Why I Love What I Do — 2

in 2013 I built this perennial garden on a woodchip base. Here it is in 2017.

When a client shows me a disaster area in their garden, and asks for it to be made nice, I am happy. When I am able to make that improvement in a short time, I am thrilled.

In 2013, the client garden above was a total mess after some of the public utilities companies came along and damaged the Blue Spruce, along with some of the evergreen shrubs. She asked me for something “pretty” to camouflage this messy area.

2013. At this point we have laid down some wood chips and are planning how we will fill in with plants.

2017. You can see we managed to pretty well fill in all the blanks, and then some.

We got started, myself along with one of my trusty student helpers, and first removed two of the root-damaged evergreen shrubs, leaving a clear space.

2013 — Left — how this section in front of the bow window looked when I started. Right — this is how the side area looked pre getting fixed.

2017-Left — this is how the side area looks now. Right, this is how the bed in front of the bow window looks now.

Our priority was to make the front entrance look good.

2013. Top left shows several scruffy shrubs in front of the bow window. Top and bottom right shows those shrubs out and ground ready

One thing that happened was that the client got her front entrance pathway re-done, and it really sets off the garden, in my opinion.

This has been an awesome project to work on because the client has given me free rein in decisions regarding plants.

I make a lot of use of annuals in large planter pots and keep a look out for deals on perennials. I make sure that we get things that will provide colour for most seasons.

The client has been very open to suggestions to increase the coverage of the watering system, and we have added drip watering systems to the various large vegetable pots at the other side of the house.

2013-This side of the house ws a challenge, and was filled with Goutweed.

2016. It took many hours, but we pulled and dug out the Goutweed and replaced with various shade tolerant perennials. The neighbours’ Rudbeckia daisies self-seed generously but we don’t mind.

This garden is an ever-evolving project and probably one of the most labour intense ones that I have, but I love it.