening I had not come across it. I have to admit a certain degree of satisfaction identifying the tree and successfully ending the mystery for a new client. Score one for Ecoman!
Dirr, Michael A. 1975 Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. Stipes Publishing. Champaign, Illinois. Fifth Edition.

Local wow mystery pruning

Walking back from a brunch with friends, I happened upon this garden with these incredible geometric shapes. It would take many years of painstaking work, an architectural eye combined with masterful skill with a pruner to achieve this look. Whether you like this aesthetic or not you have to credit this mystery gardener for their skill and technique. The time did not seem right to knock randomly at their door in order to shed some light on the story behind this garden. Wouldn't it be interesting to meet the person responsible for this work?
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Wholesale Nursery

One of my favourite parts of working in this business is going to the wholesale nurseries. Pictured here are shots of the perennial greenhouse at Connon NVK. Working with Mark (head of perennials) and the rest of the team at Connon is great because they value our business and are setup to work with landscape contractors. Typically a list is sent ahead so the nursery can start picking your order, however, in spring we often are purchasing small quantities for multiple clients. Therefore it is not unusual to show up with a partial list and hand pick some special items for a last minute project.

Yews of the world unite!

While working on the Cottingham installation we got involved with a very large mature yew (Taxus x media). The client agreed that we could prune it for shape, but ultimately decided to remove it entirely. Pictured here is the final plea for mercy, or is it defiance? Yew decide.

Thank You Sam...

March

Surface Tension