Exterior Property Inspection: Episode 3

Another garden inspection for your viewing pleasure.

Design

People often ask if we do design, over the years we have done a lot of installations for other designers balanced with design for our own clients. I always answer, yes we do design, from plants lists, complete landscape plans and job specifications. Here are some pictures showing the process.

Green Roof Inspection

Introducing the exterior property and garden inspection

Interested in having an inspection for your garden? Book you appointment today!

The Cloisters

I reluctantly agreed to accompany my wife to new york last weekend. I was nervous to leave Toronto so close to opening day, so you can imagine my delight when 8" of snow fell the day before we left. In any case we had a great time and I came back with a new blog post. Pictured above is the scene on March 23rd 2011.

 The park leading to the cloisters in new york begins with a wonderful sea of purple heather interspersed with lime juniper.

 Then large granite rocks have been planted with sedum and juniper. The contrast between the white bloom of the juniper berries and the red orange of the sedum was particularly striking.

 The stonework leading to the cloisters was equally impressive. pictured here is the natural stone arch built at least 40 feet above street level.

Large drifts of hellabores were planted all over the park leading up to the cloisters, we might have missed this entirely had we come any later in April. In addition the crocus interspersed with Stachys was a great contrast. All in all a great trip and there was still snow on the ground when we got back.

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.

Who is Ecoman: Introducing Rachel Weston

Pictured here is Rachel filling containers for the Parts and Labour rooftop garden project, installing a xeroflor greenroof in the beach and planting the woodland garden at Canada Blooms. Rachel started working with Ecoman in fall 2009. She has recently completed the class portion of the Horticulture Technology diploma at Humber College and is working towards completing the apprenticeship component. Rachel has been working diligently since February to improve our systems, prepare the employee manual and initiate safety policies. In her spare time Rachel acts as the Garden Club Coordinator at Dufferin Grove Park and more recently volunteered on both the pollinator garden and the City Parks and Recreation woodland garden on display at Canada Blooms (see earlier posts for more info). Currently Rachel is taking landscape design courses at Ryerson University. I am very happy to have Rachel on board for another season.

Canada Blooms

While strolling the City of Toronto display I came across this great woodland garden installed by Landscape Design students from the Chang School at Ryerson University. According to Rachel Weston, student and Ecoman employee, this garden was installed by the "Art and Management of Planting Design" students taught by Michelle Reid. Although the pictures do it no justice, this was a great woodland garden. PS While I was admiring this garden I spotted Councillor Mary Fragedakis and her mother strolling through and chatting with City and Park staff.

Canada Blooms

One of the more interesting displays was the pollinator garden conceived by Clement Kent. Although these pictures do it no justice they illustrate a point. Today is March 20th and only the earliest spring ephemerals are flowering in the garden. Most designers at Canada Blooms make use of plants supplied by nurseries that have been forced (tricked into flowering early). According to Clement, the list of available plants only included one native. Therefore Clement took it upon himself to force his own plants for the pollinator garden display. I was particularly impressed at the variety of plants on display as some have very short flowering times (Mertensia for example is a case in point).

Canada Blooms

Alex Zalewski is grandson of the founder of Parklane, a landscaping company that has been around since 1958. According to Alex, Parklane helped to organize Canada Blooms and has been an exhibitor ever since. This years exhibit was really special, they won an award for best use of water, I thought this sculpture/water feature really stood out. I believe this work to be by local artist Floyd Elzinga.
In addition they built this wonderful sand dune complete with vertical timbers and percussionist. The theme for this year at Canada Blooms was rhythm and they really captured the vibe, this scene could easily be from wreck beach in Vancouver.

