Bringing an English garden to an urban neighbourhood

by Sally Bouorm | June 1, 2011 11:45 am

By Heather Neal

When the design crew of Toronto-based firm Beyond Landscaping arrived at this residence in the city’s Beaches neighbourhood, they were challenged to complete a total overhaul of the space and create a functional, yet esthetically pleasing front entrance.

Having visited England several times, the clients drew their inspiration from across the pond, wanting to create a stone wall and English garden similar to the ones they had seen during their travels. The landscape also needed to keep in character with a traditional Toronto Beach residence and appear as if it had been there for years, as in England. To achieve this goal, a significant amount of time and effort went into planning the project, which was executed simply and effectively.

Out with the old

The pre-existing space comprised a steep row of concrete steps, an over-grown hosta garden and a patch of grass that struggled to grow under mature shade trees. The trees and one Euonymus alatus (burning bush) were the only elements of the landscape the clients wanted to keep; everything else had to go.

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The first design challenge involved proper placement of the stairs in order to make them feel more balanced with the house and not as steep. Rather than centring them with the house, they were placed in accordance with the prominent peak of the house, to create symmetry. This also allowed for the placement of two new landings to break up the steep steps. The top landing was extended to add a seating area for the clients to enjoy their garden.

The next challenge was to add some retaining walls to help pick up the slope for the garden. The walls had to be placed carefully around the trees and were kept as far away as possible on the relatively small urban lot.

Step by step

Before beginning the project, proper hoarding had to be installed around the trees. The city, with its wonderful green canopy, can sometimes prove to be a landscaper’s nemesis. While the crew on this project would have loved to dig out the entire job in a morning using a skid steer, hand digging was required close to the roots of the trees. During this process, it was discovered that the tree had actually grown into part of the existing brick retaining wall. In order to preserve the tree’s health, the affected part of the wall was left intact. Thankfully, it is located towards the back of the landscape, meaning it had a negligible impact from a design perspective. All in all, it is better to be safe than sorry when dealing with a 100-year-old tree. The rest of the dig out went relatively smoothly.

The next phase was the steps. Solid stone steps were chosen, as they hold up very well functionally speaking. From a design standpoint, since so many other materials were used in the rest of the landscape, solid stone steps also served as a good contrast. Another bonus was the ease of installation. With the proper equipment, these steps can be installed relatively quickly. In this case, after a little time was spent running all the string lines, the steps were simply popped into place with a skid steer.

Keep it together

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The retaining walls, which serve as the focal point of the space, were tackled next. The initial plan and timeline allowed for the construction of dry stack five-point stone walls, similar to ones seen in England. However, when the load of stone rubble was dumped in front of the house, the crew had its doubts. Thankfully, the skilled stonemasons on staff were up to the challenge.

To ensure the walls would not push out in the freeze-thaw cycle, a concrete backing wall and proper drainage were installed. Copper drains were added in the walls as they were being built. After the walls were complete, forming for the concrete walls was installed. This was required because of the height of walls (up to 1 m [3 ft] at points) and to accommodate the coping. Then, gravel was installed behind the concrete wall with filter cloth between it and the soil to prevent clogging.

While the stone walls did end up taking slightly longer than anticipated to build, the end result was worth the added time and effort.

Walk this way

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For the walkway, the designers opted to use clay pavers rather than stone, in order to add warmth to the landscape and blend the walkway seamlessly with the house. A 457-mm (18-in.) banding was laid in front of the sidewalk due to the mandatory setback. Clay pavers are also more porous, which allows them to age quicker. Less than a year after installation, the pavers had aged nicely and now blend in perfectly with the overall landscape.

The main set of steps and landing is 1.5 m (5 ft) wide, to create a grand entrance feel. Lights were built right into the retaining walls; they were placed under the stone copings along the steps to create path lights. At the client’s request, no lighting was added to the house or the plants, in order to achieve a subdued effect rather than a light show. At night, the limited lighting creates a lovely effect, with a soft glow along the steps and two porch lights drawing you to the door.

In bloom

Last, but certainly not least, were the plants. Drawing again on their love of England and gardening, the clients wanted to create an English cottage garden. Many plants typical of these types of gardens require full sun; however, this space, under the canopy of three large shade trees, received partial to full shade in certain areas. This created a challenge when it came to plant selection.

As a foundation planting, Rhododendron P.J.M. was chosen, because of its hardiness and the beautiful lavender spring flowers it produces. Dogwood (Cornus alba), Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) and boxwood (Buxus) were also used.

The rest of the landscape comprises a variety of shade-loving perennials with a mixture of textures and colours including:

• Astilbe (Astilbe);
• Bleeding Heart (Dicentra);
• Coral Bells (Heuchera);
• Foxgloves (Digitalis);
• Foamflowers (Tiarella);
• Goat’s Beard (Aruncus dioicus);
• Hosta (Hosta);
• Ligularia/Elephant Ears (Ligularia dentata);
• Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum);
• Creeping Lamium (Lamium);
• Japanese forest grass (Hakonechloa macra); and
• Hydrangeas.

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In the dense shade area, a stepping-stone walkway was created to the side of the house with ferns and Canadian wild ginger (Asarum canadense) used as groundcover. Towards the front corner of the house, which gets a fair amount of sun, daylily (Hemerocallis) and purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) were added.

To create an English cottage garden feel, the plants were arranged in groups of three to five and ‘over-stuffed’ the garden. In just two seasons, the garden has filled in nicely with a few additions by the homeowner.

Mission accomplished

Overall, the project was a great success, taking home a Landscape Ontario Award of Excellence in the $50,000 to $100,000 category, and garnering a lot of praise from the neighbours. The landscape blends perfectly with the house, as if it’s always been there, but still makes enough of a statement to turn the heads of passersby. Most importantly, the clients were thrilled to get the English wall and garden they originally wanted.

 

Heather Neal is a co-owner and landscape designer for Toronto-based Beyond Landscaping. She can be reached via email at heather@beyondlandscaping.ca[5] or via www.beyondlandscaping.ca[6].

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/bringing-an-english-garden-to-an-urban-neighbourhood/

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