Down The Garden Path Podcast: Recent Episodes

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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

Related Episodes/Resources Mentioned in 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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.
• 250,000 jobs in the trade in Ontario are available but only 30% are currently 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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

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.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Elaine Willis to the podcast to discuss Unilock's focus on sustainability.

Unilock is North America's premier manufacturer of concrete interlocking paving stones and segmental wall products. For 50 years, Unilock has been helping people create beautiful outdoor spaces.

Elaine embarked on her career at Unilock over 25 years ago, leveraging her blend of sales and design expertise. In 2023, she embraced a new opportunity as the inaugural Director of Sustainability, steering Unilock towards carbon neutrality while fostering a legacy of beautiful landscapes that enhance our lives and health and champion environmental stewardship.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Simple definition of sustainability: meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• Areas Elaine is looking at:
  • Water use in the manufacturing process
  • Solar panels installed at Unilock’s plant in Ohio as a pilot project
  • Move toward electric vehicles and forklifts
  • Investigate chemical technologies
  • SCMS – alternative binding materials
  • Percentage of cement in the concrete mix
• Permeable pavers, joint spacers and the benefits of an open graded base to allow water to filter down
• Architects and designers can have a significant impact throughout the construction phase of a residential or business hardscape project by addressing the issues of embodied carbon before construction begins.
• What is the role of designers and architects in this process?
• Unilock was the first concrete paver manufacturer in North America to offer a Transferable Lifetime Guarantee
• Now breaking new ground with their Sustainability Statement
  • They are committed to becoming a carbon-neutral company and have implemented initiatives that minimize their use of fossil fuels, recycle and harvest water and replace cement in our products.
  • By working toward this goal, they are making their products and company more sustainable.

Find more information about Unilock:

• Website: www.unilock.com
• Instagram: @unilock
• Facebook: @unilock

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.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Julia Dimakos back to the podcast to discuss microgreens and sprouting.

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:

SPROUTING * Sprouting involves soaking seeds, nuts, legumes or grains for several hours, then rinsing at least three times a day until they begin to develop a tail-like protrusion, a cotyledon (aka seed leaf). * The first two leaves of the plant grow from the cotyledon. * Soaking softens the hull, allowing the sprout to grow. * They are usually ready to use when the sprout is ¼ inch.

Process:

• Use glass jar, close to the kitchen sink
• Sprouting lids can be purchased on line. Metal screen lids are preferred.
• Jar needs to “hang” at a 45-degree angle to prevent standing water.
• Jar stand also available online.
• Rinse them 3 times a day.

A few seed options discussed: dry chickpeas, dry lentils, peas, alfalfa, broccoli, kale, mung beans, fenugreek

MICROGREENS * Microgreens are vegetable greens (not to be confused with sprouts or shoots) harvested just after the cotyledon leaves have developed with one set of true leaves. * They are used as a visual, flavour and texture enhancement. * Microgreens are used to add sweetness and spiciness to foods.

Process:

• They need to be grown in a sterile environment like seed starting mix, seed mats or coir.
• Spread seeds according to seed instructions in large layered trays.
• Most seeds must be weighed down to force roots to grow ‘down.’
• Seeds do not need light until they start to germinate.
• Once they start to grow, they need to be ‘finished’ with grow lights.
• Cut stems with a sharp knife or scissors.
• Greens are clean and do not need to be washed.

Suppliers recommended by Julia: Mumm’s Seeds West Coast Seeds 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.

View Details

Before Down the Garden Path became a podcast, it was a weekly radio show on RealityRadio101.com!

In this last installment of our "vintage" podcast episodes from 2017, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing learn more about ponds and their ecosystems with Aquascape's Ernest Williams.

Ernest educates listeners on water treatments, beneficial bacteria and best practices in pond maintenance. They discuss the importance of plants and review the math required to calculate how many fish to put in a pond to keep everything balanced.

Tune in to learn more about what Aquascape has to offer.

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.

View Details

Before Down the Garden Path became a podcast, it was a weekly radio show on RealityRadio101.com!

In this "vintage" episode from April 2017, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss some common misconceptions about water features with Aquascape's Ernest Williams.

They also talk about the different liner options and how to calculate the correct size pump. (Yes, they had to do some MATH!) Tune in to learn more about what Aquascape has to offer.

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.

View Details

Before Down the Garden Path became a podcast, it was a weekly radio show on RealityRadio101.com! In part two of this "vintage" episode from October 2016, Joanne Shaw continues her discussion with highly regarded landscape designer, author and teacher, Jan Johnsen.

They explore many of the ancient traditions from all over the world that Jan writes about in her book, Heaven is a Garden - Designing Serene Outdoor Spaces for Inspiration and Reflection, and how they can be applied to modern landscape design.

Listen and enjoy!

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 and Patreon.

View Details

Before Down the Garden Path became a podcast, it was a weekly radio show on RealityRadio101.com!

In part one of this "vintage" episode from October 2016, Joanne Shaw discusses landscape design with Jan Johnsen. A highly regarded landscape designer, author and teacher, Jan has a passion for plants and beautiful gardens.

In her book, Heaven is a Garden - Designing Serene Outdoor Spaces for Inspiration and Reflection, she draws on ancient traditions and modern trends to reveal the deep connection between the natural world and our emotions.

Listen and enjoy!

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 and Patreon.

View Details

Before Down the Garden Path became a podcast, it was a weekly radio show on RealityRadio101.com! In this "vintage" episode from September 2016, Joanne Shaw discusses hellstrip gardening with author Evelyn Hadden, a national speaker and author of four garden books, including Hellstrip Gardening.

What's a Hellstrip? We all contend with that troublesome stretch between the sidewalk and the road, or the space nestled between driveways – commonly referred to as the "hellstrip." It’s easy to neglect and figuring out how to address this area can be challenging. Evelyn explores strategies for revitalizing this space, potentially bringing positive changes to your neighbourhood.

Listen and enjoy!

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 and Patreon.

View Details

Before Down the Garden Path became a podcast, it was a weekly radio show on RealityRadio101.com!

In this "vintage" episode from February 2016, Joanne Shaw discusses orchid growing tips and tricks with Bruce Rogers, owner of Bruce Rogers Orchids and author of The Orchid Whisperer.

They also discuss tips for beginners, as well as a few of Bruce's favourite tricks. Listen and enjoy!

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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss bushes with berries for the birds that you can add to your landscape. These bushes are different than other fruit bushes like blueberry and raspberry, etc.

They came up with five different ones for you to consider and a few honourable mentions.

Five shrubs to attract, feed, and help shelter birds in your yard in the colder months of the year:

• Common Snowberry, Symphoricarpos alba
• Black Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa
• Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana
• Beautyberry, Callicapra americana
• American elderberry, Sambucus canadensis

Honourable mentions:

• Viburnums, Viburnum spp. (Listen to our Viburnum podcast here.)
• American Bittersweet vine, Celastrus scandens.
• Eastern Red Cedar, Juniperus virginiana
• Oregon Grape Holly, Mahonia aquifolium
• Cotoneaster, Cotoneaster spp.

