Down The Garden Path Podcast

Joanne Shaw welcomes Carla Bailey back to the podcast to discuss how Women in Landscaping empowers women in the landscaping industry through networking and mentorship opportunities.  About Carla Bailey An HR professional for over a decade, Carla Bailey honed her expertise working for a leading landscaping company in London, Ontario. Dedicated to creating a positive work environment and resolving employee matters, her commitment to staff growth led her to discover and implement various government initiatives to support employee development. In 2018, Carla and three other green professionals founded Women In Landscaping to introduce women to green professions and provide a community to help them thrive. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: The need for a Durham chapter of Women in Landscaping, which is a registered nonprofit The success of chapters in other regions, like Toronto and Ottawa, emphasizes the importance of local champions reaching out to contacts Carla explained their funding model, which relies on donations from contractor and vendor companies Joanne and Carla discussed their experiences with customer service, particularly focusing on gendered treatment and communication challenges The growth and expansion of Women in Landscaping, and their transition from quarterly sessions to monthly drop-in events at local venues Women in Landscaping's success in reaching 4,500 attendees annually, and their plans to expand into new communities across Ontario and potentially Alberta and BC The upcoming Congress 2026, which will feature two events: a Landscape Ontario women's event during the day and a WiL-hosted evening reception Empowering Women in Landscaping: the importance of promoting landscaping as a career for women and the need for support networks within the industry The benefits of having a community of women in landscaping, where they can share experiences, provide support, and collaborate on projects Joanne emphasized the value of networking and learning from each other, while Carla noted the unique open-book mentality in Ontario's landscape industry, which fosters innovation and collaboration Initiatives and events organized by the National Association for Landscaping Professionals and Landscape Ontario to support women in the industry They highlighted the importance of retaining women in the workforce and shared strategies for creating a more inclusive and flexible work environment Carla emphasized the need for transparent wage structures and career advancement opportunities, while Joanne shared her personal experience of balancing work and family life The upcoming women's luncheon and networking events, including a cocktail reception followed by a tailgate party at Landscape Ontario's Congress They explored challenges faced by new entrants to the landscape design industry, particularly regarding business skills and insurance needs, and agreed that supporting young professionals through mentorship and education is crucial The importance of business acumen and market awareness for landscape designers operating in different regions, and the value of women's networks in the industry Women in Landscaping's monthly meetings, which take place on the fourth Thursday of each month at 7pm local time, with locations varying between local cafes and bars The group has chapters in London, Ancaster, Ottawa, and Toronto, with attendance ranging from 10-15 people per meeting Landscape Ontario is hosting Touch A Truck events across the province on July 19th, with the London event being co-hosted by Women in Landscaping. Learn more here. The group is seeking sponsorship to create a professional website, and Carla encouraged listeners to follow them on their social media platforms You can find Women in Landscaping on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw speaks with Barbara Pratt about the 29th annual Gardens of Uxbridge Tour, taking place this Saturday, June 21st, 2025, from 10 am to 5 pm. The Gardens of Uxbridge Tour On this self-guided driving tour around the Uxbridge countryside, participants view eight private residential gardens in both town and country settings. The gardens featured change every year and offer a variety of sizes, designs, unique plantings, and inspiration for your own garden. A charitable fundraiser, produced in partnership with The Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario, this tour benefits the local National Historic Site commemorating this Canadian author of Anne of Green Gables fame. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: Lucy Maud Montgomery Society  Barbara Pratt is one of the founding members of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society Montgomery lived near Uxbridge for 15 years, and her journals were published in five volumes by Oxford University Press Gardens of Uxbridge Tour The annual Gardens of Uxbridge Tour is a major fundraiser for the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario Barbara explained how the society restored the Leaskdale Manse, where Montgomery lived as a minister's wife, using her historical photographs to guide the restoration The tour, now in its 29th year, was originally run by Community Care in Uxbridge before being taken over by the society, which continues to maintain both the house and gardens to attract international visitors interested in Montgomery's life and work The tour focuses on showcasing personal and unique garden styles, overcoming obstacles, and providing inspiration for gardeners This year's tour will take place on June 21st, featuring eight gardens (4 in town and 4 in the countryside) that can be visited in a single day Participants receive a passport with a map and descriptions of the gardens, along with a list of interesting side trips, such as Richters Herbs in Goodwood Tickets must be purchased online at gardensofuxbridge.org, with all proceeds supporting local community projects This year, due to road construction, the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society will serve refreshments at Showbrook Gardens instead of the manse, where they will offer their signature tea and scones along with displays The tour will highlight various artists, including Linda Virio for encaustic painting, Daniella Boerhof for metal sculptures, and Anja Kooistra for fabric sculptures. Barbara discussed the upcoming two-day conference in Leaskdale dedicated to Lucy Maud Montgomery, which will attract attendees from around the world, including South Africa, the United States, Europe, and Japan. Lucy Maud Montgomery Summer Events Barbara discussed the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society's summer activities, including weekly Wednesday teas at the historic Leaskdale Church Learn more at LucyMaudMontgomery.ca. Get your tickets for this weekend's Gardens of Uxbridge Tour at www.gardensofuxbridge.org. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw speaks with author Susan Poizner about her latest book, Fruit Tree Pruning: The Science and Art of Cultivating Healthy Fruit Trees.  About Susan Poizner Susan Poizner is an award-winning author, journalist, urban orchardist, and fruit tree care educator based in Toronto, Canada. She trains arborists, master gardeners, and community and home orchardists in fruit tree maintenance through in-person workshops, online courses, and webinars. Her books include Grow Fruit Trees Fast, Growing Urban Orchards, Fruit Tree Grafting for Everyone and Fruit Tree Pruning. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: Fruit Tree Pruning and Care Pruning techniques for both mature and newly planted fruit trees How to approach neglected trees Susan mentions her previous book on fruit tree grafting and discusses whether homeowners should be encouraged to plant fruit trees, given the maintenance involved. Planting a fruit tree is a long-term commitment Avoid impulse purchases at garden centres Research disease-resistant varieties suitable for your climate and order from specialist fruit tree nurseries Start with younger, bare-root trees that can be shaped through pruning rather than older potted trees The importance of proper site selection, ensuring full sun and space for root growth Susan recommends annual mulching with compost to nourish the tree and advises against planting other plants directly under the tree Pruning timing: wait a year for transplanted potted trees, but prune bare-root trees immediately upon planting in spring Fruit Tree Pruning Basics The importance of pruning fruit trees from the day they are planted The first three years of formative pruning are crucial for shaping the tree's structure Two main tree shapes: central leader (Christmas tree shape) and vase-shaped (goblet) Remove healthy branches to improve air circulation, sunlight penetration, and fruit quality Thin fruit to ensure better size and flavour For mature trees, focus on improving air circulation by removing congested branches, limiting removal to 20-25% of the living canopy per year Prune after blossom time to avoid disease spread and encourage the tree to invest energy in fruiting buds rather than new growth Fruit tree pruning is a DIY activity that anyone can learn, emphasizing that even arborists often lack specific training in fruit tree care Learn proper pruning techniques before hiring professionals Use the right tools, such as Japanese handsaws and pole pruners, and maintain them properly Conduct a soil test before planting fruit trees and use compost for regular feeding, with occasional foliar sprays like diluted blackstrap molasses to boost tree health Susan recommends a dormant spray of lime sulphur and dormant oil in early spring before bud break as a preventative measure against pests and diseases Fruit Tree Education and Community Fruit trees are generous, providing food for generations with a single planting Susan shares her experience at community cherry harvesting events Pests and critters: With proper planning, there's usually enough fruit for both humans and animals  Susan mentions her books on fruit tree care, including titles on pruning, fast-growing techniques, urban orchards, and grafting, which can be found on her website orchardpeople.com or on Amazon. Find Susan Poizner online at orchardpeople.com and Fruit Tree Pruning: The Science and Art of Cultivating Healthy Fruit Trees on Amazon. You can also check out her YouTube channel or listen to the Orchard People podcast. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week, Joanne speaks with horticulturist and author Steven Biggs about his latest book, Grow Olives Where You Think You Can't: How to Grow an Olive Tree in a Pot.  About Steven Biggs Steven was recognized by Garden Making magazine as one of the “green gang” making a difference in Canadian horticulture. His home-garden experiments span driveway straw-bale gardens, a rooftop kitchen garden, fruit plantings, and an edible-themed front yard. He's a horticulturist, award-winning broadcaster and author, and former horticulture instructor with George Brown and Durham Colleges in Ontario, Canada. His books include Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can't, Growing Figs in Cold Climates, Grow Figs Where You Think You Can't, and No-Guff Gardening, available at foodgardenlife.com. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: Growing Olives in Cold Climates Olive trees are well-suited for cold climates They can live for hundreds of years Olive trees are available at garden centres Steven recommends the self-pollinating variety, Frantoio, for home gardens Can be used for screening or framing garden spaces Olive Tree Care in Containers Growing olive trees in pots: the importance of full sun, well-draining soil, and regular pruning for size control and fruit production You'll also need a simple all-purpose fertilizer and amending potting soil with garden loam and sand for added weight to prevent toppling Store potted olive trees in a cool, dark place over the winter to satisfy chill hours for flowering and fruiting Joanne noted that olive trees can be brought indoors as houseplants during the winter and taken outside in the spring after new growth has hardened off Olive Tree Care, Propagation and Pruning Steven shared his experience growing olive trees, including a method used by a Vancouver Island grower who protects his trees with horticultural fleece and Christmas lights during cold weather Olive trees can be propagated through cuttings, air layering, or by taking advantage of suckers that naturally develop at the base of the tree Olive trees are relatively easy to care for, but common issues include overwatering in winter, leading to root rot and letting the soil dry out in summer Steven's potting technique: root pruning every 3-4 years by lifting the tree from its 14-inch pot, trimming the roots, and replacing the soil Olive trees need bright light indoors and can be pruned to minimize alternate bearing, which causes heavy crops in one year followed by none the next Find Steven Biggs online at www.foodgardenlife.com and Grow Olives Where You Think You Can't on Amazon. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne discusses strategies to prevent a box tree moth infestation and explores the moth's continued impact on boxwoods in Durham Region. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: The impact of the box tree moth on boxwoods Its discovery in Ontario in 2018 and its recent appearance in Durham Region Box Tree Moth Life Cycle: The adult moth has a short lifespan of 14 days but is a strong flyer, making it challenging to control The challenges in controlling the pest are due to its rapid reproduction and ability to survive cold winters Presents a significant threat to boxwoods and may be here to stay Be aware of its presence and consider protective measures for your plants Inspect boxwood plants for signs of box tree moth infestation, including webbing, chewed leaves, and caterpillars Explore treatment options, focusing on the need to kill caterpillars at the appropriate stage The only current control method is biological, using BTK spray, which must be applied diligently from mid-May onwards, ensuring thorough coverage, including the undersides of leaves Avoid moving boxwood plants to new locations to prevent spreading the box tree moth Explore alternative plants such as yews, globe cedars, strongbox holly, Japanese pieris, dwarf hydrangeas, dwarf mock orange, or dwarf lilacs as replacements for boxwood. Focus on ornamental areas rather than hedges when replacing boxwoods Find more information about the box tree moth: Canadian Food Inspection Agency Landscape Ontario The Box Tree Moth in Southern Ontario What's Wrong with Your Boxwood? Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

