Passersby always look twice at the house and garden that Shannon Bahuaud and her husband have owned for the past seven years at 707 Fleet Ave. Many people stop to visit and chat with Bahuaud about the colourful perennials she grows on the boulevard in front of her house and the tiny but creative front yard that is full of inviting texture, form and space for veggies and herbs.
When Bahuaud and her husband purchased their 113-year old house with its postage-stamp-size lot, it was the first house they owned. Bahuaud, who works in planning at HTFC Planning & Design and is an avid gardener, wanted an appealing but low-maintenance garden.
“We created a space that people can enjoy despite the smaller yard dimensions, and it created curb appeal,” she says.
Curb appeal is an important factor when selling a house in today’s market, but does a front yard garden increase property value? Earlier this month on the September long weekend, Bahuaud’s house was listed for $349,000. It sold a week later for $361,707.
“We had more than 30 groups view our house in the seven days it was on the market, which I don’t think would have happened if we hadn’t put in the work to the outside of our home and yard,” says Bauhuad. “I would say it was definitely a selling feature. I also think our garden attracted like-minded buyers which makes it feel easier to let go of this house we’ve poured our love into and built our lives in the last seven years.” The offer to purchase included a dear seller letter from the buyers saying that they loved the garden.
The front yard is no more than 10 metres wide and about 3.6 metres deep between the front of the house and the pedestrian sidewalk. Bahuaud embraced the challenge of designing the tiny, sun-filled front yard as a space for growing perennials and food plants. “What do you do with small spaces and how do you maximize the space that you have? My focus on design is always to use native perennials and to incorporate food production.”
Raised garden boxes with a centre vine-covered arbor run parallel to the front sidewalk and provide an appealing entranceway. Bahuaud planted the raised beds this year with a range of food plants including zucchini, tomatoes, beans and herbs. On my visit, the massive and highly ornamental leaves of Yellowfin Organic zucchini — Bahuaud’s favourite variety — draped over the wooden edge at one end of the raised wooden boxes. At the other end, the tall stems of fava bean plants with their delicately pretty and scented flowers intertwined with tomato plants.
“I grow things very closely together,” says Bahuaud.
“I just cram it in and I don’t find that it impacts the quality of the food I get. The only thing I take care to thin out are carrots.”
Bahuaud is experimenting with growing fava beans for the first time. “We went to Egypt last year and all their falafels are made with fava beans and I knew I wanted to grow my own,” says Bahuaud.
“There’s also this dish I had in Egypt called Ful Medames (Egyptian Fava Bean stew) which you eat with pita and hummus and it’s very good.”
She also grows coriander which came into her garden as a volunteer.
“It flowers very nicely and now I am collecting the seed.” Other herbs that she grows include tarragon, sorrel and lemon balm.
This fall, when the new owners take possession, there will still be plenty of edibles ready to harvest. The ready-made garden includes dozens of perennials, all of which Bahuaud is leaving behind.
The majority of perennials are planted in a mounded bed on the boulevard. “The area was very flat and I wanted more height so I created a berm just to give the space some interest,” says Bahuaud. Plant varieties include Echinacea coneflower, milkweed, Mount Everest allium, pearly everlasting, irises, valerian, Culver’s root, golden Alexander, Veronicastrum, and prairie sage (Artemisia ludoviciana), which is a spreading edible herb that is host to the larvae of the Painted Lady butterfly.
“I’m a big fan of prairie sage,” says Bahuaud. “This is the one you smudge with. It dries beautifully.” The boulevard garden also includes Three-flowered Avens, white allium, wild columbine, garlic chives, and several grass varieties including Little Bluestem, needle grass (Nassella viridula), and Karl Foerster feather reed grass.
“The raised beds and the arbor make the garden welcoming to the street and to the sidewalk and then it also draws you out to the boulevard,” says Bahuaud. “I wanted there to be a sense of connectedness.” Inside the front yard is a pathway of reclaimed brick that winds its way between three separate flower beds. Again, the shape of the path was by design. “We wanted the path to feel as though you are moving through this space because when you have a smaller space, you want to actually explore rather than going straight to the front door,” says Bahuaud. “The curve of the path makes you slow down just enough that you experience your space.”
Bahuaud breathed new life into the outside of the house by painting it with two vibrant colours – surf green and green bay. But the most dramatic renovation is a new wooden porch with a vaulted roof that was built during the pandemic. “It saved us,” says Bahuaud, “because we could socialize outside safely, even in the winter.” The two-metre wide steps provide space for extra seating as well as potted herbs. Grape and wisteria vines will eventually scramble up to the top of the wooden posts on the porch to enhance privacy and a sense of enclosure.
A couple of rain barrels that are connected to a downspout that harvests rainwater from the roof are ingeniously hidden from sight beneath the porch. With the flick of a switch, a motorized pump is activated and harvested water flows through the garden hose that is connected to the rain barrels for watering plants.
The leafy backyard was designed by Bahuaud as a mixed-use entertainment area. The cosy area consists of a permeable pea gravel surface enclosed by a tall lattice-topped wooden fence with an enchanting sliding barn door style gate. Vines create a living wall on one side of the space and Bahuaud planned to plant more vines as well as ostrich ferns next to the corner seating area. But then her dream came calling.
“My dream of living in the country came before this house,” says Bahuaud. She and her husband recently purchased a 20-acre property that backs onto Birds Hill Park. “We’re very sad to leave but we’re also very excited to have more land to play with.” Bahuaud wants to grow more native plants and start her own nursery. She also plans to start an orchard and is thinking about flower farming and growing medicinal plants.
“I really want to do a lot of different things,” she says. “We love the many wildflowers, grasses, and trees. We see many deer, frogs, and monarch butterflies each time we visit the property. It feels like a paradise.”
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