Toronto Yard and Garden
Landscape Cleanup Services
Interlock paver weeding
Weedwhackers vs. “scrapers”
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A “scraper” is what I call the L-shaped weeding or digging tool sold at Canadian Tires and Home Depots in the landscaping section. I use these to scrape paver and paving slab joints of weeds, moss, and dirt. The final result is very clean, though time consuming. The alternative to getting on hands and knees to scrape out weeds from stone is to use a weedwhacker. The first weedwhacker I tried to use for this application failed because the string was too weak and snapped off easily. The second attempt at it, which is where I’m currently at (after 10+ years of doing this work) has been more successful because I’ve replaced the string and kept the weed whacker a fair distance from the stone to avoid it snapping. If I can figure out how to put the spool on my Stihl machine correctly, I’ll finally master this tool.
Weeding and spring & fall cleanups
Cycles of annual vs. perennial weeds
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Weeds break down broadly into two classes: perennial and annual. Perennial weeds grow from seed or from pre-existing root systems. Come wintertime, their topgrowth dies off and their root systems overwinter and return the following spring to repeat their growth cycle. Annual weeds grow from seeds. Before winter, they produce their own seedlings and drop hundreds or thousands of seedlings into the nearby soil. Come winter, they die off and in the springtime, these new seedlings will receive soil, sunlight, and water and germinate to produce new weeds.
Should I collect leaves off my property?
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I’d say no. Leaves break down and provide organic matter, which is quite valuable for soil. I don’t know the specifics, but my understanding is that the more organic matter in the soil, the better. Nobody cares about disease or overwintering pests, these are non issues. Lawns aren’t that valuable or interesting to repair in my opinion. If some matting occurs and the leaves prevent enough sunlight to kill a patch of grass, just overseed it in the spring. Leaf collection is, in my mind, something a homeowner can skip doing as it’s a labor intensive and pointless activity (consider how quickly after leaf collection, your neighbors leaves end up at your property). If you absolutely must do it, wait until a week or two before winter snows start.
Small tree & shrub removal
Tools and processes for small tree and shrub removal:
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Get your tools: metal-handled shovel, mattock, pruning loppers, reciprocating saw with 12 inch blade, and chainsaw
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Use the sawzall to cut a circle around the plant to sever shallow roots
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Use the chainsaw to cut the plant down, so that you have maybe 1-2 feet of plant stem/trunk/body remaining for leverage
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Use the shovel, mattock, and pruning loppers to dig, expose roots, sever them, then push the plant body. Keep doing it until you feel it starting to move. Then finally pull it out, refill the hole with soil, and document the feeling of accomplishment and sweaty celebration.
Lawn Mowing, Weed Whacking, and Grass Blowing
Safety and considerations when mowing a lawn
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PPE: if you’re using a gasoline mower, you may be emitting fumes, and if you’re standing directly behind a fume emitting machine you should at least be wearing a p100 mask with the appropriate filter for gasoline particles
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Maintained mower: make sure you have some kind of a cover on the mower so that a piece of metal doesn’t go flying into your face (never happened but hey why not). Also, make sure the blade is properly attached and all that (blades do fly off once in a blue moon, again never with me but someone I know). metal-handled shovel, mattock, pruning loppers, reciprocating saw with 12 inch blade, and chainsaw
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Mow at the right time: don’t mow in August or July every week or biweekly. Nothing is growing, you’re just damaging grass that’s already stressed from the heat and creating patches for weeds to grow
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Items on the ground: scan the lawn for dog shit, toys, rocks, whatever can fly into your face, into the face of people near you, end up covering you or your mower or damaging the blade. Remove and clear before mowing.
Pruning principles
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1) Pruning (in basically every case you do it) should be done just above an intersection between two branches or a branch and a stem. Making cuts like this improves the speed of recovery at the cut point, which is important because every pruning cut in every case welcomes pests and disease. The faster the plant seals the wound and recovers, the better. 2) The timing of pruning matters. The best time to prune anything is winter. Plants are dormant, there are no pests or disease that can infect the plant, and I suppose the plant begins recovery during the spring or even perhaps during the winter
Hedge Trimming
Trimming principles
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1) The more frequently you trim an evergreen, the better. Every time you trim, it stimulates growth at the cut points, which leaves a bushier, fuller look to the plant 2) Go slowly and carefully. You don’t need to remove a lot of growth from a plant to get it looking good. Make sure it looks even and try not to cut anything off that won’t grow back. Make light cuts, take a step back, see how it looks from the side, be comfortable as you work, speed will come later.
Pruning Grasses
Grass pruning
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Ornamental grasses can be pruned in the late fall, winter or the spring. However, it's advisable to leave pruning until the springtime. These grasses have living tissue above the soil. When you cut them down in the fall or winter, they become more susceptible to winter frost damage. Certain plants have this condition, ornamental grasses being one of them. If you want healthier grasses, best to wait until spring to prune them.
Commercial Land Clearing (tree pruning, weeding, rake out and disposal)
Commercial land clearing essential tools and transportation
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Clearing land can be done in different ways. In the project on the right, my essentials were a chainsaw, pruning loppers, a weed whacker, a garden hoe, a weeding tool, and a uhaul truck rental.
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A chainsaw was needed to cut down all trees to their bases. Loppers were needed to cut down branches. A weedwhacker helped to deal with any low-lying weeds, and a garden hoe helped to create a clean appearance in the topsoil. An L-shaped weeding tool always helps with cleanups like these. A uhaul was used to pack all of the yard waste up and haul it off to the dump. However, this isn’t the ideal vehicle type for this type of work because removal at the dump takes a long time.
Stone Cleaning
Stone cleaning method
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Stone can be cleaned with bleach and a pressure washer. That is how I did the job to the right. You need to use a p100 respirator with the appropriate cartridge (60923, I don’t have it nearby right now, so I’m not 100% sure) for bleach fumes. Ideally, you use a pressure washer that shoots hot water for this job, but unfortunately such machines are prohibitively expensive to purchase. Heat is safer and more effective, but bleach is a solid alternative. Pressure washing alone doesn’t do the same work, and stone cleaners aren’t that effective. Just take bleach, apply it directly to the stone, and pressure wash it off. Now, if you do this to many kinds of stone, expect damage in the form of pitting, but this stone is concrete or some kind of concrete mixture, so it doesn’t matter. So, to rephrase the above, “cheap, basic stone like concrete can be cleaned with bleach, other types of stone may require different solutions to preserve the appearance and prevent damage.”
Flat roof cleaning
Powerline safety
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Working on a rooftop requires basic knowledge of powerline safety. Specifically, powerlines are dangerous to touch when they aren’t coated in insulation. Insulated wires are okay to work next to, uninsulated ones are not and determining which is which can be a little stressful.
Filling New Planter Beds
Controlling weeds by replacing soil
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For small contained garden beds, like this raised bed, creating a new and weed-free garden may be achieved by removal of old soil and replacement with new soil. Weeds may still invade from the surrounding areas and through weed seeds in the new topsoil, but this method is the most effective and reliable way to clear a new area of weeds and ensure a clean garden the following year and likely for the years to come.