The traditional lawn has received a lot of heat over the last few years with many recommending alternatives such as micro-clovers and specialized lawn blends. In this encore episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Kathy Jentz, author of Groundcover Revolution, about the groundcover plants you can use to create a beautiful lawn alternative of your own. About Kathy Jentz Kathy Jentz is the editor and publisher of the award-winning Washington Gardener magazine, based in Washington, DC. She hosts the popular GardenDC Podcast and is co-author of The Urban Garden and author of Groundcover Revolution. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: What inspired you to write about groundcovers and lawn alternatives? Can you define the term groundcover? Do you consider step-ability? What zones do you cover? What benefits do groundcovers provide to our gardens? What is green mulch? How do we transition from groundcover to green mulch? Do you have favourite groundcovers? Do you need to prune or cut back any during the year? To quote Kathy's book “so many plants, so few pages.” How do we start narrowing down our choices when selecting the right groundcovers? Stepping Stones Listener questions: Is groundcover expensive? Does the groundcover get very big? What is the average height? Does planting groundcover help with erosion? If so, what is the best to plant for this issue? Doesn't groundcover attract rodents in your yard? It leaves a nice place to nest and hide. I hear the term "carpet forming" regarding groundcover. What does this mean exactly? Tips to take the next step in your gardening journey. The best selection of fruit trees and shrubs is at your local independent garden centres right now.   Trees and shrubs can be planted now, but softer herbaceous material is still too tender and should be brought in at night. Sod is available and ready for planting. Be sure not to let it dry out as it will take a few weeks to fully root and access the water in the ground below. Find Kathy Jentz online: Washington Gardener Twitter Feed:  @WDCGardener  Washington Gardener Instagram Account: @wdcgardener Washington Gardener Pinterest Account: @wdcgardener Washington Gardener Facebook Page: @WashingtonGardenerMagazine Washington Gardener Youtube: @washingtongardenermagazine Washington Gardener Amazon Store: www.amazon.com/shop/wdcgardener/   Washington Gardener BookShop Store: https://bookshop.org/shop/WDCgardener  Washington Gardener Podcast: GardenDC Washington Gardener TikTok: @wdcgardener  Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Groundcover Revolution GardenDC Podcast: Groundcovers vs. Ground Covers Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on the podcast, Joanne Shaw speaks with Ernest Williams from Aquascape about the popularity of water features in landscaping, including pondless designs, fountainscapes, and natural swimming ponds. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: Pondless Water Features in Landscaping Increasingly popular in landscaping for their low maintenance and safety Enhances curb appeal and attracts wildlife Provides the sound of water without the upkeep of traditional ponds Preferred by homeowners seeking aesthetics and simplicity Pondless Water Features Design and Functionality Mimics natural water flow; includes bubbling elements and disappearing streams Built with similar mechanics as ponds but without standing water Water recirculates through a hidden basin, minimizing runoff Can integrate downspouts and rainwater harvesting for stormwater management Design and Maintenance Mini spillway and aqua basin designs allow features to fit any yard size Water should remain in basins during winter to prevent cracking/freezing Maintenance includes removing pumps before freezing temperatures Naturalistic design is achieved using varied rocks Proper maintenance and design extend feature lifespan Noise Reduction Water features help block unwanted sounds (e.g., traffic) Creates a soothing outdoor environment Watching water can lower blood pressure and heart rate An affordable and visually appealing way to improve outdoor spaces Installation Both professional installation and DIY options are available Certified landscape companies offer installation and customer service DIY products available for homeowners The Aquascape University program provides contractor training and certification Aquascape YouTube channel offers homeowner experiences and advice Construction and Materials Quality materials (granite, field stone) prevent calcium buildup and algae Kits are available for efficient construction Not all yard rocks are suitable for ponds Existing ponds can be converted to pondless features for less maintenance Aqua blocks allow efficient use of space and are load-bearing Pondless Features and Natural Pools Redesigning or converting old ponds to pondless features reduces maintenance Existing rocks can sometimes be incorporated into new designs Recreation ponds (natural swimming ponds) are eco-friendly pool alternatives Suitable for swimming and environmentally conscious homeowners Many specialized contractors are available in Ontario and Quebec Water Conservation in Yard Design Pools can be converted into natural swimming or recreation ponds Water collection systems (e.g., aqua blocks) help manage yard water issues Systems collect/filter water, reduce stormwater runoff, and address muddy yards Emphasizes the importance of water conservation and management in landscaping To learn more about pondless water features and everything Aquascape offers, visit them at www.aquascapeinc.com and view their videos on YouTube. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week, Joanne Shaw speaks with Deb McKee Kelly from Frontier Mushrooms, a leading producer of high-quality, sustainably grown mushrooms. About Deb McKee Kelly Deb is a longtime grower and passionate advocate for reconnecting with the natural world. Based in Grey County, Ontario, she has spent years cultivating gardens, food crops, and for the past 10 years, gourmet mushrooms. Today, her work with mushrooms and mycelium focuses on sustainable growing practices, education, and innovative uses for fungi in food systems and beyond. With a deep respect for nature's intelligence — and a belief that fungi hold keys to a more resilient future — Deb and her growing partner Darin share their knowledge with growers, makers, and curious minds alike. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: Overview of Frontier Mushrooms: a family-run mushroom farm Deb's background and how she got into mushroom cultivation Types of Mushrooms Grown at Frontier Mushrooms Focus on specialty mushrooms: Shiitake, Oyster, Lion's Mane, and more Discussion on the unique qualities and flavours of each type The Mushroom Growing Process Step-by-step explanation of mushroom cultivation Importance of substrate and environmental controls (humidity, temperature, light) Challenges faced in mushroom farming (pests, contamination) Health Benefits of Mushrooms Nutritional value: protein, fibre, vitamins (B, D), minerals Medicinal properties: immune support, cognitive benefits (especially Lion's Mane) Myths and facts about mushrooms' health impacts Cooking and Using Mushrooms at Home Tips for storing and preparing fresh mushrooms Simple recipe ideas shared by Deb Advice on maximizing mushroom flavour in dishes Buying Local and Supporting Small Farms Benefits of sourcing mushrooms from local growers How Frontier Mushrooms connects with the community (farmers' markets, local stores) The importance of sustainable and organic practices Common Questions from Listeners How to grow mushrooms at home: starter kits, best varieties for beginners Shelf life and storage tips for fresh mushrooms Identifying edible vs. wild mushrooms (safety tips) Deb's Favourite Mushroom Varieties and Recipes Personal recommendations for cooking and eating Unique uses for lesser-known mushrooms Learn more at www.frontiermushrooms.com. Find them on Facebook @frontiermushrooms and Instagram @frontiermushrooms. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Are you a landscape or gardening expert? We'd love to have you on the show! Click here to learn more. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne speaks with Erin Alladin and Sean Patchett about their podcast, Plants Always Win. Plants Always Win Podcast Plants Always Win is a podcast where two Ontario gardeners dive down plant-fact rabbit holes, answer audience questions, interview intriguing guests, and compete to bring you the most interesting stories and information. Erin Alladin, a.k.a. Earth Undaunted, is a professional communicator with a love for gardens, especially garden ecosystems. She's known online for her writing and videos about gardening with chronic illness and disability, as well as her background in permaculture and community garden-organizing. While chronic illness has kept Erin from making gardening her livelihood, she leaps at any chance to bring it into her work as an author, copywriter, and editor. Sean Patchett, a.k.a GardenGuyMuskoka, is a professional gardener, horticulture technician, and member of the Master Gardeners of Ontario. Sean completed the Horticulture Technician C.O.D.A. Program at the University of Guelph's Kemptville Campus and went on to build a landscaping design and maintenance business in Northern Muskoka. When he learned of The Master Gardeners in 2020, their mandate of freely learning and sharing plant knowledge inspired him to join. Sean continues to do public speaking and community projects. Sean and Erin discuss the origins of their podcast, the community they've created and Erin's latest children's book:  The podcast began with Sean's initial attempts at podcasting, which later evolved after he connected with Erin through TikTok. Their shared interests and local proximity led to a partnership, and after experimenting with different formats, they officially launched the podcast in December 2024. Episodes alternate between: Plant face-offs, where each host champions a particular plant or gardening concept (e.g., Borage vs. Cosmos) and encourages listeners to vote for their favourite. Guest interviews, featuring experts from related fields such as entomology and forestry. Topic selection is guided by a spreadsheet, trending questions from social media, and input from their Patreon supporters, who are given advance notice of upcoming episodes to submit relevant questions. Plants Always Win has an active and growing community, including a Discord group. They regularly solicit listener questions and feedback, encouraging corrections and further inquiries at the end of each episode. Sean and Erin discussed the importance of context and nuance in their research, highlighting the need to evaluate sources critically and avoid spreading misinformation. They believe in fostering a love of nature in both children and adults, advocating for hands-on experiences and the benefits of getting “dirty” in the garden. Erin is also a children's book author. Her books, Outside, You Notice, and Wait Like a Seed, aim to connect children and adults with nature, emphasizing the importance of outdoor exploration and environmental awareness. They are available everywhere books are sold. Find Sean and Erin online: Website: www.plantsalwayswin.com TikTok: @plantsalwayswinpodcast You can find Sean online as @GardenGuyMuskoka. Erin's blog, www.earthundaunted.com, makes the big ideas behind regenerative agriculture accessible to home gardeners. Find her on TikTok at @earthundaunted. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw discusses growing fresh staples like lettuce, spinach and potatoes with “The Gardening Girl” Julia Dimakos. About Julia Dimakos Julia Dimakos' 7000 square foot kitchen garden is in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Julia has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 14 years. She was twice published in Canadian Organic Grower magazine and became a published author in July 2022 with her first book, Tea Gardening for Beginners. In this episode, Joanne asked Julia about a few things we can grow ourselves instead of buying from the grocery store.  Lettuce  If we start now, lettuce is one of the fastest-growing options. Julia explains how easy it is to grow and which varieties to grow throughout the seasons. It is important to start with fresh seeds, so buy a new packet instead of using seeds from an old package. Multi-sowing is an easy way to get started. Fill a small, shallow container with soil, a moist seed starting mix. Compact the soil. Sprinkle a generous amount of seed on top of the soil. Julia explains how and why to sprinkle a layer of vermiculite on top of the seed, then water gently. Label and date your tray, then add a dome or clear cover. Put them under a grow light 2 inches above the soil to prevent the seedlings from stretching toward the light. Grow lights should be on a timer, 16 hours on and 8 hours off. Get a multicell container ready for when true leaves start to grow on the seedlings. Take the cover off when you see germination. Carefully lift out the seedlings by the leaf before their true leaves form to make it easier to separate and to successfully grow in the cell.   Lettuce produces more roots than you think, and they do not like competition. Julia explains the best way to succession plant a continuous crop. They go from seed to plant in the ground in 3 weeks. They can be planted successfully in an ornamental garden shaded by other plants. Julia also discusses how to save your own seeds, and recommends buttercrunch, iceberg, Lollo, oak leaf varieties are perfect growing in the cooler spring weather.  In the summer, try romaine varieties like little gem, shady spot or merlot. Grow in partial shade and or under other plants, e.g. tomato plants. Harvest right into a bowl of ice-cold water. Clean in a salad spinner. You can store freshly harvested lettuce in a Ziplock bag full of air for 1 week. In August, start growing the cooler varieties again, up until a hard frost. Spinach  Julia explains how growing spinach is different from growing lettuce: it is not interested in any heat at all.  Spinach is good to start now in cold temperatures, 2 to 3 seedlings per cell. It can grow right now in the garden or inside in a dome and quickly move outside. It will stop growing in the summer heat. In August, you can start sowing it again; it will grow for the fall, and then it will grow again in the spring The same plant will return and be ready for you to harvest the leaves. Spinach plants are small, only about a foot high. Julia also explains why spinach could be the best plant for spots where you grow your annuals.  