 

Canada Blooms

This is Reid Snow owner of VRS Masonry, they built this magnificent dry stack stone structure in 3 days with only hammer and chisel! This was one of the highlights for me at Canada Blooms. People with the skill and craftsmanship required to build something like this are few and far between. Master tip from Reid Snow "I use a 2" carbide tip tracer for almost everything"

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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Reuse + Growing together = cool community project

Over the years we have donated our plastic pots of all sizes to Lara Lucretia for non-profit balcony planting projects. Lara has recently completed her hand illustrated Guide To Growing Food On Your Balcony. Her first printed run has sold out and she is currently looking for funding for her second run using Kickstarter (small pledges from the public are used to fund independent projects of all kinds). Although we missed seedy sunday, Lara promised she would grab some great seeds for the Ecoman postage stamp sized garden. Here is a link to Cubit's Organic Living: Seedy Sunday Toronto Recap. For those of you also missed out and are looking for the perfect heirloom tomato, special variety of basil or just want to schmooze with like minded gardener types there are two more seedy events March 12th and 27th.

Parts & Labour

Some of you may have heard of the new restaurant/bar/music venue called Parts & Labour. What you may not know is that the owner of the building is a landscape architect (hint see testimonials). We had many discussions this spring regarding plans for a rooftop garden using a container system pictured here. This rooftop garden provided veggies for the restaurant all summer, featuring heirloom veggies capably grown by Katie Mathieu. According to Katie "The radishes were nice and chubby in the spring". Our involvement was to facilitate the installation of access, supplying labour for installation of soil, container placement and winterizing at the end of the season. Apparently the engineers had a change of heart regarding large amounts of soil sitting on the middle of the roof over winter.

Community

This past spring Ecoman supplied the herbs and veggies for the Samba Kids rooftop garden at Drum Artz. We planted basil, rosemary, cherry tomatoes and much more. You can also see the Xeroflor green roof that we help maintain.

2011 Newsletter

Well it is late February and we have had warm and cold snaps, snow in abundance and now as I look out my window rain. Although the official opening day for Ecoman is April 1st, we may be starting earlier weather dependent of course. So be sure to book early for your spring cleanups. I am writing to update the changes for 2011 including personnel, pricing and technology.We are very happy to announce that Rohan, Rachel, Mike and John are all coming back this year. We are sad to announce that Tinka will be leaving to pursue a managerial position at an upscale flower shop.Last year we rolled out our new timekeeping technology on the gardening side and were very happy with the result. This year we plan to expand the use of electronic timekeeping on the landscaping side. Although the use of electronic timekeeping resulted in savings for our clients we are aware that in spring and fall the addition of a third crewmember did add substantially to the bottom line.That is why we are adopting a small change in our pricing on the gardening side to help alleviate this concern. The new pricing system will be $45 for the crew leader and $25 for each member of the crew. This will result in no change to your hourly cost (since we always work as a two person crew therefore the hourly rate stays the same at $70). The savings will accrue when a third crew member charged out at $25 is added for large jobs and fall cleanups. The savings amounts to $10/hr compared to last year pricing for every hour we charge at the 3 person crew level. If you are wondering about our services and would like to see pictures of our work please follow the link provided here: http://bit.ly/9HeceO. This site is updated often so feel free to visit again soon. You can also search on the right hand side by category for specific topics such as landscaping or green roofs. Look out for a new feature that will show video footage of exterior home and garden inspections showing what we look for and recommendations.So there you have it, our core crew has returned for another season, electronic timekeeping has helped to improve service, our new pricing system will ensure cost savings on larger gardening jobs and our blog will keep you up to date on new projects, pictures and stories. I am looking forward to spring and hope to hear from you soon.Cheers,Jonas

Badscape Stairs

We often get called into a project after a large component of the work has been completed. In this case a pressure treated wood walkout with steps has been installed. Our job was to supply and install the pathway to the garage. Typically steps are installed with a consistent height to facilitate safe and efficient pathways to and from the home. Having large differences in heights of stairs can be awkward and annoying at best and can cause serious injury at worst. At times your landscape contractor can cheat the height of the path without throwing off the rest of the grading of your property. In this case we have already cheated at least an inch and the steps are still off by at least three inches!

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.

Kingslea continued

Here is a great shot of how the crumbling steps were replaced and tied into the retaining wall.