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the three types of holly and their popularity as a replacement for boxwoods.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Two notable holly species to add for winter interest in your garden.
  • Ilex aquifolium, Common or Christmas Holly: evergreen with slightly sharp leaves and red berries on the female plants
  • Ilex verticillata, Winterberry: North American native, deciduous holly
• Honourable mention: Ilex glabra, Inkberry: An evergreen native to the Eastern US and Canada but not in Ontario. Compact with shiny leaves it could be a Boxwood replacement in areas where it is hardy.

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

Just when we think we have seen it all regarding our garden and pest issues, we learn about another pest we need to educate ourselves about. This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne welcomes Sean James to discuss jumping worms, what they are and why we need to be on the lookout for them in our gardens.

Sean James, owner of Sean James Consulting & Design, has been gardening professionally since age sixteen. He is a graduate of the prestigious Niagara Parks School of Horticulture, a Master Gardener and was named one of “20 Canadians Making a Difference” in the Canada-wide magazine GardenMaking.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• What are jumping worms?
• What do they look like?
• Where do we look for them?
• Why are they important?
• How will they affect our gardens?
• What about growers and how we buy our plants?
• What can we do?

Clarification: Eggs and cocoons are the same thing: Each new generation begins with the production of hardened egg capsules, known as cocoons, that overwinter in the soil to hatch the following spring.

Where you can find Sean James:

• Website: seanjames-consulting.ca
• Instagram: SeanJamesDesigns
• Facebook: @Sean.James.12
• Linkedin: Sean James

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the rarely talked about spring ephemerals, what they are, their importance, and how you can use them in your garden. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• What are spring ephemerals?
• Why are they important?
• How can you use them in your garden?
• Where can you find them?

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome back author Susan Poizner, this time to discuss her new book Grow Fruit Trees Fast: A Beginner's Guide.

Susan is an urban orchardist, the creator of the fruit tree care training website OrchardPeople.com, and the author of the fruit tree care book Growing Urban Orchards. She has trained thousands of new growers worldwide in her in-person workshops and online courses. Susan is an ISA Certified Arborist and an instructor of Fruit Production at Niagara College in Ontario, Canada.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• What is a bare root tree? Why are they better than potted fruit trees?
• Bare root care: How do we plant them?
• Should we add any amendments?
• When and how should we prune our fruit trees?
• What’s the best way to feed our fruit trees?

Where you can find Susan Poizner:

• Website: orchardpeople.com
• Podcast: Urban Forestry Radio
• Facebook: @orchardpeople
• YouTube: @orchardpeople

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 Grow Fruit Trees Fast: A Beginner's Guide

Growing Urban Orchards

Down the Garden Path Podcast: Growing Exotic Apples with Susan Poizner

Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode 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 our Five Fall Lawn Care Tips for November lawn care.
• How to protect your trees, shrubs, and evergreens from animals and winter

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: Five Fall Lawn Care Tips

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss Joanne's experience at the Garden Bloggers Fling in Philadelphia this September.

The Garden Bloggers Fling began in Spring 2008 as a meet-up for garden bloggers across the U.S. It soon became a must-attend, blogger-run annual event (paused only by the pandemic) hosted by organizers in a different city each year. Today the Fling has grown — while the name has been shortened — to include content creators across the international online garden media. Joanne was one of almost 100 gardeners who visited 15 private and public gardens in three and a half days.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• How did you first hear about The Fling?
• What is involved?
• How many flings has Joanne attended?
• What were some of the interesting gardens you got to see?
• What was the schedule like? What did you do on the first day?
• The fling is successful thanks to the many industry sponsors including:
  • Garden Media Group
  • Longwood Garden
  • Proven Winners
  • Monrovia
  • Bailey Nurseries
  • The Great Grow Along
• When and where is the next fling: July in the Puget Sound area of Seattle.

Learn more at www.gardenfling.org or search online for #thefling.

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss lasagna gardening, also known as no-till gardening.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• What is lasagna gardening?
• Where can you build a lasagna garden?
• The steps you need to follow to build your own lasagna 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 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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing review their top five lawn care tips for fall.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• When to aerate and/or dethatch
• Top dress with a high-quality compost
• Why it's too late to put down seed
• Applying corn gluten
• Using fertilizer

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing provide some tips and tricks and do’s and don'ts for your October garden.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• How to plant your fall bulbs and garlic.
• Bringing in the annuals and tropicals you’d like to keep for next year or over winter.
• Why not prune and clean up your perennials, trees, shrubs, and leaves?
• How to prepare your lawn for fall and winter.
• Preparing your evergreens and Japanese maples for winter.

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

Dahlia May Flower Farm

Eco-Lawn grass seed

Lasagna Gardening, season 7 episode 36.

Down the Garden Path Podcast On Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss some of the pest, disease, and environmental issues which may be causing your fall garden to be a little lacklustre this year.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• How to identify and treat powdery mildew on susceptible plant, like phlox and ninebark.
• Why leaves and flowers in the landscape are browning so early.
• What is boxwood blight and how to treat it.
• Other boxwood issues to watch out for to keep your boxwood healthy.

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing provide some tips and tricks and do’s and don'ts for your September garden.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Plan your fall bulb display. Buy now for the best selection.
• Continue deadheading your summer bulbs.
• Plant cool and cold-tolerant vegetables.
• What to look for at perennial plant sales.
• When to bring in your tropical plant material.
• Now is the time to apply nematodes and repair your lawn.
• How to treat your crab grass.
• Caring for your deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs.
• How to add fall interest to the landscape.

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss a popular and sometimes controversial topic in the garden: mulch.

To mulch or not to mulch, that is the question! Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What is mulch?
• The different kinds of mulch
• What are the benefits of adding mulch to your garden?
• Ways to use mulch correctly
• Ditching the landscape fabric

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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode 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.

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.
• Continue to trim herbs like mint, chives, dill, etc., to encourage flavourful new growth.
• 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, 1 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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

Summer has just begun, and forecasters predict it will be one of the hottest summers in recorded history. In this episode 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 there is a dead or 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
• Don’t miss Matthew on Global News Morning this Friday!

After nine seasons and over 340 episodes, Down the Garden Path Podcast is ending its live broadcast on Reality Radio 101.

Although it was the last live broadcast, listeners can 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 Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe to be notified of new content. You can now catch the podcast on YouTube and Patreon.

View Details

After nine seasons and over 340 episodes, Down the Garden Path Podcast is ending its live broadcast on Reality Radio 101. In this episode, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing look back at Down the Garden Path through the years and recount some of their favourite episodes, topics, guests, and moments since the show first aired on Monday, November 17th, 2014.