You'll never have to worry about E. coli or salmonella when growing your own lettuce and spinach—no recalls! Potatoes  Homegrown potatoes are successfully grown without the chemicals that commercial growers use.  Start with seed potatoes Why it is best to purchase true seed potatoes and not use potatoes from the grocery store, even the organic ones. Buying seed potatoes ensures that you are growing tested and healthy potatoes.  Plant the seed potatoes whole for a stronger plant instead of cutting them. Julia recommends pre-sprouting the seed potatoes. Use an egg carton or shallow box, place the seed potatoes eye side up and tail down. Place them in the light with no soil to sprout. The goal is to grow short, stubby green stems. Julia prefers the no-dig method. Use a dibber or handle of a trowel to create a deep hole in the garden or raised bed and place a potato in the hole, cover lightly with soil and then a layer of straw. No need to hill or mound. Determinate varieties of potato make potatoes on one layer in the garden, so soil can be grown in a shallow container, and indeterminate varieties make many layers of potatoes, which will require deeper soil.  How to grow potatoes in a grow bag or container, even a recycling bin makes a great container. And you can line your driveway with them! The best way to harvest the potatoes and what to do for pest control.  Find Julia Dimakos online: Website: www.juliadimakos.com  Instagram: @juliadimakos YouTube: @gardeninggirl  Check out past shows with Julia and hear more of her great tips for growing herbs and more: All About Tomatoes Microgreens & Sprouting Tea Gardening for Beginners Growing Under Lights Growing Herbs Digging Deep with Veggies Growing Indoors Autumn Edibles Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can also catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw speaks with Ed Lyon, president-elect of the Perennial Plant Association. About Ed Lyon Throughout his public garden administration roles and green industry experience, Ed has been as passionate about education as he is about horticulture. He has had roles in public garden education departments and served as director of three public gardens for twenty years. He retired from public garden service in 2024 and currently sits on the Perennial Plant Association (PPA) board as president-elect. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: The challenges of managing botanical gardens in different regions. The Fling, in Memphis, June 5-8 The Perennial Plant Association Annual Symposium in Asheville for the organization's 40th anniversary Includes educational sessions, tours, and networking opportunities for horticulture professionals Covers various aspects of the industry, from plant breeding to wholesale operations The association focuses on herbaceous plants that come back year after year, excluding annuals, tropicals, and woody plants. PPA's role in promoting perennial plants through marketing and educational programs, including the selection of the Perennial Plant of the Year The perennial plant, Big Bluegrass, specifically the variety Blackhawks A native grass known for its dark purple to black stems Featured on PPA's website A potential winner for next year's award The concept of native plants and their classification Native plants can mutate and change The term "native" does not necessarily imply purity The challenges of finding plants that are both native and non-invasive The importance of considering climate change in plant selection The PPA's role in promoting plants that are readily available, hardy, and drought-resistant The process of selecting plants for the Perennial Plant of the Year award The PPA website: a valuable resource for gardeners seeking accurate information The value of attending horticultural symposiums and visiting gardens for education and inspiration How learning from other gardeners' experiences is often more valuable than books or online resources Staying updated with the latest horticultural research, as practices like tree planting methods have changed over time Climate change's impact on gardening and how the PPA symposium addresses these timely issues through expert speakers and research presentations Learn more about the Perennial Plant Association at perennialplant.org. Register for the 2025 PPA National Symposium here. Find them on Facebook @PerennialPlantAssociation and Instagram @PerennialPlantAssociation. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week, Joanne Shaw welcomes Art Vanden Enden to the podcast to discuss exploring a career in horticulture. About Art Vanden Enden Art Vanden Enden is self-employed as a Horticultural Advisor and Horticultural Technical Instructor at Landscape Ontario and Loyalist College. He also serves on the board at Landscape Ontario, Communities in Bloom and Garden Centres Canada. He has a long history in the garden centre industry, starting with Weall & Cullen and then Sheridan Nurseries until his retirement in 2022. Here are some of the topics discussed in this episode: The Pandemic's Positive Impact on the Younger Generation The positive impact of the pandemic on the younger generation, particularly in terms of their appreciation for outdoor activities Art shared his work with Landscape Ontario, focusing on training and working with various age groups, primarily those in their 20s and early 30s. The importance of teaching basic gardening skills and practical training to help them enter the industry The Grow Program, which provides introductory courses for those interested in the industry, and the role of job developers in matching students with employers The Landscaping Industry's Versatility and Benefits The industry offers year-round work opportunities, from using lawn mowers in summer to snow blowers in winter Adapting to various weather conditions and being able to pivot when necessary Joanne's experience entering the industry as a second career Working at an independent garden centre provides an excellent learning environment for those interested in the industry Gardening Practices and Climate Change How gardening practices have changed over the past 30 years Sustainability and the need to adapt to climate change The shift in plant hardiness zones and the impact of invasive plants The need for progressive change in the industry and the role of influencers in promoting better gardening practices How reducing demand for invasive plants would lead to their eventual decline Native Plant Promotion and Challenges The challenges of promoting native plants and the importance of being patient and supportive when advising gardeners The distinction between aggressive and invasive plants and the need for balance between native and non-native plants Joanne expressed her struggle with finding the right native plants for her clients, while Art shared his journey towards having 70% native plants in his garden The issue of invasive plants and the need for more research on creating sterile versions of these plants Supporting New Gardeners and Best Practices The need for experienced gardeners to be good coaches, stay current with best practices, and be open to change The importance of being welcoming to new Canadians who may have gardening experience but are unfamiliar with local plants Learn more about Art at www.communitiesinbloom.ca. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low-maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw speaks with Bri Petersen of Urban Gardening Canada about her new course, Adapt & Thrive: Gardening in a Changing Climate. About Urban Gardening Canada The vision of Urban Gardening Canada (UGC) is to provide accessible gardening advice to all Canadians, regardless of location, housing type or budget. Food security and sustainability are two of the main pillars of UGC. Bri believes that gardening should be accessible to all. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Bri left her job in finance to chase her dreams as a gardener. Has been gardening for nine years, with her garden expanding every year as she falls deeper into her gardening obsession. A Canadian gardener and course creator, she owns a blog and a YouTube channel that teach others how to grow vegetables in an urban setting during the cold Canadian season. Started Urban Gardening Canada as a climate activist, aiming to raise awareness about climate change through gardening. Created a course on gardening in the face of climate change, which she initially presented to horticultural societies. Bri emphasizes the significance of healthy soil in storing carbon and maintaining plant health, suggesting practices like cutting plants at the base instead of pulling them up to preserve soil bacteria in the soil. Adapt & Thrive: Gardening in a Changing Climate is a self-paced course on gardening, which includes multimedia content, checklists, and workbooks. A good fit for late beginners to intermediate gardeners, who would benefit from the comprehensive information provided in the course. Includes the entire gardening cycle, from seed starting to harvesting, and offers lifetime access. Covers various topics, including the importance of removing peat from gardens due to its carbon impact. Designed to be actionable, with 100 specific tasks for implementation. Tested globally, receiving positive feedback from participants in Canada, the Netherlands, and New Zealand. Joanne encourages listeners to consider Bri's course for step-by-step guidance from an experienced gardener. Bri emphasized the importance of considering climate change in gardening practices and highlighted the need to avoid synthetic fertilizers and peat moss in soil. Joanne encouraged listeners to check the ingredients of bagged soil and avoid certain companies that prioritize fertilizers over soil health. Bri discusses her personal gardening challenges with rabbits, particularly how they eat her plants despite thorns and can reach higher areas due to snow accumulation. Find Bri Petersen online: Website: www.urbangardeningcanada.com Register here for Adapt & Thrive: Gardening in a Changing Climate. Instagram: @urbangardeningcanada Facebook: @hellourbangardeningcanada YouTube: @urbangardeningcanada Pinterest: @urbangardeningcanada Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw speaks with Bevin Cohen of Small House Farm about his latest book, Herbs in Every Season. About Bevin Bevin Cohen is an award-winning author, herbalist, owner of Small House Farm and host of the popular Seeds & Weeds podcast. He offers workshops and lectures across the U.S. on the benefits of living closer to the land through seeds, herbs, and locally grown food. Bevin is a food and garden writer whose work has appeared in numerous publications including Mother Earth News, Modern Farmer Magazine, and Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company catalogue. He's the author or editor of more than 10 books, including Saving Our Seeds and The Artisan Herbalist. Learn more about Bevin's work at www.bevincohen.com. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Bevin's book, Herbs in Every Season, which is available for sale on March 25th He explores herbs from various angles, including history, folklore, medicinal uses, culinary applications, and growing/gathering/processing techniques Suitable for both experienced gardeners and new herbalists Emphasizes seasonal gardening and container gardening, as well as the ease of using herbs for cooking and other purposes The challenges of gardening, such as dealing with pests like squirrels, and the importance of learning from mistakes Tips for growing dill, including planting in partial shade, mulching, and succession planting The various uses for dill, such as making pickles, dressings, and infused vinegar, as well as its medicinal applications The aesthetic value of herbs in gardens, mentioning bronze fennel as an example of an attractive and versatile herb The benefits of introducing wild, native plants into landscapes for their low maintenance and diverse appeal How matching plants with their preferred environment and adapting to changing garden conditions are important lessons to learn from gardening Bevin's podcast "Seeds and Weeds" where he discusses various plant-related topics with guests The current season aligns with the theme of his book, focusing on the seasons Joanne shared her excitement about starting seeds for luffa plants using a new "snail" method, which allows for extensive root growth and efficient use of space Find Bevin Cohen online: Websites: www.bevincohen.com and www.smallhousefarm.com Order a copy of Herbs in Every Season here. Instagram: @small_house_farm Podcast: Seeds & Weeds Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw speaks with Nathan Gill of EcoLogic Horticulture Ltd. about native plants used for urban naturalization. About Nathan Gill Nathan Gill owns EcoLogic Horticulture Ltd., a nursery operating on 25 acres east of Calgary. The nursery focuses on producing horticulture products to accelerate ecological restoration and urban naturalization. Drawing on his 15 years of experience in the construction sector, Nathan brings a unique perspective to his horticultural work, blending environmental stewardship with practical, construction-based knowledge to provide site-appropriate plant material at scale for restoration and green roof projects. Nathan is also a passionate home vegetable gardener and wild seed collector. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Native plants used for urban naturalization Many municipalities are switching over their seed blends and public space requirements to incorporate Native Plants. EcoLogic Horticulture has developed some unique formats to support this transition: NaturesTurf™ EcoPatch SedumTurf ThymeTurf DirtBags The importance of engaging nurseries early in the project planning process to ensure the desired plant material can be grown in time. The need to educate designers and government agencies about the availability of native species and the best methods for their propagation and use in restoration projects. Nature'sTurf™ Growth and Challenges The growth and development of Nature'sTurf™ over the last 8 years The challenges of growing native plants, which usually have deep root systems, and the importance of maintaining the right amount of water The increased use of Nature'sTurf™ due to the growing interest from municipalities in naturalizing boulevards and large areas While more costly to produce, Nature'sTurf™ could significantly reduce maintenance costs in the long run Perennial Gardens The challenges of replacing a lawn with sedum turf, a popular alternative in the Alberta area Homeowners should consider creating perennial beds within their lawn area before making a drastic change The initial higher maintenance compared to a lawn but the eventual benefits of a well-designed native garden How a well-maintained mulched perennial area could be less work than a lawn, but requires more initial effort to establish Alternative ground covers vs. traditional turf lawns Find EcoLogic Horticulture Ltd. online: Website: EcoLogicHorticulture.com Instagram: @ecologichorticulture Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne explores the benefits of becoming a garden communicator with C.L. Fornari, president of Garden Communicators International. About C.L. Fornari C.L. is a creative gardening expert (aka plant geek) who transitioned from artist to garden communicator in 1995. She is the author of eight books including her latest, Sand and Soil – Creating Beautiful Gardens on Cape Cod and the Islands. She hosts GardenLine, a live call-in radio program heard on WXTK since 2002, and speaks to groups nationwide, in person and virtually. C.L. grows vegetables, flowers and numerous other plants at Poison Ivy Acres on Cape Cod. You can find her at GardenLady.com. About Garden Communications International (GardenComm) GardenComm provides opportunities for education, recognition, career development and a forum for wide-ranging interactions and collaborations for professionals in the field of gardening communication. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: How did you get involved with GardenComm? What is a garden communicator? How long have you been a garden communicator? What are the rewards of becoming a garden speaker/author/podcaster/radio host/writer? What are the downsides? (there are always downsides) How does someone who loves plants and gardening get started? What are the benefits of belonging to that organization? The GardenComm Virtual Conference, and their online learning Find GardenComm online: Website: gardencomm.org Instagram: @GardenComm Facebook: @gardencommunicatorsinternational Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

Seed-starting season has officially begun! This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw gets tips and advice on seeds for your lawn and garden from Rebecca Boyar of West Coast Seeds. About Rebecca Boyar  Rebecca Boyar has an extensive and varied career in horticulture, spanning nearly 35 years. She began her journey managing an herb farm on the west coast in the early 90s. From there, she transitioned to developing a non-profit horticultural program and launching the first urban hydroponic training facility in Canada. She later worked as a Non-GMO Commodity Merchandiser at a small agricultural brokerage in southern Manitoba, focusing on soybean and organic production. In 2018, she moved into the cannabis sector, serving as a Master Grower and a Health Canada approved Quality Assurance Processor in Quebec. Currently, Rebecca is a West Coast Seeds representative in eastern Ontario, offering her horticultural expertise and knowledge in the non-GMO and organic seeds market. About West Coast Seeds West Coast Seeds was founded in 1983 in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the purpose of sourcing and supplying seeds of the highest quality while following the traditions of organic farming and gardening. They offer over 1,100 varieties of untreated, non-genetically modified seeds. For them, organic is about much more than saying no to chemicals, it is about saying yes to building a healthy soil for the future. Renee's Garden and Cornucopia Seeds are sister brands of West Coast Seeds, proudly owned and operated by the same Canadian-based family. You can find these premium-quality seeds at garden centres across Canada. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Rebecca discussed her journey to West Coast Seeds and how the season of seed starting is upon us. Provided tips on the seeds that need an early start and that we should start now. The new seed mix from West Coast Seeds called Grub Resistant Lawn Blend. Regular turf attracts grubs, which affects our lawns, leading to Japanese beetles, which affect our plants. This new mix of Tall Fescue and pelleted Micro-Clover forms a thick, drought-resistant lawn without the thatch that the beetles love to lay their eggs in. Rebecca discussed the best practices for applying this grass seed and there is more information on their website. West Coast Seeds has a nice variety of lawn blends for many situations including a Chafer Beetle Resistant lawn blend for those that battle the Chafer Beetle and an Alternative Lawn Wildflower mix. This blend is an alternative to having a lawn, and it forms low-growing ground cover that includes a mix of fine fescues, flowers and clover species that stay about 6-8 inches high. A nice idea for anyone with a small lawn who wants to support pollinators. You can order seed from their website or most garden centres will stock West Coast Seeds. If you cannot find something you want in a local store then you can request the store to order it for you. For those that enjoy a paper seed catalog, you can order one from their website, as well. Find West Coast Seeds online: Website: www.westcoastseeds.com Instagram: @westcoastseeds Facebook: @westcoastseeds  ouTube: @westcoastseedstv Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on the podcast, Joanne Shaw welcomes Jazmin Albarran, the Executive Director of Seed Your Future, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting horticulture and inspiring the next generation of green industry leaders. About Jazmin Jazmin has over 20 years experience in youth development, outreach, and mental health, and is passionate about creating opportunities that empower young people and showcase the diverse career paths within horticulture. Under her leadership, Seed Your Future has launched innovative programs like Seed to STEM and Green Career Week, which provides industries with a toolkit to connect students to horticulture employers. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Joanne and Jazmin discussed the importance of promoting the industry to students, as it is often misunderstood as a hobby rather than a multi-billion-dollar business. Over 900 individuals have downloaded their toolkit, which includes resources for setting up field trips and class presentations, as well as social media guidance. The goal is to showcase the passion and commitment of the horticulture industry to the next generation. Seed Your Future aims to raise awareness of horticulture as a business and industry, particularly among middle school students and career changers. Jazmin shared that Seed Your Future assists individuals in finding opportunities in the industry, even without formal education. They also discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the plant industry, with Jazmin citing a survey by the Garden Media Group that found 16-18 million people discovered plants for the first time during the pandemic. Joanne shared her own experience of having a second career in horticulture and the challenges she faced in finding education opportunities. They announced the upcoming 5th Green Career Week from March 3rd to 7th, which aims to connect students with green careers and promote awareness of local businesses in the horticulture industry. Jazmin also mentioned the availability of internships and apprenticeship programs, which are more prominent in the United States. The website is open to anyone interested in learning about horticulture careers, featuring 147 different career profiles. Joanne shared her personal experience of transitioning to a landscape design career, and Jazmin confirmed that their program covers all aspects of the industry. They also touched on the potential for careers that don't involve direct contact with plants but still offer immersion in the industry. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

Welcome back to season 11 of Down the Garden Path podcast! After a winter hiatus, landscape designer Joanne Shaw is excited to kick off a new podcast season revisiting new topics and old favourites while gaining valuable wisdom and advice from industry experts. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Plans for the new season, including interviews with experts and authors in the landscape and horticulture industry Her recent experiences at the Landscape Designers Conference and Landscape Ontario Congress: At the Landscape Designer Conference, keynote speaker Dr. Allan Armitage, a professor from Atlanta, spoke about transforming chaos into contentment. This concept of transforming a chaotic outdoor space into a contented and enjoyable environment emphasizes the importance of curb appeal and year-round outdoor enjoyment. During the Landscape Ontario Congress, Joanne attended a talk by OMAFRA, (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) that discussed the impact of the box tree moth on the boxwood industry including prevention methods and treatment options: It has spread across most of Ontario and Quebec since its first sighting in 2017 and has caused significant damage to boxwood plants. While efforts to contain the moth have been unsuccessful in the east, they have managed to prevent its spread to Western Canada. Joanne discusses potential remedies, including using a bacterial spray (Btk) but notes that frequent application is necessary due to the moth's voracious appetite. Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect via her website at down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden What's Wrong With Your Boxwood? Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing provide some tips and tricks and do's and don'ts for your November garden. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Planting bulbs Cleaning up your vegetable garden in time for winter Why you should not cut back your perennials Check out their Five Fall Lawn Care Tips for November lawn care How to protect your trees, shrubs, and evergreens from animals and winter Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with her here: down2earth.ca You can find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can find Matthew Dressing at naturalaffinity.ca. Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Down the Garden Path: Five Fall Lawn Care Tips Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

Fed up with critters stealing your bulbs or waiting for the foliage to die back after your bulbs finish flowering? In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw explains why creating a layered bulb planter may be the solution you're looking for. How to build a layered bulb planter: Choose the container carefully. Size and drainage are important. You can choose a plastic one that you will then use as a liner inside a “prettier” pot, or you can plant it right into a decorative pot -- just make sure you can move it to the garage now and back out into the garden in the spring. Choose at least 3 types and or sizes of bulbs. Be sure to consider the bloom times. Do you want them to stagger out a few weeks to bloom, or do you want them to bloom at approximately the same time? This is not an exact science so there are no guarantees that bulbs will bloom when you want them to. Make sure the bottom layer of bulbs is tall enough to grow out of the pot. Start by adding at least 1 to 2 inches of potting soil at the bottom of the pot. You can sprinkle a bit of bulb fertilizer if you would like. Insert the bulbs approximately a couple of inches apart, close enough for the bulbs to support each other. Top with another 2 inches of potting soil and a handful of fertilizer, then add the second layer of bulbs. Repeat for the subsequent layers. Water the container thoroughly after planting: you should see that a bit of water has come out of the drainage hole. These pots can then be stored in an unheated garage, shed or sheltered area between garages for instance. Do not store in direct sunlight. The goal is to avoid the freeze and thaw that inevitably occurs in our winters. Throughout the winter, water the plants thoroughly but intermittently. Think about doing it when it rains or snows outside. You don't want the soil too wet or the bulbs may rot. If there's snow, you could even top them off with a shovel of it to keep them watered and cool. In the spring, take them out of storage and place them around the yard. You can also do this on a smaller scale to have some small bulb planters in the house for spring or maybe even an Easter centrepiece or gift. These would make great Christmas gifts for other gardeners or people in an apartment or condo. Resources Mentioned in the Show: Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Have a topic you'd like me to discuss? Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw explores the benefits and steps to creating a no-till lasagna garden. What is lasagna no-till gardening? Often called "lasagna" gardening because of the layering involved or no-till gardening because there is no need to dig up and disturb the existing organic matter. Reasons to consider a lasagna no-till garden: You want to create a new or expanded garden area in your yard You're considering planting a vegetable or herb garden next year When's the best time? October/ November is the best time to do it and in the least back-breaking and simplest way. Joanne's experience: Joanne did this with her garden in October 2016. Check out the Lasagna Gardening section of Joanne's book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden. You'll find pictures of Joanne's garden in 2016 and how she tackled creating a new garden area that she planted in the following June of 2017. Or listen to her talk about it on a previous show. Here are some of the basics and her recommendations eight years later. Joanne lives on a corner lot with no sidewalks: her garden is in the front yard, to the right of the front door from the walkway to the curb and wraps around the corner and ends at the driveway. In 2016, she had a garden in the centre of that space surrounded by approximately 3-4 feet of grass (it was actually barren, dry soil that was hard to water because of the slight slope). It received A LOT of sun. She didn't have time to baby a garden and wasn't going to baby her lawn. She liked the idea of having more garden and less lawn and was looking for a simple way to make this happen. Her research led her to lasagna gardening where you cover your lawn with layers of material to not only kill your lawn but create a “new” garden or new improved garden area to plant in the following spring. Starting a new garden by digging up an existing lawn or maybe an old one that you inherited that needs some major refreshing seems straightforward. But not only is it hard work, it is often hard for most people to dispose of the old sod, or poor garden material. The steps: That is the beauty of this method. It starts with cardboard! Lots of cardboard, more than you think you will need because you want to make sure the boxes overlap. Make sure you remove the packing tape and don't use any coated cardboard that may be found at the grocery store/or restaurants. Cover the cardboard with a quality organic material like manure or mushroom compost, at least to 2-3 inches, making sure the cardboard is completely covered. Cover everything once again with an organic mulch, again 2 to 3 inches. Don't worry if this seems high, as everything starts to break down it will “thin” out. Joanne's favourite: composted pine mulch (no dyed mulches please). This is the perfect time of year to do this and as the fall rain and winter snow (hopefully) cover the new garden, it will help everything to break down, especially the cardboard. Once May or June arrives, you should be able to start planting. It is as easy as that! This is great for areas large or small, but also ideal for challenging boulevards, where the grass doesn't grow well or you're tired of cutting it. Resources Mentioned in the Show: Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Lasagna Gardening Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss? Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In October in the Garden, Joanne Shaw reviews some of the tasks you can do this month but insists it's not as labour-intensive as you may think! Tasks you can do this month: Vegetable Gardens Clean up and remove the old stems of your tomato or pepper plants that have stopped producing. Sow cool weather plants like lettuce and some spinach: they grow better in the shoulder seasons, late spring /early summer or fall. Buy plants at a garden centre or start seeds and sow them right into the garden. Top up the vegetable garden with some compost or manure to get ahead of next year. Take pictures so you know where plants are because next year you may need to put things in different places. Plant a cover crop. Containers If you want to take advantage of the nice weather at the beginning of October, take your vegetable out of its container and pop in an aster. Annuals and Perennials Annuals: With no frost anytime soon, annuals are probably still doing okay. They may be a little bit leggy or sad-looking. Perk them up with water and fertilizer. Perennials: No need to cut them back. You can do some deadheading if things are really looking brown and not necessarily attractive. Deciduous Trees and Shrubs Trees: It is important to water deciduous trees, especially young ones, certainly ones that you just planted this year. Water them deeply every week. Evergreen shrubs: Enjoy the fall colour and shape of your shrubs. Cutting them back now is not necessary. Keep newly planted shrubs well-watered. They need some extra time to get established. Being in a drought situation as they go into dormancy in winter is never a good thing. Seeds and Bulbs It's a good time to buy and plant your garlic. Spring bulbs: find and buy bulbs – just don't plant them until the end of October, or the beginning of November! I recommend not planting tulips but instead looking at the interesting varieties of daffodils or alliums Daffodils and alliums are poisonous to squirrels and other rodents, so they will leave them alone. Lawn Care Time to apply fall fertilizer. Pay attention to the weeds, especially crabgrass which is prolific this time of year Apply corn gluten to act as a preemergent, preventing the weed seeds from germinating. It's best to apply during spring and fall. Resources Mentioned in the Show: Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Have a topic you'd like me to discuss? Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw discusses how to extend the blooming season in your garden by adding asters. Topics covered in this week's episode: Gardens don't have to stop blooming in September. We can extend the season to October and November. It's very important to have because the pollinators still need something blooming. There are over 30 different species of asters. They have a huge variety of growing conditions, so there is an aster for whatever challenging growing condition you have. Here are the five asters discussed: New England Aster, Symphyotrichum nova-angliae The showiest, and likely the one you're most familiar with Native to most U.S. states and provinces It is large and very showy, with a bright cozy blue flower with a yellow centre The leaves on the stem are densely arranged on the stem Prefer soil moist and they can grow in part shade One of the larger varieties: up to six feet tall Whitewood Aster Eurybia divaricata Delicate looking flowers Grows in dry shade which means it makes a wonderful addition to the shade garden Not super showy like most shade plants Found in Ontario in dry, deciduous forests So that's exactly what we want in our garden. If you have maple trees, pine trees, or something like that where the soil underneath is very dry and it's very shady, then this is something worth giving a try to Only gets two to three feet tall Smooth Aster Symphyotrichum laeve Similar to the New England Aster, although hence its name, it has leaves that are very smooth lavender and blue Has a daisy-type flower with a yellow centre Blooms from August to October A huge pollinator for butterflies and a larvae host for the pearl crescent butterfly Heart leaf Aster Symphyotrichum cordifolium Lavender to light blue It is one of the latest ones to bloom and actually goes into November An excellent pollinator for butterflies and bees at late in the season Spreads slowly by rhizomes and it lightly self-seeds Two to three feet tall, sandy to loam soil, and part shade to full shade Panicled Aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum This one blooms with sprays of white flowers, open spreading form, so also known as floppy Best grown with other plants to kind of support it If you already have a native garden, or if you're planting a native garden with other large tall plants, then this could be an addition if you want that Prefers moist soil, but it likes full sun You can purchase seeds from Wildflower Farm and you can again, sprinkle them or plant them in your garden this fall You can also start them like you normally would do if you wanted them to grow in February/March under lights and go through that type of thing indoors and then put them out next year Resources Mentioned in the Show: Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Fall Mums and Asters Have a topic you'd like me to discuss? Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw speaks with Wildflower Farm's Miriam Goldberger about Eco-Lawn, the answer to a truly low-maintenance lawn, as well as some of her favourite native plants you can include in your garden.  About Miriam Goldberger Miriam Goldberger is the founder and co-owner of Wildflower Farm, a wildflower seed production company in Ontario — a magical 100 acres where the flower gardens and meadows thrive without pesticides and are a pollinators' paradise. To learn more about Miriam's journey, visit the Wildflower Farm website. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Miriam's book, Taming Wildflowers, was published over 10 years ago. Joanne noted how Miriam has become a pioneer in the industry of native plants and wildflowers. The book contains helpful information about how to grow native plants in specific locations and is available on the Wildflower Farm website. Miriam recommends three of her favourite “polite” wildflowers: Black-eyed Susan, a stable perennial for late-summer/early-fall Gaillardia or blanket flower, a vivid and bright yellow/orange/red colour that will stay in bloom Prairie drop seed, a clump-forming, non-aggressive grass that looks beautiful from late spring right through into the fall. Miriam also discussed Eco-Lawn: Our customers had urged us to develop a lawn that was just as sustainable, drought tolerant and low maintenance as our wildflower gardens and meadows. While walking in the forests of Ontario, we spotted clumps of rich green grass growing in the deep shade of the northern woods. Could these emerald patches be used as natural grass pathways around and through our wildflower meadows? After three years of research and trials later, Eco-Lawn was born. Since its introduction in 1998, it has changed the face of lawnscaping across North America for homeowners, businesses and municipalities. Eco-Lawn combines several native fescues that grow together to create a matte or lawn. The roots are deeper than our Kentucky Bluegrass which makes it much more drought tolerant and can grow under a variety of light conditions. You can start a new lawn with the seed or slowly convert an existing lawn into a low maintenance Eco- lawn. The fall is the best time to start Eco-lawn! Full instructions on how to prepare for applying Eco-lawn are available on their website. You can find Wildflower Farm at www.wildflowerfarm.com. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw discusses fall mums and asters. Topics covered in this week's episode: Chrysanthemums, many horticultural varieties and cultivars exist including tender florist mums (a favourite because of how long they stay blooming in a vase). Or Garden mums, more commonly known as fall mums. All Chrysanthemums are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. They became popular in North American gardening during the early to mid-20th century. Overall, fall or autumn gardening in the U.S. became particularly prominent in the 1950s and 1960s. Their popularity grew thanks to their vibrant colours of mums—ranging from deep reds and oranges to yellows and purples—this made them a popular choice for fall displays. Their ability to bloom late into the season and withstand cooler temperatures also contributed to their popularity in autumn gardening. Fall mums grown for our gardens are fertilized and pruned heavily to maintain their dense growth while in containers. It is possible to overwinter them in the garden but without regular maintenance, they can get quite large (tall and wide over a season or two). You often hear of gardeners or articles mentioning mid-summer to cut back or pinch back the foliage on garden mums that are being grown in the garden to slow down their growth and size. If growing in the garden, they benefit from mulching to protect them from the freeze and thaw most of us experience in our Ontario gardens or gardens in zones 4-6. They can be prone to spider mites and aphids as well as powdery mildew. Mildew especially if they are allowed to get large in the garden and then crowd with other plants and especially when there is high humidity and/or overhead watering. The downside of mums: As a designer, my goal is to create gardens that are all season with something happening at all times and for there really not be a need for high-maintenance annuals. I do realize that there are times and places in the yard where one might want a pop of colour -- even me! Potted mums perform much better in cooler temperatures. Unfortunately, garden centres seem to start selling them earlier and earlier each season. They are thirsty plants when in pots, especially in the heat. If the pots aren't watered regularly they die very quickly and I think homeowners think they can revive them. Once they have dried out, they are a throwaway plant. Don't get me started on the plastic waste they generate! A better plant option for fall: asters! There are 32 different species of aster in Ontario and over 100 species in North America. There is a place for one in every garden or even a pot if you choose! While some pollinators might visit garden mums for pollen that is where the benefit ends. Asters not only supply pollen for honeybees and native bees, they also feed adult butterflies and we all want more of those in our gardens. They are host plants or over 100 species of caterpillars, nature's bird feeders. Where there are caterpillars, there will be birds! You may be lucky to find New England asters in pots at your big box store. They are transplantable and will overwinter in the garden. In addition to the New England asters, there are several other native varieties that are sold in the perennial section of your garden centres. There is a variety of aster for every garden. New England Asters Symphyotrichum novaeangliae: (purple, light purple) Full to part sun, blooms August to October, moist average soil. Swamp Aster Symphyotrichum puniceum: (purple, light purple) Full to part sun, August to October, wet garden area White Wood Eurybia divaricate: Part shade to full shade, September to October and will grow in a garden from moist to dry. Heart Leaf Aster Symphyotrichum cordifolium: (lavender to light blue) Part shade to full shade, September to October, medium to dry soil Note: It is also recommended to pinch back or cut back asters in June to prevent them from getting too big and floppy. Resources Mentioned in the Show: Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Have a topic you'd like me to discuss? Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Jason Hoke to the podcast to discuss IssueID, the revolutionary software solution he co-founded that addresses the challenges in the landscape industry. About Jason Hoke Denver native Jason Hoke is an innovative entrepreneur with a diverse career spanning music, landscaping, and technology. At 15, Jason started at A Cut Above Landscape and purchased the company in 2016, growing it to a team of over 30. In 2022, he co-founded IssueID, a revolutionary software solution that simplifies the management of extras and enhancements, helping contractors boost revenue while reducing costs. