On this property bordering Little Italy, the owners wanted a design to make better use of their downtown garden to suit their passion for cooking and entertaining, improve drainage, and add drama. To bring a contemporary style to an undefined space, our solution was to add form, colour, textures and lighting to the garden by dividing it into three zones: against the house, a cedar deck lounge area defined by dark charcoal fencing and a cedar screen; in the middle, a dining area for 30 defined by a steel arbour with integrated LED strip lighting and a light coloured herringbone patterned permeable terrace; and in the back, a woodland garden under the magnificent canopy of the site’s by-law-protected, 100 year old Acer plantanoides (Norway Maple).

VTLA designed several custom elements within these three zones in collaboration with various skilled contractors. For privacy, a cedar screen was designed to match the existing fence board pattern and block the neighbour’s second story staircase. A 13 ft long was table designed with the live wood edge as a decorative feature through the middle joint and fabricated from slabs salvaged from a tree diseased by the Emerald Ash Borer. The table legs are reclaimed Douglas Fir beams aged more than 100 years from Toronto’s Gooderham and Worts distillery. We used leftover material to design a matching bar that can be easily reconfigured into a table extension for larger dinner parties. A stepping stone walkway leads through the woodland garden to a 25 ft long perforated steel screen gate, flanked by the massive Maple trunk. Using two layers of punctured steel, the screen gives transparency and a decorative pattern to the garden edge.

The garden’s planting design accentuates the style of each zone. A structured Carpinus betulus hedge alongside the cedar deck provides a formal entrance from the side walkway, and privacy from the adjacent neighbour.  A grove of multi-stemmed Betula nigra with subtle uplighting surrounds and accentuates the outdoor dining experience. Added plantings in this middle area include flowering trees and summer perennials against the backdrop of existing Thuja. Under the Acer canopy, the woodland features spring bulbs and the green and burgundy foliage patterns of Hosta, Heuchera, Hellebores, Polygonatum, Epimedium, Big root Geranium and Mertensia.