Welcome to new member willer in Toronto

Wow - Ontarians are just popping right out of the woodwork lately! Welcome willer, to Dave's Garden and the Canadian Gardening Discussion Forum. Come on in and visit with us for a while. --Ginny, from near Goderich

Hi willer! Hope you'll come chat with us soon and tell us what you have growing in your garden.

Donna from the West Kootenays in Beautiful B.C.

Welcome willer to Dave's Garden and Canadian Gardening.

Darrell
From Riverview, New Brunswick

Hi Willer,

Tell us about your garden sun/shade? both?

Inanda aka the other Ginny in Manitoba

Welcome to Dave's Garden Willer from another GTAer. I know you'll love it here. What do you grow?
Christine

Greetings from Canada's far east (I can just about spit into the Atlantic!)
Todd in Newfoundland

Hi Willer from the not so sunny prairies!

Pam

Hi Willer, I'm on the other coast, I can almost smell the pacific.

Linda

Welcome willer. You'll learn, and probably teach, a lot here. I did spit into the Pacific this mornin' watering my brugs.

Dawn...LOL

Wooh ... I only just now noticed this thread just for me!

Well, here's a basic overview of me: I bought my first house a bit less than a year ago, in the Weston area of Toronto. It's a little Tudor revival house, about 60 years old. You can see some photos at http://www.willer.ca/steve/pics/househunting/mine/ .

Right off the bat last year, I was bitten by the lawn bug. I just loved how I finally had some land of my own, and went full-force into learning all about lawns and how to make mine perfect. The previous owners had two young children and didn't have time to totally pamper their lawn; I wanted to fix up some neglected soil, and of course made some mistakes along the way.

I think I have a fairly good understanding of lawns at this point, at least residential ones. I know the differences between the various cool season grasses, at least the basics. That's probably why I've shifted my obsession to gardens ... there's so many varieties of plants!

Last week, I went to Humber Nurseries for the first time, and had a great time. I wrote down a big list of shade-tolerant plants that I liked the look of, and spent all of Sunday researching. I made an ambitious plan, involving creating a new garden in the front, digging up another garden in the front, and planting new items everywhere. I've only been able to dig up the new garden ... I'll at least plant that tomorrow.

The gardens range from shade to partial sun. Here's a quick overview:

Front East: the new one, a corner garden beside the driveway. Partial sun to sunny (I'm probably being optimistic there, though). I plan to put in Dalmation Bellflower, Mountain Laurel, Purple Rock Cress and Japanese Spurge.

Front West: Partial sun to shady, with euonymus and probably yews. They're all struggling, and I don't like them much, so I'm planning to pull them. I will then plant Peachleaf Bellflower, Flowering Almond, Dwarf Korean Lilac, and Snowdrift Astilbe.

Front Center: Fairly shady, right in front of the house. I have two new Japanese Yews in there, plus an old euonymus, and some red and yellow Primroses.

Back South: A heavy-clay, almost-no-sun difficult garden along the back fence. It's got Hostas along it, maybe a couple of years old, and some other tree-like plant. They're all not exactly thriving. I'm going to plant Sprite Astilbe, Begonia, White Ageratum and White Impatiens along with what's there already ... basically add some pizzazz through annuals.

Back East: along the east side of the (huge) deck, a row of Sedums. They're pretty neat, but I plan to supplement them with some Saxifrage.

Back Central and West: All along the west fence and west edge of the deck, giant old Hostas. It was amazing watching them explode during spring from what looked like a lethal array of spikes. The hostas take up all the space, so I can't really do anything to supplement them.

So there you have it. Tomorrow, I build out my first from-scratch garden ... I hope I don't make a mess of it!

Oh ... I have some April photos from when I rebuilt most of the Front Central. There are also photos of my attempts to fix up the lawn (which has one section full of bentgrass, it turns out, so I have to rebuild that in the fall); and also of the Front West lawn with the balding euonymus.

Oh, also, I have the photo of the back yard with the piles of leaves and the note about six bags being used up ... the muddy area on the right is where the hostas exploded out of. Very neat.They're like 4-5 feet in diameter now!

http://www.willer.ca/steve/pics/2005-04%20gardening%20and%20yard/

Steve it looks like you will have your work cut out for you (and you've done a wonderful job already :)!! Poor Amy......she's certainly out front and centre now! ;) I'm wondering if after you made up that website is she's talking to you at all?

edited to say I love your sense of humor! Ü

This message was edited Jun 10, 2005 10:31 PM

Welcome Steve & Amy. You have a lovely home and obviosly have been busy already with your landscaping outside. I like you plans and am familiar with a few of your choices for plants and flowers. Can't wait to see the finished project. Thanks for sharing and good luck the rest of the way. :)

welcome you two...........you will love it here........Elaine, from North Van, BC

Hi Ginny and welcome to DG. Sure am looking forward to your pictures. I'm not all that far from you, as I live in Mississauga.

Here's a picture of the Rugosa rose. Plenty of them around these parts, and while they are simple they are a colourful addition to the scenerey.

Joan :>)

And another. Can't help myself. lol

Joan

Hi Steve and Amy! Thanks for letting us get to know you. Your home looks lovely and you're doing wonderful things with it; I'm sure the rest of your plantings will look great. I can't wait to see the pictures; be sure to post them here in the Canadian Gardening Forum, eh!

FYI, you are not in zone 5a, you're in zone 6a. Here's a link to the Canadian Plant Hardiness Zones - a nice little tool - http://sis.agr.gc.ca/cansis/nsdb/climate/hardiness/intro.html

Christine.