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Jason's early start to the landscape industry, what made him stay and buy the company. What Jason loves about landscaping. The services available at A Cut Above Landscape How Jason's music experience ties in. What parallels can be drawn between the music and trades industry? Jason's journey to creating IssueID. How IssueID helps capture, collaborate and close more projects. Where to find IssuedID: www.issueid.io Facebook YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw discusses some of the issues you may be experiencing with your hydrangeas this month and what you can do about them. Topics covered in this week's episode: Hydrangeas not blooming Know what variety is especially important with this issue. In Joanne's experience, if you have a nice large green bush but no or few flowers then you have a Macrophylla variety They bloom on old wood that is unfortunately susceptible to late spring frost damage. The buds form on the old wood in early spring and then a late frost comes and kills the bud. The plant still grows nice and lush, and you don't know anything is wrong until it doesn't flower. Extra water and fertilizer provide a nice full-leaved plant but no blooms I have tried all the techniques to try and prevent this and protect the plant, but I gave up and replaced it with a hardier variety. If you are in an area where you often get a late frost after a nice warm-up, then consider swapping to another variety Hydrangeas discussed: Macrophylla Paniculata Quercifolia Serrata Arborescence Which hydrangeas grow on old or new wood Hydrangeas getting too large/floppy The preferred pruning practices to mitigate that Smaller variety recommendations of each type to have a hydrangea that stays smaller: Munchkin Oakleaf Hydrangea Invincibelle Wee White Hydrangea Invincibelle Limetta Little Lime or Bobo Hydrangeas All are a great way to have more hydrangeas in a smaller space Resources mentioned during the show: Tips To Extend The Blooming Season Of Your Endless Summer Hydrangea Hydrangeas Hydrangeas Part One Hydrangeas Part Two BLOG POST -- Hydrangeas: When They Don't Work And What You Can Do About It Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Have a topic you'd like me to discuss? Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing answer listener questions about the seasonal stressors we're experiencing in our gardens this month. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Is it one or two inches of water every week for our lawns? What about in this drought here in the GTA? More water? Reminder to water newly planted trees. Using water timers on hoses to help with watering. Any tips for choosing an apple tree for my yard? How do we apply nematodes? When's the best time? Watering for a week at night for nematodes: won't that do the damage you talk about for our lawn? Is fall a good time to plant? Growing an aloe plant Resources mentioned during the show Suzanne Poizner's Urban Forestry Show on RealityRadio101.com. Applying Nematodes About the podcast: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne and Matthew via their websites: Joanne Shaw: down2earth.ca Matthew Dressing: naturalaffinity.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss applying nematodes, the primary method homeowners in Canada use to control pests such as grubs on our lawns. It's been a heavy Japanese beetle season in the Greater Toronto Area, with a lot of damage done to the foliage of our trees and shrubs. As the hot days of summer come to an end, so will they! However, where there are Japanese beetles, there are white grubs. And right now, those white grubs are beginning to hatch and eat our lawns, growing and becoming next summer's Japanese beetles. So, what can we do? This is where applying nematodes comes in. Nematodes are microscopic, colourless worms that travel through water in the ground to attack and kill grubs and other pests. If you want them to work, you have to water your lawn well. They don't bother humans, pets, or plants but will attack various soil-borne pests instead. When nematodes find a host they want to eat, they work their way inside them, consuming their host using powerful bacteria. A single nematode can kill a pest in 24-48 hours, making them a quick and efficient solution to infestations. We discuss what nematodes are, how they work and the best practices for applying them. If you've been seeing the effects of Japanese beetles in your garden this summer, you won't want to miss this podcast. We offer lots of great tips to help your garden and lawn thrive into the fall and prepare it for success in the spring. Where to find us: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne and Matthew via their websites: Joanne Shaw: down2earth.ca  Matthew Dressing: naturalaffinity.ca Other helpful resources: Applying Nematodes (blog post) Seasonal Stressors August in the Garden Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing show you how to keep your garden and landscape thriving during the August heat with tips and tricks and do's and don'ts for your August garden. Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt discuss what you should (and shouldn't) be doing in the garden in August. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Plan what fall bulbs you'd like to plant for your spring garden. Order now and buy early for the best varieties. Source garlic bulbs from a local farmer or reputable seed company to have them ready for fall planting. To encourage flavourful new growth, continue to trim herbs like mint, chives, dill, etc. Cover ripening fruit to protect from birds and critters. Sow seeds of beans, beets, spinach, and turnips for a fall harvest. Check fruits, vegetables, annuals, perennials, trees, and shrubs for pests and diseases and remove as necessary. Use Japanese beetle traps to control populations. Remember, one is enough for urban landscapes. Apply nematodes in mid-August, or sooner, to control white grub populations in the lawn. Continue to deadhead annuals and perennials to promote new blooms. Continue fertilizing containers, window boxes, and hanging baskets with a water-soluble fertilizer once every two weeks until Thanksgiving or you dispose of them for the season. Apply a new layer of rich compost to garden beds. Continue to weed your lawns and hardscapes. Remove small errant shoots from topiaries, shrubs, and hedges. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne and Matthew via their websites:   Joanne Shaw: down2earth.ca  Matthew Dressing: naturalaffinity.ca Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses the importance of succession planting so that you always have something blooming in your perennial garden. That is the gardening addiction, after all! Topics covered in this week's episode: The best way to "deadhead" a perennial Popular garden perennials that when trimmed back at the right time should provide another flowering or can help the plant continue to flower Some of the plants mentioned: Salvia, Catmint, Dianthus or Pinks, Lavender and Plhlox for the sunny garden Columbine, hostas and ferns for the shade garden This episode is brought to you by: Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Have a topic you'd like me to cover? Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Join the Down the Garden Path Podcast Facebook group, where you can share pictures of gardening dilemmas or ask questions! You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this solo episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designer Joanne Shaw offers mid-season advice for your lawn and garden. Topics covered in this week's episode: YES… you can still plant this summer. You do not need to wait until Fall. Summer is always a good time to pick up a good sale on plants, just check that the roots are healthy. The roots are the most important thing to look at in mid-summer, especially on discounted plant material. It may not do much this year, but it will be even better next year. Tree and shrub planting is fine, but you need to be around home to water in case of drought. If you are away for a few days that is fine, consider a tree watering bag for trees or even timers for sprinklers. The important thing is to be around to keep an eye on your newly planted trees. Also, remember the sign of too much water is the same as not enough. So check the soil deeply if your plant appears to be struggling. Mid-summer is Japanese beetle season. I want to reassure you that Japanese Beetle traps work, according to instructions. Read the instructions. Place the trap far away from the garden and plants (including your neighbours' plants) Communicate with your close neighbours; you don't all need a trap. Follow the distance guidelines in the instructions and you will be fine. The key is to capture as many as possible before they lay their eggs in your lawn, which turn into grubs. Native Plants There's so much talk about native plants and only using them in your garden. If it is overwhelming, don't worry. There are a lot of non-native plants that pollinators love. There is no need to remove plants or shrubs to add native plants -- unless you have invasive plants, or you want to. I suggest a few mid-season native bloomers that can be added now. Many native plants are spring or fall bloomers and many can become invasive or spreaders, so keep that in mind when choosing them. Removing seed heads will help with their spread. Mid-summer is also crabgrass season. It is important to pull it out before it goes to seed. Try not to cut grass when it has gone to seed because that spreads the seed to create more weeds for next year. If you have a large lawn and or a large amount of crabgrass, consider bagging your grass for the rest of the season to try to prevent as many weeds as possible for next year. Resources mentioned during the show: Permeable Landscaping Products with David Maxwell from Romex Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Have a topic you'd like me to discuss? Please reach out and let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes David Maxwell from Romex Canada to discuss their line of permeable landscaping products. About David Maxwell David Maxwell has been in sales since he graduated from Mount Allison. With over 10 years of experience in construction sales, he has a strong knowledge in the landscaping construction side with experience in green roofs and hardscapes. ROMEX North America is the exclusive supplier of the German-engineered ROMEX hardscape solutions product line throughout North America. They provide not only the products but expert advice, planning, estimates, installer training, and world-class customer service. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: The term “permeable” and what it will mean going forward in the landscape industry. The exact definition is “a material or membrane” allowing liquids or gases to pass through it. Note that permeable pavers do not mean that the actual paver is permeable; it means the patio or walkway is installed to be permeable with a proper base and joint sand. Joint sand: David discussed the differences between non-permeable and permeable applications for interlocking. The benefits and importance of managing the water as water is truly what causes installations to fail. Currently, polymeric sand is used in most standard landscape installations. Polymeric sand is engineered with an adhesive binding agent that is activated upon getting wet. The sand is swept into the joints, making sure the joints are full and then the interlocking is watered well to activate the hardening process. It turns into a grout or concrete-like material. This also means that once dry, water will not penetrate the joints and therefore the interlocking is not permeable. David explains the German technology behind Romex A resin sand is permeable vs. a polymeric sand that is not. How is it different/unique? It hardens to prevent weeds and ants but is still allows for the water to flow through it for better drainage. As cities and municipalities continue to look for solutions to manage water in private and public installations, permeability will become a big factor. Proper installation? How do homeowners make sure? Like all products, contractors must follow current practices to create a proper base for the interlocking and the sand that goes between the pavers. Dave reminds homeowners and contractors that there are a lot of resources on the Romex website A Romex rep can help contractors with training and instructions on how to use the product. It has a 10-year warranty when the proper steps have been followed. Contractors need to register their project with Romex and have their base verified. What other products are available? Romex also has a permeable gravel binding product available. Once applied, it binds small particle aggregates together for a sold smooth surface but still allows for drainage. Can homeowners install these products themselves? Some of their premixed products are easier for homeowners to install themselves. Check out the Romex website for more information. Romex stresses the importance of working with water, not against it! Where you can find Romex Canada: www.romexcanada.com Facebook YouTube Instagram LinkedIn Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing show you how to keep your garden and landscape cool and colourful in the summer heat with tips and tricks and do's and don'ts for your July garden. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Pros and cons of the recent hard fast rain and things to consider with your garden and containers. Lawns The importance of watering deeply but less frequently The best type of fertilizer for your lawn situation The best time to fertilize Staying on top of weeds Perennials/Annuals in the Garden Deadhead perennials to clean up or encourage new growth  It may be time to clean up your annual containers and replace individual plants if they are dead or it's a poor-growing one. Make sure the annual containers are not being over under or overwatered Time to fertilize containers as well Shrubs: Pruning spring bloomers after flowering Trees: Fertilizing shrubs and trees, the best timing depending on the weather. Best ways to deep-water trees; do not rely on rain only Matthew and Joanne's vegetable garden Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss how to design with native plants and strike a balance in your garden between natives and the foreign ornamentals we love so much. When people think about native plants, they often think of a wild meadow or an unkept urban lot. But natives offer many design opportunities and benefits to our gardens and landscapes. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: How do you define native? Where to look for native plants? How should I start going about designing with native plants? Using nativars. “Hedges make edges.” Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