What are Joanne and Matthew's future plans for Down the Garden Path Podcast? Tune in to find out! Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• How did Down the Garden Path start nine years ago?
• Where can listeners tune into past radio show episodes?
• Why did Joanne and Matt enter the world of podcasting?
• Why did they decide to leave internet radio?
• What’s next for Down the Garden Path Podcast?
• What are some of Joanne's favourite topics?
  • Straw Bale Gardening with Joel Karsten
  • Hellstrip Gardening with Evelyn Hadden
• What are some of Matt’s favourite topics?
  • Author’s month – great books on several great topics.
• Who are some of Joanne's favourite guests?
  • Repeat guests Jan Johnsen, Julia Dimakos (Gardening Girl), Lisa Steinkopf (The Houseplant Guru) Stephanie Rose (Gardentherapy.ca) Dawn Golloher (Gardens Plus)
• Who are some of Matt's favourite guests?
  • Julia Dimakos (Tea Gardening for Beginners): Their first official, and only other, ‘co-host.’
  • Katie Dubow (Garden Trends Reports).
• What are some of Joanne’s favourite episodes?
  • Plant-specific shows where they do deep dives
  • Month-in-the-garden episodes
• What are some of Matt’s favourite episodes?
  • Launch Party: They announced that they’d published their book based on their month-in-the-garden series.
  • Ask Us Anything and month-in-the-garden series: Matt loved getting questions from listeners, hearing where they’re from, and what’s exciting in their gardens.
• Other favourites included:
  • From Joanne:
    • The beginning of the radio show with Gary.
    • Recording in the studio
  • From Matt:
    • Finding out about their birthdays.
    • Matt’s first episode.
    • The first episode of Down the Garden Path.
• Where can listeners tune into Down the Garden Path Podcast after the last episode airs on June 26th, 2023?
• Can listeners still send in gardening questions? Yes! Let’s continue the discussion on Facebook!

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing are joined by Tamara Urben-Imbeault from Plantzza Hut to discuss how to select, care for, and grow carnivorous plants.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us what inspired you to found Plantzza Hut.
• How are carnivorous plants different from what we might consider a traditional plant?
• What do carnivorous plants eat?
• If we don’t have insects to feed them, how can we keep them healthy?
• What are some of the common carnivorous plants people find in garden centres?
• How many different species are there and where are they native to?
• In Ontario, we know carnivorous plants to be tropical indoor plants. Are there any that are hardy here?
• What are some of your favourite carnivorous plants?
• How are carnivorous plants produced? Is it the same way annuals and perennials are started in the nursery?
• Carnivorous plants indoors: How do we care for them? Is it easy?
• Carnivorous plants outdoors: How do we care for them? Is it easy?
• What are some of the common pests and diseases that affect carnivorous plants?

Where can you find Tamara and Plantzza Hut online?

Email: plantzzahut@gmail.com

Instagram: @plantzzahut

Facebook: Carnivorous Plant Club Toronto & GTA

Carnivorous Plant Society of Canada

California Carnivores

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

Cannabis and its use have historically been a hot topic in North America. But on October 17th, 2018, subject to provincial and territorial restrictions, the Canadian government legalized its use across the country. In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome Sarah Osterlee of Empress Gardens to share her knowledge on the art of cultivating cannabis.

About Sarah Osterlee

Sarah owns a gardening company called Empress Gardens that offers consulting on all plants, including cannabis. Sarah has a red trade seal and diploma in horticulture and a grad certification in cannabis production.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us more about Empress Gardens. Where do you operate and service? What services do you offer?
• Cannabis anatomy:
  • Why is this important and what do casual growers need to keep in mind?
• What species of cannabis are there?
• What is a cannabis strain and how are they produced?
• What is the life cycle of cannabis?
• What growing conditions does cannabis require?
• What pests and diseases do casual cannabis growers have to be aware of? How do we treat these issues?
• Indoor vs. outdoor growing:
  • How does each method differ?
  • What do we need to consider when deciding which is better for us?
• What are ‘cannabinoids’ and why are they important?
• How can someone increase the cannabinoids of their plant?
• Where can our listeners go to learn more about growing cannabis?

Find Sarah Osterlle/Empress Gardens online: Website: www.empressgardeningservice.com

Instagram: @empress.gardens

Facebook: @empressgardeningservice

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path: Growing Cannabis

Down the Garden Path: Cannabis, Part Two

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

With the hustle and bustle of May behind us, the month of June promises warmer weather and time to relax, But don't let that keep you out of the garden; there's plenty to be done. In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing share their do’s and don'ts for your June garden so you can spend less time working on it and more time enjoying it.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Lawn care for June: grubs, fertilizing, and mowing
• Preparing for Japanese beetles
• What vegetables we can plant in June
• Growing, fruits, vegetables, and other hardy plant material in containers
• How to amend troublesome soil
• Best watering practices

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Growing Exotic Apples with Susan Poizner of Orchard People

Water Garden Trends with Ernest Williams

Aquascape

View Details

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. On this episode 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.

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

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this encore episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing wrap up their month-long discussion about shrubs with a look at nativars.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• What is a nativar?
• How are nativars produced?
• Substantial differences between cultivars and nativars and what to avoid:
  • Some attract and sustain the same populations as their native parent
  • Others do not attract as many pollinators as their native parent.
  • Some nativars do not have the same quantity or quality of pollen and nectar resources.
  • Avoid nativars whose leaf colour is different than its parent.
• Reasons for planting as close to the native species as possible.
• Some popular North American nativars you might find in your local garden center.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

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 episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing are joined by Kathy Jentz, author of Groundcover Revolution, to discuss 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 your 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.

Resources mentioned during the show 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

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome Katie Tamony of Monrovia to discuss Monrovia’s design trends and new plants for 2023.

About Katie Tamony

Katie’s official title is Chief Marketing Officer, but she really is Monrovia's chief storyteller and trendspotter. She has more than 25 years of expertise in the lifestyle and leisure industries.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us more about Monrovia.
• How do you come up with or research your design trends?
• How do your trends influence new plant introductions? Are you planting more natives vs. ornamentals?
• What are this year's design trends?

Timeless Design Trends and Must-Have Plants

• Reasons for timeless design principles.
  • Design ideas from the past influence our gardens today
  • Timeless design gives your garden longevity
  • Adding new and updated varieties brings a modern twist with more blooms and easier care
• Greek and Ancient Roman Gardens
  • Symmetry, proportion, and balance
  • Creating a serene feeling when you enter the garden
  • Topiary
  • Kitchen gardens
  • Water features
• New trends for 2023
  • Architectural Simplicity
  • Inspired by travel and a love of elegance
  • Limited plant palette and repeating forms
  • Cooler tones
• Garden of Abundance
  • Gardens that are a bit wild, productive, and teeming with life
  • Mixing edibles in with shrubs, perennials
  • Attracting pollinators
  • Increased interest in soil health and working with nature
• Victorian Gardens
  • Introductions of lawns
  • Perennial borders
  • Breeding increases choices for adding colour in the garden
  • Privacy hedges
• New trend: New Victorian
  • Return to nostalgia/classic plants - Roses, hydrangeas, peonies, lilacs
  • Mix of textures
  • Meandering paths
  • Layering
  • New genetics offer more blooms and compact designs that fit anywhere
• Ancient Japanese Gardens
  • Asymmetry
  • Rocks and water
  • Capturing the fragility of our being
  • Meditation
  • Meaning of plants
  • Relaxation, minimalism, and foliage
• Must Haves plants for 2023 – Plants that may not fit in only one category

Find Monrovia online:

• www.Monrovia.com
• Facebook: @monroviaplants
• Instagram: @monroviaplants
• Pinterest: @monroviaplants
• Twitter: @monroviaplants

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the do’s and don’ts for your May garden.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Spring lawn care
  • What can you do now?
  • Can you rake and feed?
• Harden off your seedlings before planting.
• Harden off your houseplants
  • Adapt to higher light levels or direct sun; most prefer only direct morning sun
  • Tropical winter is 16°C; bring your plants out only when the outside temperature is as warm, and bring them inside at night.
• Get your garden beds ready by feeding the soil with compost
  • Perform a soil test to see what amendments are needed in your space.
• Fertilizing: If it's dormant, don't feed it.
• Begin to feed your trees and shrubs
  • Granular vs. water soluble vs. tree spikes
  • Stop feeding your trees and evergreens on July 1st

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this encore episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome Root Rescue's Bob Reeves to talk about how you can put little critters to use in your garden.

