Gardening Services

Garden Understories is a human-powered gardening service. We use good old fashioned hand tools, attention to detail, and ecologically-minded techniques to grow gardens!

Working with nature to create a garden you love... that loves you back! A well-loved garden entices wildlife; provides delicious, nutritious food and medicines; perfumes the air with its fragrance; and provides interesting beauty and wonder in all weather, and all seasons. 

Our garden services include:

Garden Care: Ongoing, customized garden care weekly, bi-weekly, monthly). Weeding, pruning, mulching, building healthy soil, dividing, transplanting, adding new specimens (plants, bulbs, annuals, fruits, vegetables)­, sweeping hardscape …. the list goes on. 

Seasonal Visits: Spring Preparation can include: pruning after last frost, transplanting, removal of protective mulch and burlap, mulch application and cold weather vegetable planting.  
                 Winter Preparation can include: seed collection, removing annual ornamentals and vegetables, selective pruning of shrubs and perennials (keeping some structural/colourful winter interest, as well and food and habitat for wildlife), transplanting, weeding, mulch application, frost and snow protection, planting bulbs and preparing pots for storage.

Design: Together we can create a garden that inspires and brings joy. We listen to how you would like the space to function and feel, and how much time and energy you plan to spend on the garden. Then we examine the conditions of your microclimate and come up with a design that will flourish because it’s got nature on its side. We offer edible, permaculture and native plantings, as well as lawn alternatives. 

Restoration: TLC for neglected gardens. Intensive weeding, including reclaiming "invasive" plant colonies; pruning overgrown shrubs; dividing crowded perennials. Mulching. Basically bringing the space back to being a tended garden and stirring up some excitement in the process.

Building Soil: This can begin with a  soil assessment, followed by weeding, introduction of microorganisms, mulch application, and care for/application of on-site compost. Coaching on soil life and soil care. Potential set-up of a Bokashi composting system (Bokashi composting helps you close your resource loop: instead of sending meat, dairy, grain and oil to the landfill, you can compost them at home without smell or wildlife problems, and feed your soil with the finished compost!)

The perfect much...
Leave those leaves! 

Healthy plants need healthy, living soil. Many of the fallen leaves in your garden right now are the perfect, most appropriate mulch. Not only does this mulch nourish, it protects soil from  heavy rain and frost, and retains moisture during hot summer months. Mulch helps prevent soil compaction and keeps weeds from sprouting. You avoid paying to have piles of debris hauled away and then purchasing manufactured soil amenders. You’ll also save time and money with less irrigation and weeding.