AI has moved into the world of gardening! In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Dale and Carrie Spoonemore, creators of the new garden AI app, Seed to Spoon.  Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Why did you decide to create this app? Where does the gardening information come from? Who is this app geared towards? Is it North-America based only? Can users customize their profiles so the app remembers their location? How does it differ from Google search? Find From Seed to Spoon online: www.seedtospoon.net Facebook: @seed2spoon Instagram: @FromSeedtoSpoon YouTube: @FromSeedtoSpoon Tiktok: @seed2spoon Pinterest: @fromseedtospoon Twitter: @fromseedtospoon Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Tom Watson from BOLD to discuss landscape lightning. About Tom Watson Tom Watson is a Senior Business Development Manager with BOLD (Best Outdoor Living Design), focusing on his territory in Central Ontario. After working in business operations for over nine years, leveraging cutting-edge technologies for strategic growth and process improvement, Tom entered the outdoor lighting industry. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Tell us more about BOLD, the new industry-leading landscape lighting company Landscape lighting is so important, why do you think it can sometimes be forgotten? We forget about evenings at times during the landscape planning process. Now that many want to use their outdoor spaces, people are realizing the importance of lighting the space. New landscape lighting can be added to existing landscapes. The impact is immediate when homeowners can now use their outdoor spaces in the evening and entertain longer on the weekends. Mature plants and gardens look beautiful when highlighted with proper low-voltage lighting. Tom refers to this as painting with light! BOLD lights are CRI 90 or above. Sunlight is 100. They come with a 7-year warranty. Are you seeing new trends in landscape lighting? Black is still the most popular fixture colour. New shape is a reflection of some new shapes in the interlocking industry Smart technology is also popular. Products can be set up and managed through Google Home, Alexa etc. Where can contractors' homeowners see BOLD products? Products are available at landscaping dealers. oDisplays will be there for people wh want to see them in person. BOLD is currently offering Mini Acadamy training to landscapers and designers. Find more information about BOLD: Website: www.boldpros.com Instagram: @boldpros @boldpros_tom Facebook: @boldpros Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Carla Bailey to discuss Women in Landscaping, a supportive community for green professionals that encourages women to enter the profession. About Carla Bailey An HR professional for over a decade, Carla Bailey honed her expertise working for a leading landscaping company in London, Ontario. Dedicated to creating a positive work environment and resolving employee matters, her commitment to staff growth led her to discover and implement various government initiatives to support employee development. In 2018, Carla and three other green professionals founded Women In Landscaping to introduce women to green professions and provide a community to help them thrive. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: What led to the creation of Women in Landscaping (WIL)? Business support for women in the Landscaping industry with a variety of issues in addition to business development When was WIL started? The group started in the greater London area in 2018. It grew quickly until the pandemic hit. They held their numbers steady and registered as a non-profit in 2024. How often does WIL meet? WIL currently holds monthly drop-ins on the fourth Thursday of the month across the province. Approximately 10-20 women attend, ranging from new to the industry to 30-year business owners to women going through career changes. 100,000 jobs in the trade in Ontario, with 25,000 vacancies. Still less than 30% are filled by women. This demonstrates that the industries have not been successful on their own in attracting women into the landscaping industry. In 2023, WIL hosted the Touch-a-Truck event to promote awareness of women working in green professions, and 3,300 people turned up! WIL has five Touch-a-Truck events planned for July 20th this year and another for September. WIL has partnered with Landscape Ontario They will be hosting a Women in Landscaping Luncheon at the Landscape Ontario Congress in January 2025. You can find Women in Landscaping on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.  You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Natalie Green from DynaScape Software to discuss their newest product, Creator. About Natalie Green Natalie is the Director of Product Development at DynaScape, working to understand the needs of landscape designers and build easy-to-use, modern solutions to efficiently create beautiful, functional, accurate plans for outdoor spaces. DynaScape builds landscape software specifically for the landscaping industry. They are committed to developing tailor-made solutions for landscape professionals and continue to expand the products and services they offer to empower landscape professionals with the best design and management platform. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: The history of Dynascape design software and how it works for the landscape design industry Natalie also highlighted some of the limitations These limitations and the importance of staying ahead of technology, especially the technology of computer hardware, have led to the development of a new product for Dynascape called Creator. The future of DynaScape Creator How much more flexible it is being a web-based product A two-week trial of Creator is available on their website if you are interested in giving it a try Natalie emphasized that there was no such thing as too much feedback! Be sure you share your likes and dislikes A Dynascape Design and Design Colour update is coming in June 2024. Joanne shared with Natalie how much she appreciated the training and technical support that Dynascape offers. It helps designers manage deadlines knowing Dynascape is there and very responsive Where you can find DynaScape: www.dynascape.com Get a free two-week trial of DynaScape Creator Facebook YouTube Instagram LinkedIn (DynsaScape) LinkedIn (Natalie Green) Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

This solo episode of Down the Garden Path is a bit of a rant! Recently, I heard landscape design referred to as a luxury product, giving the illusion that only the wealthy need one. I disagree. Despite the initial investment, I believe landscape design will save you money in both the short and the long run. And I am confident that after working with a landscape designer, your project will be even more successful. Luxury or necessity? Tune in to hear Joanne discuss landscape design. Things to consider: Your landscaping project most likely contains hardscaping (patio, walkway, garden walls) and softscaping elements (gardens, trees) and having both of these addressed from the start is crucial to a successful project. In my opinion, no one should treat the softscaping as an afterthought and try to “fill” it in after the hardscaping features are completed. Here's a good example that I share in this episode: A 2.5-foot-deep garden was left at the side of a pool for the large trees the pool clients wanted for privacy after the pool was installed. These clients called me for a planting plan to recommend the appropriate trees. Unfortunately, large trees have root balls that are 3-4 feet wide. There was no way the clients could get anything but small trees. If a design had been done at the start of the project, the trees would have been put in earlier and the patio would have allowed for them, or the pool location would have been adjusted.  Landscape designers, like interior designers, view the big picture and look at things from different perspectives. We consider things like the views from the windows, especially the kitchen sink. Our drawings are to scale, allowing you to visualize your outdoor living space to ensure that the patio will fit your table or your new furniture set. We are also aware of how things grow. We have seen the home where a tree was planted in the “wrong” spot. Too close to a walkway, too close to the back gate so that it limits access, etc. There have been so many times that I have been called in to help clients “after the fact,” and they all say, I wish we had a design to begin with.  I firmly believe that having a landscape design that you approve ahead of time will help you spend your money wisely on the things that matter and ensure that your project is exactly what you want when it is complete. Look for Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. 

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes author Alan Heeks to the podcast to discuss his self-help book, Natural Happiness: Use Organic Gardening Skills to Cultivate Yourself.  About Alan Heeks Alan Heeks is an inspiring guide to helping people cultivate their well-being through parallels with Nature. After a Harvard MBA and a successful career managing building materials businesses, Alan has spent 30 years creating nature-based learning venues, and leading groups there. In 1990, he started Magdalen Environmental Trust, converting 130 acres to a mixed organic farm. Since 1992 he has created Hazel Hill Wood as a 70-acre conservation wood and retreat centre. Alan has led many workshops with his Seven Seeds of Natural Happiness approach, including individuals, community groups, and NHS doctors.  Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Natural Happiness can help you dig deep and stay cheerful in these stormy times. It shows how you can use gardening methods such as composting, mulching, and crop rotation to cultivate human nature, too. A gardener applies skills like observation, patience and creativity, and you can adapt them to deal with daily stresses and big issues such as climate change. Alan's approach is positive and practical, easy to use for gardeners and others. On the podcast and on YouTube, they talked about the interesting and practical exercises sprinkled throughout the book The Nourish Your Roots exercise suggests trying Tree Talk. Imagine yourself as a tree and consider whether all parts of you are in balance. The roots, the trunk and your branches. It is a practical and helpful exercise, especially when it encourages us to do some pruning! Another self-help “quickie” we discussed was how we handle compaction in our lives. Alan related it to the soil in a garden, which for gardeners is a very clear analogy. If our soil has good structure and is permeable then the air, heat, water, and nutrients can get in. The opposite is compaction. Many of us know how to handle compaction in the garden more than we know how to handle it in our lives. This book is full of these practical and thought-provoking exercises. With such chapters as "Use Natural Energy Sources," "Compost Your Troubles," "Cultivating Community" and "Growing Through Climate Change," you are in for a wonderful helpful book even if you are not a gardener. This book also inspires the child in all of us who remember drawing trees, climbing trees and playing outside. Whatever you might have going on in your life, Natural Happiness: Use Organic Gardening Skiles to Cultivate Yourself would be a wonderful addition to your bookshelf. Where you can find Alan Heeks: Website: www.naturalhappiness.net Buy his book here. Sign up for Alan's free newsletter here. Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes author Mariam Pirbhai to the podcast to discuss her creative nonfiction book, Garden Inventories: Reflections on Land, Place and Belonging. About Mariam Pirbhai Mariam was born in Pakistan and lived in England, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines before her family immigrated to Canada in the late 1980s. She completed her Ph.D. in English at the University of Montreal and received the Governor General's Gold Medal. Mariam lives and works in Waterloo, where she enjoys photographing and painting the natural landscapes of southwestern Ontario. An English professor at Wilfrid Laurier University, Mariam also wrote the award-winning short story collection Outside People and Other Stories, and the novel titled Isolated Incident. Here are some of the topics we covered in this episode: Her journey through the landscapes of her life on her way to her current home How her travels in the past shaped the gardener she is now Her innate understanding of gardening meant that trees in the garden should produce fruit How her search for a fruiting mulberry tree proved challenging How the increased time spent in nature during the pandemic made her more aware of the plants in nature versus what we historically have been cultivating in our gardens Her deep dive into invasive plants What belongs and doesn't belong in the garden The removal of a large amount of Buckthorn trees from the property How it opened up a new area for her garden to expand Where you can find Mariam Pirbhai: Website: www.mariampirbhai.ca Instagram: @mariampirbhai Facebook: Mariam Pirbhai  Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Julia Dimakos back to the podcast to discuss growing tomatoes. From starting tomatoes from seed to transplanting the seedlings into the garden, Julia shares her tried-and-true tricks to growing them successfully from seed.  About Julia Dimakos Julia Dimakos' 7000 square foot kitchen garden is in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Julia has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 13 years. She was twice published in Canadian Organic Grower magazine and became a published author in July 2022 with her first book, Tea Gardening for Beginners. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: How to start tomato seeds and the type of pots to use It's not too late during this first week of May to start as the seedlings are quite tough. You can put many seeds in a container: as they grow, they are easy to separate from the roots. The difference between determinate and indeterminate tomatoes It is important to know what variety you can and want to grow so you know how to support the plant in the garden appropriately. Spoiler alert: indeterminate tomatoes need support in the form of very TALL stakes! Julia shares some great tips on fertilizer and watering The importance of watering to avoid blossom end rot on your tomatoes Tune in and then go buy some seeds of an unusual variety of tomatoes! Click here to watch this episode on YouTube! Where you can find Julia Dimakos: Website: www.juliadimakos.com Instagram: @juliadimakos YouTube: @gardeninggirl  Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne welcomes Katie Tamony of Monrovia Plants to dispel five myths about growing roses. About Katie Tamony Katie's official title is Chief Marketing Officer, but really, she is Monrovia's chief storyteller and trendspotter. She has more than 25 years of expertise in the lifestyle and leisure industries. About Monrovia Inspired by the beauty of plants, gardens, and landscapes everywhere, Harry E. Rosedale, Sr. founded Monrovia in 1926 to be a premier grower of shrubs and trees. Monrovia collaborates with plant breeders worldwide to introduce improved plant varieties to North America. Monrovia plants flourish once planted to beautify gardens and landscapes. Visit Monrovia.com to learn more. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Myth #1: Roses are too fussy. We discussed how when you give the roses what they need, they are not very fussy. Katie mentioned the Floribunda rose variety called Grace and Grit. It is a nice repeat bloomer that once established puts on a show. Available in White/Red/ Pink and Yellow. Myth #2: Roses are prone to diseases. The roses on the market now are much more disease-resistant than your grandmother's roses. Monrovia's Nitty Gritty™ is incredibly durable and disease-resistant. This ground cover series will look great in the garden or in a container. The double blooms are available in peach, yellow, red, pink and white. This rose is also self-cleaning so no need to trim or deadhead throughout the season. Myth#3: Roses are water hogs. This common myth boosts roses' reputation as being a difficult plant to grow. Roses actually like it hot and dry. Once established, roses do not need a lot of extra watering and can deal with the same amount as the rest of your garden. Myth #4: Roses are no longer frangrant. Well, the fragrance is back baby! This may have been true up until a few years ago but breeders have been working hard to bring the fragrance back in the new easy to grow varieties. Monrovia's new Eau de Parfum rose collection features big romantic blooms that are easy to grow and very fragrant. Available in Berry, Bling, Blush and Bubbly. Myth #5: Roses don't grow in my tough garden conditions. Several rose varieties bust this myth. As mentioned, Nitty Gritty™ and Grace N Grit are known for doing well in tough conditions. If you need an exceptionally hardy rose, then Monrovia's Seaside Swirl Rose collection is just what you are looking for. A Rugosa rose variety that comes in pink, red and blush with the Rugosa toughness and exceptional fragrance. They are also tolerant of road salt but are more compact and tidy than the typical Rugosa rose. Maxing out at 3 ft tall. Find Monrovia online: www.Monrovia.com Facebook: @monroviaplants Instagram: @monroviaplants Pinterest: @monroviaplants Twitter: @monroviaplants Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses Hosta Virus X with returning guest Dawn Golloher from Gardens Plus. Dawn Golloher is the owner-operator of Gardens Plus, an independent garden centre in Peterborough, Ontario, specializing in easy-care perennials.  Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Can you tell us more about Hosta Virus X? The virus was first discovered in 1996. It spreads from the sap in the hosta leaves and roots. The best way to protect your plants is to buy from reputable sources and to practice good hygiene when dividing or cleaning up hostas. Use disinfectant wipes or have a bottle of diluted bleach handy to spray down your tools and then wipe off. This would help many things from spreading throughout our gardens, including powdery mildew. Hosta Virus X doesn't kill the hosta. It will just have mottled or blotchy colouring and the hostas may not thrive in the long run. It will also not spread to other perennials in your garden. The best way to remove an infected plant Three ways to recognize Hosta Virus X: ink bleeding mottled tissue collapsed tissue Gardens Plus is opening May 9th this year and will be open Thursday to Sunday until June 30th, 2024. Find Gardens Plus online: www.GardensPlus.ca Facebook: @gardensplus Instagram: @gardensplus YouTube: @gardensplus Pinterest: @gardensplus Twitter: @gardensplus Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Garden Media's Katie Dubow back to the podcast to discuss new plants and products for 2024. About Katie Dubow Katie Dubow is the president of Garden Media Group, a women-owned and run public relations firm specializing in the home and garden industry and celebrating its 31st year in business. Author of the annual Garden Trends Report, Dubow travels the world scouting and presenting garden trends to audiences from Italy to Chicago. Some of the questions and topics covered: The spring runways shows are in full swing Foraging brings the beauty of nature indoors What is foraging? Are there tools for foraging that make it easy to do? Knock Out roses are easy-care year-round blooming roses What's new this spring? Azaleas are beautiful shrubs, but gardeners should know about new Autumn azaleas: what are they? What is a combo that will attract bees, birds, and butterflies? What have you found works for a succulent garden and provides resources for night pollinators? Spring is the season for migration and having food as they travel back north: what do you suggest for our yards? What are other organic products that support a healthy environment? Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables to grow in the garden or containers, especially cherry tomatoes What is your favourite this year? Where can listeners learn more about these new garden Superstar flowers and products? Follow Katie Dubow online: Facebook: KatieGardenGirl Instagram: KatieGMG Find Garden Media Group online: Website: www.gardenmediagroup.com Facebook: Garden Media Group Instagram: GardenMedia Pinterest: GardenMedia LinkedIn: Garden Media Group Twitter: GardenMedia Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses hellebores with returning guest Dawn Golloher from Gardens Plus. Dawn Golloher is the owner-operator of Gardens Plus, an independent garden centre in Peterborough, Ontario, specializing in easy-care perennials.  Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Can you give us a bit of a history on hellebores? There are several classifications of hellebores. Helleborus niger and Helleborus orientalis are the most common. Helleborus niger also called Christmas Rose. Native to the mountains of southern and central Europe. Christmas Rose can bloom around Christmas time in warmer regions. It is an early blooming perennial for part-shade to shade conditions. They have rose-like petals, some single and some double. The foliage often comes up after the flowers are evergreen. They are a low-maintenance, slow-growing plant and long living in your garden. Because they are slow growing, they are often quite expensive. Helleborus orientalis is slightly larger than Helleborus niger and is also called Lenten Rose. It is native to Asia Minor, Eurasia, Greece and Turkey. Also blooms late winter into spring. The foliage is dark glossy green, evergreen and palmately divided. They require shady to part-shade conditions, but it is important to note that they need well-drained moist soil. Not recommended for dry shade. The flowers are distinctive and a lovely palette of colours is available, so it is hard to have only one in the garden. Thanks to their early blooming, they do make a good pollinators. They are disease-resistant, toxic to cats and dogs (so bitter tasting that they really never get eaten) and deer-resistant, as well. Some of the favourites that Dawn highlighted were: Ivory Prince (hardy for lower zones) The Wedding Party series of double-flowering hellebores, including Blushing Bride, Confetti Cake The Honeymoon series of single-petaled flowers New York Night and Carnival Dawn provided some other easy-care perennial recommendations for this year. How is Gardens Plus different from larger nurseries? They add a personal touch to everything that they do. Gardens Plus is opening May 9th this year and will be open Thursday to Sunday until June 30th, 2024. Find Gardens Plus online: www.GardensPlus.ca Facebook: @gardensplus Instagram: @gardensplus YouTube: @gardensplus Pinterest: @gardensplus Twitter: @gardensplus Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  Her book Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is available on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes author Margot Anne Kelley to discuss her new book, A Gardener at the End of the World. A gardener's pandemic journal that combines memoir with an exploration of the natural world both inside and outside the garden, it explores questions of what we can preserve - of history, genetic biodiversity, culture, language and what we cannot. It is ideal for any reader curious about the overlap of nature, science and history. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode: Margot's pandemic journal and interest in seeds became the raw material out of which the book evolved. The book is a gardener's pandemic journal with a lovely overview of her garden throughout the season, complemented with a timely history of previous world pandemics and how they related to the current one as a way to understand what was going on. An overview of seeds and plants and their origins, and how they travelled the world and impacted how and what we eat now. How researching past plagues and pandemics was therapeutic: the human race survived many horrible things before and it gave her hope that we would prevail again We can all relate to Margot's solace in her evolving garden, as many of us turned to gardening during that time and even still see the importance of growing our food or at least supporting those who do. A Gardener at the End of the World is available on Amazon. Find more information about Margot Anne Kelley: Website: www.margotannekelley.com Social Media: @margotannekelley Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  Her book Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is available on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Tom Watson from BOLD to discuss landscape lightning. Tom Watson is a Senior Business Development Manager with BOLD (Best Outdoor Living Design), focusing on his territory in Central Ontario. After working in business operations for over nine years, leveraging cutting-edge technologies for strategic growth and process improvement, Tom entered the outdoor lighting industry. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode: Tell us more about BOLD, the new industry-leading landscape lighting company Landscape lighting is so important, why do you think it can sometimes be forgotten? We forget about evenings at times during the landscape planning process. Now that many want to use their outdoor spaces, people are realizing the importance of lighting the space. New landscape lighting can be added to existing landscapes. The impact is immediate when homeowners can now use their outdoor spaces in the evening and entertain longer on the weekends. Mature plants and gardens look beautiful when highlighted with proper low-voltage lighting. Tom refers to this as painting with light! BOLD lights are CRI 90 or above. Sunlight is 100. They come with a 7-year warranty. Are you seeing new trends in landscape lighting? Black is still the most popular fixture colour. New shape is a reflection of some new shapes in the interlocking industry Smart technology is also popular. Products can be set up and managed through Google Home, Alexa etc. Where can contractors' homeowners see BOLD products? Products are available at landscaping dealers. oDisplays will be there for people wh want to see them in person. BOLD is currently offering Mini Acadamy training to landscapers and designers. Find more information about BOLD: Website: www.boldpros.com Instagram: @boldpros @boldpros_tom Facebook: @boldpros Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Nick and Hilary VanderHeide of Creekside Growers to discuss their dahlia farm in Delhi, Ontario. Nick and Hilary VanderHeide started Creekside Growers in 2009 on a farm in a little-known Ontario Hamlet called Hartford, about 45 minutes outside Hamilton toward Lake Erie. Since the start of Creekside Growers in 2009, Nick and Hilary have grown the business into many different sectors. Creekside Growers started as a field-grown wholesale cut peony producer and has since diversified into field-grown wholesale cut dahlias, greenhouse-grown wholesale cut dahlias, and greenhouse-grown dahlia plugs produced from cuttings. Dahlia tubers produced from divisions and cuttings are sold to both wholesale and retail customers. In 2017, Creekside Growers moved to a new farm outside Delhi, Ontario in Norfolk County and has expanded every year since. They farm on 14 acres and 1 acre of greenhouse. Nick and Hilary raise their four children right on the farm where they are homeschooled and have tons of opportunities to be part of the business, learning everything from growing to marketing and even farming finances. Hilary also has a thriving onsite store, The Flower Shack, and the largest u-cut dahlia field in Canada that caters to cash-and-carry customers as well as providing services for weddings, funerals, events, etc. It is a full-service flower shop catering to the Norfolk County area. They also sell a Bloom Box which contains recommended dahlia varieties, fertilizer, quality plant tags and quality clippers. Nicks parting tip: A little bleach in the water helps cut dahlias last longer! Creekside Growers sells all their dahlia tubers through their online store at CreeksideGrowers.ca. Find more information about Creekside Growers: Website: www.creeksidegrowers.ca Instagram: creeksidegrow Facebook: @creeksidegrow Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As the owner of Down2Earth Landscape Design, Joanne Shaw has been designing beautiful gardens for homeowners east of Toronto for over a decade. She does her best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.  In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and fellow landscape designer Matthew Dressing distill their horticultural and design expertise and combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon. Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe! You can now catch the podcast on YouTube.