About Bob Reeves

Bob has come to believe that the secret to plant success is hiding in the soil beneath our feet. He began the Soil Health/Root Rescue project in 2005 with a discovery made at Reeves Florist & Nursery, his family's garden centre in Woodbridge, Ontario. Bob is the founder and CEO of Root Rescue Environmental Products. He also serves as a Soil Microbiome Advisor to Flash Forest, a leading innovator in drone-powered reforestation.

Some of the questions and topics covered:

• How did Root Rescue get started?
• What is Root Rescue?
• What are mycorrhizae fungi and how do they work? Compared to fertilizer?
• Why are urban soils dead soils?
• Is there any harm to people or pets?
• How is Root Rescue different from other mycorrhizae products on the market?
• What can’t I use Root Rescue on?
• How often should I apply Root Rescue?

You can find Root Rescue online here, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome David Smorenburg from Upper Canada Organic Products to discuss their line of pest control products.

About David Smorenburg and Upper Canada Organic Products

David is the founder and president of Upper Canada Organic Products, Inc. Upper Canada Organic Products (U C Organic Products) has been a family-run business since 2002. They register, develop, and distribute the least-toxic pest control products in Canada and are a pioneer in bringing plant-based pest control products to Canada.

Some of the questions and topics covered:

• We first learned about you from a previous guest, Guy Ruccolo from Blue Star Nursery. He recommended your products, saying that he couldn’t keep them on the shelves.
• Tell us about Upper Canada Organic Products.
• U C Organic was instrumental in assisting the change to the Pest Control Products Act that made it easier for people or companies to bring low-toxic pest products to market in the future.
• Garlic juice and orange peel extract are two of the food-based items now available to Canadians for use to assist in controlling pests.
• What are the names of your popular products?
• How does your mosquito repellent work?
• How does the Orange Guard work?
• What other products do you have available?

You can find Upper Canada Organic Products online here, as well as on Facebook.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome George Scott, president and founder of Niagara Beeway, to discuss the importance of protecting native bee species, as well as other native flora and fauna.

About Niagara Beeway

Niagara Beeway advocates for species native to Niagara. Their objective is to protect existing native flora and fauna by restoring and creating a native habitat which services bees, birds, native plants, and animals and provides educational opportunities for their community.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• How did Niagara Beeway get started?
• What is Niagara Beeway’s mission?
• What is the Niagara Beeway?
• George shared that after examining his hives today, this season has been a success with the survival rate of his bees.
• What is the beekeeping industry like in the Niagara Region?
• Replacement bees from the Carpathian Region of Ukraine, a region very similar to the Niagara Region.
• The benefits of the Carpathian bees in Ontario.
• What are some myths about the apiculture industry or home beekeeping?
• What is your ‘Host a Hive’ program?
• If I wanted to have my own hive, what are some things to consider before becoming a beekeeper?
• The importance of planning native plants versus ornamental plants to help pollinators.
• Articles on their site:
  • The Buzz on Pollinators: Keystone Plants Create Biodiversity
  • The Buzz on Pollinators: Beginning a Pollinator Patch is Easy

Find Niagara Beeway online:

• www.NiagaraBeeway.com
• Facebook: @NiagaraBeeway
• Instagram: @niagarabeeway
• Twitter: @niagarabeeway
• Niagara Beeway Store: www.CanadaBeeline.com

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

With the warmer weather upon us, it’s almost time to head out into the garden and get started. In this week’s April in the Garden episode, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the do’s and don’ts in your April garden.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Veggies
  • Start seeds indoors if you haven't already. Just under eight weeks to the last average frost date.
  • Bulbs – you can start potting up Canna and Calla bulbs
  • Hardening off seedlings
• Plants
  • When are plants arriving in the garden centres?
  • What is it safe to plant when?
  • Many perennials can be divided in early spring.
  • Be mindful of cold-season plants available in garden centres: they are not all grown equally.
  • Deciduous shade – what is it and why is it important?
  • How to protect early spring flowering bulbs.
  • Pruning hydrangeas – which, how, when?
  • Spring pruning other shrubs – how and when?
  • Acclimatizing houseplants – how and when?
• Beneficial insects
  • Place Mason and leaf cutter bee cocoons out in protected housing on the south or southeast wall.
  • Look for praying mantis casings in stores to put out in your yard now.
  • Much too early for ladybugs
• Lawn
  • Cleaning up the yard: the do’s and don’ts.
  • Be ready to apply corn gluten pellets, not corn gluten meal (dust). Do this before the forsythia blooms.
  • Too early to rake lawns. Try to avoid walking too much on the lawn.
  • When to start putting down grass seed? Wait for nighttime temperatures to warm up.
  • Top dressing?

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

To kick off the first day of spring, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss easy-care perennials with returning guest Dawn Golloher from GardensPlus.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What inspired you to start GardensPlus?
• Your motto is “We focus on easy-care perennials so you can enjoy your gardens not just work in them.” Why focus on easy-care perennials?
• In 2021, you decided to cancel the successful Canada-wide mail-order part of the business. Can you tell us more about what led you to that decision?
• How many perennial types do you grow?
• Where are your perennials grown? Greenhouse, field produced.
• How big is your growing space?
• How has your selection of plants changed over the last 4 years? Which species do you not grow anymore, and why?
• Tell us about your perennial collections.

Find GardensPlus online:

• www.GardensPlus.ca
• Facebook: @gardensplus
• Instagram: @gardensplus
• YouTube: @gardensplus
• Pinterest: @gardensplus
• Twitter: @gardensplus

Down the Garden Path - Steppingstones

Joanne and Matthew discuss how to best care for your perennials in the early spring.

• What to look for, when to prune them.

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.

View Details

With spring only a week away, our houseplants -- like us -- can tell the days are growing longer. This means it’ll soon be time to transplant, propagate, and prune our indoor jungle. This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing provide spring houseplant care tips to keep your collection looking fresh.

Topics and questions discussed in this episode:

• Popular houseplants in 2023
• Watering and feeding your houseplants
• Potting up your houseplants
• Propagating your houseplants
• Troubleshooting common indoor houseplant pests
• Preparing to put them outside for the season

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

In this week’s episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss terrariums, a fun and easy project you can do to add a dynamic living ecosystem to your indoor plant collection.

Topics and questions discussed in this episode:

• What are terrariums?
• What do you need to build a terrarium?
• How do you build a terrarium?
• What materials do you need?
• What plants are suitable for terrariums?
• How do I care for my terrarium?

