Garden Beds, Planting & Mulch · Kitchener
Garden Bed Design, Planting and Mulch in Kitchener
A bed that needs watering every day was planted wrong. A bed built for Kitchener clay, shade and the Region's water rules looks after itself most of the year.
Garden beds are where a landscape either works or turns into a chore. The difference is not the plants people choose at the nursery. It is whether the bed was built for the ground it sits on, whether the plants suit the light that actually falls there, and whether the whole thing was mulched and edged so it stays a bed instead of merging back into the lawn.
New beds
A new bed on a Kitchener lot starts with cutting a clean edge, removing the sod, and finding out what is underneath. On a new build in Huron Park or Doon South that is usually a thin skin of topsoil over clay, and the bed has to be dug out and rebuilt with a real depth of topsoil and compost or the plants will sit in a clay bowl and rot in a wet spring. On a mature lot the soil may be fine and full of roots from the neighbouring tree, which changes what will compete. Either way, the bed is built before anything is planted, and utility locates are done through Ontario One Call before the digging starts.
Tearing out and replanting old beds
The 1960s to 80s houses in Forest Heights, Stanley Park and along the older streets have foundation plantings that were right for a small house forty years ago: junipers now brown underneath, yews cut into cubes, a cedar hedge blocking the front window, a burning bush the size of a car. Taking those out is heavier work than people expect, with root systems that have to be dug or ground, and it is where the bed gets its soil rebuilt. Then it is replanted to the house as it is now, at a scale that will still fit in ten years. Mature trees stay. Removing larger trees on private property in Kitchener can need a permit through the City of Kitchener, and it is an arborist's job regardless.
Choosing plants that survive here
Kitchener is a cold-winter, hot-summer, clay-soil city where the Region of Waterloo asks people to go easy on outdoor water in summer. Plants that thrive in that are not exotic. Native perennials like coneflower, black-eyed Susan, bee balm, wild geranium, little bluestem and switchgrass. Shrubs like ninebark, serviceberry, dogwood, sumac and native viburnums. Sedges and ferns for the shade under the maples. Hydrangeas, hostas and daylilies where a bit more water is fine. The plant list is matched to each bed's light and soil, and to how much work you want the garden to be. A bed that is all perennials is cheaper to plant and more work to keep; a bed with a shrub structure and perennials between them is the opposite.
Rain gardens and wet corners
The low spot where the downspout discharges and the back corner that stays wet until June are not problems to be fought. They are rain gardens waiting to happen: a shallow planted basin that takes the water from the roof, holds it long enough to soak in, and is planted with things that like wet feet in spring and dry ones in August. On lots near the Grand or Schneider Creek, where the water table is high anyway, this is often the only planting that makes sense in the low ground.
Mulch, done properly
Mulch holds water in the soil, keeps weeds down and keeps the bed looking like a bed. Done badly it smothers plants and rots trunks. The right depth is a few inches, pulled back from stems and trunks, over soil that has been weeded and edged first. Natural shredded bark or cedar mulch breaks down and feeds the soil and gets topped up every year or two. Dyed mulch looks good for a season. Landscape fabric under mulch is mostly a mistake in a planted bed and gets removed when a bed is renovated.
Edging
A bed without an edge becomes lawn again within two years. A cut spade edge is cheapest and needs redoing each spring. Steel or aluminum edging lasts and disappears visually. A stone or paver edge is light hardscape and part of a bed job here. Rotted landscape ties from the 1980s come out.
Vegetable gardens
Raised beds built from cedar or block, filled with proper soil, placed where the sun actually is. On clay lots a raised bed is the only way to grow vegetables without a fight, and it is a half-day job to build and fill.
Frequently asked questions
What plants do well in Kitchener with little watering?
Native and prairie perennials such as coneflower, black-eyed Susan, bee balm and little bluestem, and shrubs like ninebark, serviceberry, sumac and dogwood. Under mature trees, sedges, ferns and groundcovers. They are chosen bed by bed for the light and soil, and mulched so the soil holds what rain it gets.
Should I put landscape fabric under the mulch?
Usually not in a planted bed. It stops the mulch from feeding the soil, roots grow into it, and weeds seed on top of it anyway. Under a gravel path or a stone edge it has a use. In an old bed being renovated it generally comes out.
Can you remove my overgrown junipers and cedars?
Yes. Overgrown foundation shrubs and small ornamental trees come out as part of rebuilding a bed, roots included. Larger trees are a different matter: removal is an arborist's job and may need a City of Kitchener permit, and you will be told when that applies.
Serving Kitchener and surrounding areas. Contact us for a no-obligation quote specific to your property.