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

As March arrives and we look forward to spring, we prepare ourselves for the one more blast of winter we know Mother Nature will throw our way. In this week’s episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing talk about March in the Garden.

Topics and questions discussed in this episode:

• Planting seeds and staging a crop for a continuous harvest.
• Growing seeds: the best selection is available now! Buy now, plant later.
• Lawn care: we’re eager but how long do we have to wait to get started?
• Dormant spray: a key IPM task we can start as the weather warms up.
• Pruning: what trees and shrubs can we prune in late winter and early spring?
• How to protect your evergreens from the weight of snow and ice.
• Buy our book! It’s your source for monthly low-maintenance tips and tricks to get your garden off to its best start this spring.

Steppingstones

A new segment where Joanne and Matthew answer more listener questions and give timely tips for your gardens and landscapes.

Listener questions:

• Can we use seeds from last year?
• Can we clean up our flower beds in March?
• Can I start strawberries now in my home? Or is it too early?

Tips to take the next step in your gardening journey:

• Force forsythia and willow branches for a pop of colour in winter.
• Look for leftover fall bulbs in the store to plant now to create a colourful container.
• Growing sweet potato vine from sweet potatoes at the grocery store

Resources mentioned during the show Ontario Seed Company Peanut Seeds

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

With the days growing longer and the weather warmer, the itch to be outside in the garden is growing stronger. This makes it a perfect time to look at what’s trending in 2023. This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome returning guest Katie Dubow to share what’s trending in the 2023 Garden Trends Report.

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. Dubow lives and gardens in West Chester, PA, with her husband, two daughters, one dog, and six chickens. Find her in the garden with her children, practicing yoga or dancing to Zumba. Her goal is to convince people that brown thumbs can, in fact, be turned green.

Some of the questions and topics covered:

• For our new listeners or those who are not familiar with Garden Media Group, tell us a bit about what goes into producing the report each year.
• ‘I Believe in Me’ is the title of the report this year. Can you tell us why you chose it?
• Let’s walk through some of the main points that make up the Garden Trends report:
  • Tesla Effect
  • Backdoor Revolution
  • Accessible Gardening
  • PlantTok
  • All Greek to Me
  • Redrawing the Map
  • Colour of the Year

Click here to get your copy.

Find Garden Media Group online:

Website: www.gardenmediagroup.com

Facebook: Garden Media Group

Instagram: GardenMedia

Pinterest: GardenMedia

LinkedIn: Garden Media Group

Twitter: GardenMedia

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Sam Hoadley from the Mt. Cuba Center about his latest research on Carex and other exciting projects at the center.

About Sam Hoadley and the Mt. Cuba Center

Sam Hoadley is the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center. Nestled in the hills of Hockessin, Delaware, the Mt. Cuba Center's mission is to inspire an appreciation for the beauty and value of native plants and a commitment to protect the habitats that sustain them. Sam evaluates native plant species, old and new cultivars, and hybrids in the Trial Garden. He earned his degree in Sustainable Landscape Horticulture from the University of Vermont.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• • • Tell us about the Mt. Cuba Center. - Why did you decide to research Carex? - What factors did you use to evaluate the 70 types? - What did you learn about the various results? - Are sod farms interested in the results? - Is the industry considering moving away from existing lawn grasses? - How can we as gardeners and homeowners help to move to a more sustainable lawn? - Can you tell us about another research project that you are excited about?

Find Sam and The Mt. Cuba Center online:

• www.mtcubacenter.org
• Facebook: MtCubaCenter
• Instagram: MtCubaCenter
• YouTube: MtCubaCenter
• Pinterest: MtCubaCenterGarden
• Twitter: MtCubaCente

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

AI has moved into the world of gardening! This week on the 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 it remembers 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

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

If you’re not lucky enough to be living somewhere tropical, mid-winter has you in its grasp and you may be wondering what you can be doing in February in the garden. Although there’s not much to do outside, there are several activities you can work on inside to get you ready for a new growing season.

Suggestions from Joanne and Matt in this episode:

• Take care of your Christmas houseplants.
• Set up grow lights for starting seeds.
• Check out seed catalogues for interesting veggies or perennials to grow.
• Order seeds from catalogues or from online plant sources.
• Grow sprouts for salad.
• Take an online gardening class.
• Book tickets for a local garden show.
• Attend a local Seedy Saturday.
• Force spring bulbs.
• Force spring branches like pussy willow or forsythia.

Resources mentioned during the show How to Grow Amaryllis

Growing Under Lights

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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 17 years. A horticulturist, college educator and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. You can find it on Amazon.

View Details

Winter can be a gloomy bleak time of year, but that doesn’t mean it has to be that way in the garden. In the season nine premiere of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss how to create winter interest in your garden and landscape.

Discover how to create winter interest in your garden and landscape. Here are some of the questions and topics Joanne and Matt cover in this episode:

• Thanks to all the listeners who wrote in over the break.
• Changes to the show format: addition of the Stepping Stone segment
• Join Matt and Joanne on social media!
  • Instagram: Down the Garden Path podcast
  • Facebook: Down the Garden Path Podcast group
• How do they define winter interest?
• How can you create winter interest in the garden?
  • Are plants the only way?
  • Preparing your garden for winter - the loss of winter interest.
  • Design considerations
• Joanne and Matt's plant recommendations for adding winter interest.

Resources mentioned during the show Home Hydroponics with Tyler Baras

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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 17 years. A horticulturist, college educator and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. You can find it on Amazon.

View Details

In this episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing answer questions about their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, on The Landscape Ontario Podcast. In this monthly podcast, host Scott Barber has conversations on the issues shaping landscaping and horticulture in Ontario.

Scott asks Matt and Joanne a variety of questions:

• Tell us more about your background.
• What inspired you to write a book together?
• Can you speak to the importance of keeping our gardens low-maintenance?
  • Is the public, in general, receptive to this idea?
• Tell us about the different sections and topics covered.

Listen to Landscape Ontario on the Down the Garden Path podcast: Landscape Ontario

Landscape Ontario Find them online at www.landscapeontario.com, on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

In the final episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast for 2022, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the pros and cons of buying a real tree vs. a fake tree.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss the pros and cons of choosing a real tree vs. a live tree. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What type of tree do Joanne and Matthew put up and why?
• What is the environmental impact of each choice?
• Choosing an everlasting, or fake, tree: What do we need to know?
• Choosing a real/live tree: What do we need to know?
• Reasons why live trees are more expensive than ever.
• Rent-a-tree program: caring for a potted Christmas tree

Resources mentioned during the show How to Grow Amaryllis: A short episode we created after many listeners wrote in to ask about them.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

On this episode we are shining the spotlight on the classic holiday plant, Amaryllis. These easy to grow bulbs make great gifts or additions to your own holiday decorating. Landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the various ways you can purchase them and what they require in order to grow. They even share some tips on how to keep your bulb for next year. 

View Details

With Christmas around the corner, you may still be looking for a gift for that special gardener in your life. In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw are joined by Kristin Beane Sullivan from Garden Gate magazine. Kristin shares some of her favourite gardening gifts she’s received, gifts she’s given, and other good gifts for the gardener in your life.

About Kristin Beane Sullivan In her 25 years at Garden Gate magazine, Kristin Beane Sullivan has been lucky to meet hundreds (if not thousands) of gardeners, tour and photograph countless gardens, and learn something from every single gardener she’s met. She comes from a long line of farmers and gardeners, and today tends an ever-expanding urban garden with her husband, and three teenagers who are a lot more help in the garden than she was at their age.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with Kristin Beane Sullivan about gifts for gardeners. * Christmas is fast approaching. During your time at Garden Gate, and as a gardener yourself, what are your gift recommendations for this holiday season? * What would be your top gift choices for new gardeners? * What’s your favourite gardening gift you’ve ever received and why? * Tell us a bit about Garden Gate magazine. What amazing information can our listeners find within its pages? * What topics does Horticulture magazine cover? * What types of subscriptions can we get to these magazines?

Find Garden Gate magazine online:

Website: www.gardengatemagazine.com Instagram: @gardengatemagazine YouTube: @gardengatemagazine Facebook: @gardengatemagazine Pinterest: @gardengatemag

Find Horticulture magazine online:

Website: www.hortmag.com Instagram: @hort.mag Facebook: @HorticultureMagazine Pinterest: @hortmag

Other resources mentioned on the podcast:

DIY Gardening gift ideas

Garden Gate Store

2023 European Garden Tour

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing wrap up authors' month by speaking with The Mocha Gardener, Ashlie Thomas, about her new book How to Become a Gardener. In it, Ashlie teaches readers how to empower themselves by creating food security at home.

About Ashlie Thomas Ashlie Thomas is an author, food security and gardening advocate, and entrepreneur known on social media as The Mocha Gardener.

For nearly seven years, Ashlie worked in the scientific research sector and managed healthcare-based projects in academia. With a background in biology and chemistry, she is currently pursuing her graduate studies in food and nutritional science and undergoing training as a certified health and wellness coach through Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Outside of work and school, you will find Ashlie consulting and working with organizations to help bridge the gap between food security and chronic diseases in underserved and low-resourced communities. Using her passion for gardening and training in health coaching, she seeks to bring awareness through practice to growing issues of food insecurity, while empowering and educating others on how to take control of their wellness through growing the very thing that sustains them: good nutritious food.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with author Ashlie Thomas about creating food security at home. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What inspired you to write How to Become a Gardener?
• You start off with defining a garden. What is a garden?
• What’s the history of Food to Table?
• Why are we, the gardeners, important?
• In the book, you draw the “journey to becoming a gardener.” What does that look like?
• Later in the book, you say “gardening is rarely a solo adventure because you need something from someone, whether it be tools, soil, an extra set of hands, or even advice.” At the beginning of Chapter 3, you have 13 useful tools for your garden. Can you tell us about your top three favourite tools?
• What is "Ashlie’s Dozen?"
• How to Become a Gardener is more than a how-to guide. It’s about empowerment. Tell us more.
• You finish off the book with lessons in the garden. Without spoiling the book, what are some of the lessons you feel are most important?

Find Ashlie Thomas online:

• Facebook: @the.mocha.gardener
• Instagram: @the.mocha.gardener
• YouTube: @TheMochaGardener
• Order "How to Become a Gardener" on Amazon

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

In this episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing continue garden authors' month with a look at their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden.

In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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.

Packed with timely seasonal tips for each month to help you create the low-maintenance garden of your dreams, their new book takes the guesswork out of what to do and when to do it.

Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is now available on Amazon. Some of the topics discussed in this episode:

• Why did Joanne and Matt decide to write the book?

• What's inside?

  • How are the sections devised so gardeners can find the information they need quickly and easily?
    • Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter
  • What are Matt and Joanne's favourite sections?
• November in the garden:
  • What should you be doing this month?
    • Bulb planting and protecting Japanese maples for winter
• What are the larger sections of the book dedicated to?
  • Cedars
  • Fertilizing
  • Nematodes/White Grubs
  • Clematis
  • Spreading Grass Seed
  • Laying Sod
  • Lasagna Gardening
  • How to Do a Soil Test
  • Glossary

Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is your roadmap to creating and maintaining a low-maintenance, sustainable garden, and Joanne and Matthew want to help you make it happen.

Order your copy today!

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

Authors’ month is in full swing on the Down the Garden Path podcast! This week, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome returning guest and garden author Stephanie Rose to discuss her latest books, Big Book of Botanical Crafts and The Regenerative Garden.

About Stephanie Rose Stephanie Rose is the founder and creator of the popular website and blog, Garden Therapy. Based in Vancouver, she is an award-winning author, artist, and master gardener. She has written a number of books, including The Regenerative Garden and Garden Made. Her latest book, Big Book of Botanical Crafts, will be available shortly.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with author Stephanie Rose about regenerative gardening. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

The Regenerative Garden:

• What is regenerative gardening?
• What is the goal of permaculture?
• What is a functioning ecosystem?
• Where can we employ permaculture techniques in the garden?
  • Do you need a large space?
• What are the six elements of a living garden you discuss in your book?
  • Soil
  • Water
  • Plants
  • Climate
  • Ethics
  • Community
• What are some of the activities in the book you recommend our listeners try as an introduction to permaculture?
  • Stephanie discussed using ollas for sustainable watering and has instructions on how to make your own.

Big Book of Botanical Crafts

• Big Book of Botanical Crafts will be released this November 22nd.
  • It has 30 recipes to create all sorts of wonderful natural products.
  • The book is divided into three sections: Beauty/Candles/Cleaners. Learn how to use items from your own garden to create products in these categories.

You can learn more about how to purchase Stephanie's books here, find her online at www.gardentherapy.ca and on social media:

• Facebook: @gardentherapy
• Instagram: @garden_therapy
• Twitter: @garden_therapy
• YouTube: Garden Therapy
• Pinterest: @garden_therapy
• TikTok: @gardentherapyofficial

Stephanie also joined Matt and Joanne on the podcast two years ago to discuss her book Garden Alchemy. Listen to that episode here.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

When you think of tea, one of the last places you might think you could grow and make your own tea is Canada. This week, Matthew Dressing kicks off authors’ month with his co-host, and Down the Garden Path serial guest superstar, Julia Dimakos. Julia graciously steps into Joanne Shaw’s seat for the week to discuss her new book, Tea Gardening for Beginners.

About Julia Dimakos

Julia gardens in 7000 square feet in Mono, Ontario, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style. She has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 12 years and has been published in Canadian Organic Grower magazine twice. She has just released her new book, Tea Gardening for Beginners.

She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening. She enjoys teaching others, speaking, and holding workshops. You can read her blog at www.juliadimakos.com.

Learn how easy it is to grow, harvest, and prepare your own tea at home to create the perfect cup of tea. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us about your garden this summer.
  • What did you grow?
  • What challenges did you face?
  • What was new and exciting?
• Tea gardening. What is it?
• When I think of tea, maybe like most, we think of tea leaves, but teas can be made from so much more than just leaves.
  • How does one go about making a “tea” with leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds, and roots? Describe each.
  • Can you make tea with any part of the plant? If it’s good to use the leaves, is it perfectly fine to use the roots, for example?
• In your book, you have some delicious tea recipes.
  • How does one come up with a tea recipe? Can you simply combine teas to create your own blends?
  • Can you share with us any tips and tricks we should use to make the best teas?

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

You can buy her new book, Tea Gardening for Beginners, here.

You can also listen to past Down the Garden Path podcasts featuring Julia:

Growing Herbs

Growing Under Lights

Digging Deep with Veggies

Growing Indoors

Autumn Edibles

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week, Down the Garden Path presents an encore presentation of Joanne and Matt's January 2022 Home Hydroponics podcast with Tyler Baras, chief science officer and co-founder of Area 2 Farms in Arlington, Virginia.

About Tyler Baras

Tyler has a range of urban agricultural experiences from homesteading to commercial hydroponics. He has worked as a grower for 3 Boys Farm Inc., one of the first certified organic hydroponic farms in the United States. In 2015, Tyler wrote one of the best-selling hobby hydroponic books, DIY Hydroponic Gardens: How to Design and Build an Inexpensive System for Growing Plants in Water. In 2017, Tyler wrote Roadmap to Growing Leafy Greens and Herbs, an educational book for new growers and investors interested in commercial hydroponic production of leafy greens in greenhouses and indoor farms. In 2021, he wrote Home Hydroponics: Small-space DIY Growing Systems for the kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, and bath.

For more on Tyler Baras, please visit FarmerTyler.com.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Tyler Boras about home hydroponics. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• For people new to the term, what does it mean to grow hydroponically?
• Do you buy plants and transition them to water or can you start seeds in water?
• What are some of the things one should consider before starting a hydroponic set vs. growing in soil? Can anyone do it?
• If there isn’t any soil, how are our plants being supported in a hydroponic system?
• How do we feed our plants?
• What do you think of kits like “Click and Grow” or Aero Gardens, etc.?
• Can you tell us about some of the materials we’d need for a simple beginner setup? Are there DIY starter kits?
• Where can we buy the products for a DIY setup?
• For those of us who might be a bit more adventurous, are there any other items we could use to enhance our hydroponic setup?
• Your new book Home Hydroponics is filled with interesting DIY hydroponic projects. Tell us about how the book came about?
• What are some of your favourite projects?

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

Plants are more than just pretty; many have unique uses and fragrances. Tonight on the show, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome NYC Aromatica’s Amy Anthony to the Down the Garden Path podcast. Amy discusses growing aromatic plants and essential oils and how you can make them a dynamic part of your garden and landscape.

About Amy Anthony Amy is a certified clinical aromatherapist and aromatic gardener who left her career in marketing research to pursue what is closest to her heart: working with plants. As a certified aromatherapist, aromatherapy educator, herbalist, gardener, certified master composter and artisanal distiller, Amy is one of NYC's top aromatherapy practitioners.

Host of the Essential Aromatica podcast, Amy also tends her own aromatic garden on the North Fork of Long Island where she distills her unique products.

Listed as one of America's most influential aromatherapists, Amy Anthony is currently the New York State representative for the Alliance of International Aromatherapists. Her private practice, NYC Aromatica, includes one-on-one customized aromatherapy sessions, online class offerings, corporate consulting and article writing.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with Amy Anthony about aromatherapy gardening. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What defines a plant as being aromatic?
• What are some of the best aromatic plants?
• What are some situations we’d employ aromatic plants in the garden?
• How do we best design with these plants in the garden?
• If our listeners are looking to start gardening with aromatic plants, what would be your top three low-maintenance plant recommendations?
• With winter coming, what can we do to bring the benefits of aromatic plants from the garden indoors?
• What are essential oils and where do we get them from?
• How are essential oils produced?
• Can we make essential oils at home from plants in our own gardens?
• How do we get the most from using essential oils?

Where to find Amy:

• Website: www.nycaromatica.com
• Podcast: www.nycaromatica.com/podcast/
• LinkedIn: @amy-n-anthony
• Instagram: @nycaromatica
• Facebook: @nycaromatica

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

There’s nothing quite like a fresh bouquet of flowers in the house. This week, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome Heather Moran of Heirloom Heather Flower Farm to the Down the Garden Path podcast. Heather shares her tips and tricks on how to grow summer flowers and cheerful spring bulbs to create a cut flower garden of your own.

About Heirloom Heather Flower Farm Heirloom Heather started as a small-scale flower farm in 2021. Dedicated to farming sustainably and using organic methods, they preach low waste and try to be as eco-conscious as they can when making decisions about the farm. Currently, they are learning about soil health, low tiling, and regenerative farming.

Named after the Scottish flower, Heather is the Head Farmer Florist at Heirloom Heather. She does all the planning, prepping, and planting. She has a background in Graphic Design and loves to make stunning colour palettes with flowers. In 2020, newly sober Heather found solace in gardening when the world was basically turned upside down. Heirloom Heather started as a way to spread happiness and joy through flowers when people needed it most.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with Heather Moran of Heirloom Heather Flower Farm. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us more about the farm. How did it get started?
• We met at the Toronto Flower Market.
• What plant do you grow throughout the different seasons?
• Can people visit the farm?
• Some of the flowers you grow are bulbs. Do you have some to lift for the winter?
• Do you have to start some things inside?
• What hardy bulbs are you planting this season?
• Do you plant all new bulbs every year?
• How do we take care of bulbs?
• What is your bulb subscription?
• What is your fresh flower subscription?
• What other services do you offer?

Other resources discussed: www.johnnyseeds.com

Where to find Heather:

• www.heirloomheather.ca
• Instagram: @heirloomheather
• Facebook: @heirloomheather

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week, Down the Garden Path presents an encore presentation of the October in the Garden podcast from 2019.

With gardening chores changing so much from month to month, staying on top of your outdoor to-do list can be a challenge. In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne and Matthew discuss what's happening this month in your garden, offering down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss the do's and don'ts for your October garden. Some of the topics discussed this month:

• The importance of watering weekly, especially newly planted evergreens
• Stars in your fall garden
• How to plant bulbs
• What to do with your annuals and perennials
• How to clean and care for your lawn and fruit/vegetable garden
• General home and garden maintenance that will make for less work in the spring

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome Aaron Deacon from BIOS Nutrients to the Down the Garden Path podcast to talk about how feeding your indoor plants naturally improves their soil health.

About Aaron Deacon Aaron first learned about the environmental damage caused by synthetic fertilizers and pesticides during college and set out after graduation to begin growing for himself. He received a license from Health Canada to grow medicinal cannabis and decided to go completely organic. He was discouraged by the results from products that were available on the market and began studying soil to learn how plants grow naturally. After discovering biology within soil that feed on organic matter is what feeds plants, he began practicing fermentation to add biology and organic matter back to the soil and mimic mother nature. Through six years of research and testing, he now makes completely natural fertilizers and pesticides that heal soil and educates communities on how mother nature grows.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with Aaron Deacon feeding your indoor plants naturally improves their soil health. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• How did you discover the biology within soil?
  • Can you share with us how you came to the “ah ha!” moment that started it all? Why is this soil biology so important?
  • Started looking for better soil nutrients while growing cannabis
  • Noticed improved yield and better plant health when used on cannabis and realized it would be beneficial with all types of plants
• What are BIOS nutrients?
• How does BIOS work to improve soil and plant health?
• Is BIOS safe for humans and pets?
  • How does it relate to human health?
• What can we use BIOS on?
  • Is it just for indoor plants?
• If used outside, will the bacteria overwinter in colder regions?
• Can it be used with other natural soil improvement products?
• How do we apply BIOS?
  • How often do we need to reapply it?
• Do we need to feed our plants traditionally after using BIOS?
• What other products does BIOS Nutrients offer?
  • Yucca Extract and Probiotic

Get a free sample of BIOS

Visit www.biosnutrients.ca and sign up to get your free sample of BIOS. Enter coupon code DTGP15 in the order comments to let Aaron know where you heard about BIOS and use DTGP15 at checkout to receive 15% off all of your purchases.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week, Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw welcome amateur butterfly enthusiast Lisa-Rae Cormack to the Down the Garden Path podcast to talk about harvesting milkweed and how to grow it from seed.

About Lisa-Rae Cormack An HR professional from Whitby, Ontario, Lisa-Rae began raising monarch butterflies when she became an empty nester five years ago. To date, she has raised and released close to 400 monarch butterflies. This wouldn’t be possible without the monarch caterpillars' only source of food: milkweed.

What started as a small indoor project has grown over the years to incorporate an outdoor enclosure, vast pollinator gardens and two variations of milkweed. Her operation is coined “#FlyBeFree” and in 2020, she was officially certified as a registered monarch waystation by MonarchWatch.org. Through trial-and-error, Lisa-Rae has taught herself how to harvest, stratify and germinate common milkweed for this purpose.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt speak with Lisa-Rae Cormack about harvesting and growing milkweed. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What got you started down this path?
  • Lisa-Rae was mesmerized by witnessing the caterpillars' transformation
• How did you learn?
  • Self-taught, through trial and error and lots of internet research
• Describe your setup.
  • She has a full cycle operation: from egg to caterpillar to pupa to butterfly and repeat
• Monarchs on the endangered species list; Lisa-Rae feels like she's a part of something big
  • Only 3% survive the full life cycle in “the wild” whereas she has a 98% success rate (this year was 100%)
• Why milkweed?
  • This is the monarch caterpillars’ only source of food
  • Lisa-Rae’s is organic and chemical-free
• Why the decline in the monarch butterfly’s population?
  • The lack of viable milkweed along the migration path to Mexico (and back) is the main reason
• What types of milkweed do you use?
  • Experienced with two types: common and tropical
• Collected common milkweed seeds from pods on the side of the road; once pods open and fluff starts to emerge, it’s ready to harvest (Oct – Nov)
• Common milkweed needs to be stratified
  • Can be done in the freezer
  • Can be difficult to germinate
• Start seeds indoors with grow lights and a fan at end of March and move outside end of May once four full leaves have formed.
  • Issues to deal with include mold, too much/little water
• Takes two years for common milkweed to really establish; the container method works well
• Tackling milkweed pests and threats: aphids, ants and wasps, humans (weed killers)
• What’s your favourite type? Both!
  • Tropical because it is easy to grow (germinates fast and doesn’t need to be stratified) and has gorgeous orange and yellow flowers; it’s an annual
  • Common is hearty and has beautiful blooms in its second year; monarchs love it; it’s native and it’s a perennial

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

Do you have some annuals that are still going strong? In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss how some annuals can be saved and brought inside for you to use in your gardens next spring.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss ways you can save your annuals. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Annuals as houseplants?
  • Coleus, geraniums, tuberous begonias, and sweet potato vine are some of the annuals that we can bring indoors and use as houseplant over the winter.
  • How do you properly bring in plant material for the winter?
    • You can bring in the pot and treat it like a houseplant with indirect light, keeping it lightly watered.
    • You can treat it like a mother plant and take cuttings from it.
      • Put the cuttings in water in indirect light, as well, and plant them when you are ready. Keep in indirect light until they are ready to put out in the spring.
• Summer bulbs or tubers: Sweet potato vines, dahlias, cannas, and calls
  • How do you properly bring them indoors?
    • Dig them up and shake the dirt loose, but don't wash the tubers or introduce any moisture to them.
  • How do you store them for the winter?
    • Store them in a cool, dark place until February or so; then you can divide the tubers with a clean sharp knife and create even more plants than you started with.
• If you are looking for unusual or special bulbs, corms or tubers, now is the good time to look at online resources. Most mail-order places have a better variety than local stores and they will ship them in time for you to pot them up.
• Dahlia May Flower Farm will start taking orders soon: We encourage you to support smaller growers in your area and buy your plants from them.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw are joined by Bob Osborne, author of Hardy Apples: Growing Apples in Cold Climates, to talk about how to select, grow, and care for our apple trees in cold climates.

For over a decade, the gardening world has seen the continuous rise in popularity of growing your own food and food security. One of the most popular plants of this growing movement are apple trees, and if you live in the northern part of the country where winters can be long and unforgiving, hardiness is just as important as flavour.

About Bob Osborne Bob Osborne owns Corn Hill Nursery in New Brunswick, Canada. He is a gardening author, a columnist on CBC Radio and a member of several horticultural organizations.

Join Joanne and Matt as they welcome Bob Osborne, author of Hardy Apples: Growing Apples in Cold Climates. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us a bit about your background as a gardener.
• How did you start Corn Hill Nurseries?
• How are apple trees produced for wholesale/retail?
• What are the top cultivars you recommend for first-time apple growers in northern climates?
• In your book, you have a note on taste.
  • Can you share that with us?
• When at the garden center, what should customers look for when purchasing an apple tree?
• What should customers consider before planting an apple tree?
• It’s home and planted, now what?
  • How do we care for our apple tree?
• What are some of the common apple pests and diseases we’ll see no matter where you’re growing apples?
• In your dedication, you thank all the “apple explorers who are helping save countless cultivars from oblivion.”
  • Can you tell us more about those efforts?

Find Bob Osborne online:
Website: www.cornhillnursery.com
Facebook: @cornhillnursery
Instagram: @cornhillnursery

His book, Hardy Apples: Growing Apples in Cold Climates, is available for purchase on Amazon and Indigo.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

How's your lawn faring after these past few months of hot dry weather? As summer winds to a close, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss lawn care and lawn care alternatives.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss lawn care and lawn alternatives. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What should we be doing for our lawns in September?
• How do we apply nematodes?
• How do we fertilize at this time of year?
• Seeding and sodding; is now the time?
• What other activities can I do as temperatures cool and the lawn is healthy?
• What is biodiversity?
• What does “lawn alternative” stand for?
• What are some lawn alternatives?
• Do I have to make my lawn just one thing?
• How do incorporate some lawn alternatives into my existing lawn?
• How do I take care of lawn alternatives?

Resources mentioned during the show Down the Garden Path podcast – Grub Control
Natural Insect Control – www.naturalinsectcontrol.com
West Coast Seeds – www.westcoastseeds.com
Down the Garden Path podcast – Lawn Care: Artificial Turf
Toronto Flower Market appearance Saturday September 10th – www.torontoflowermarket.ca
Doug Tallamy’s book: Nature’s Best Hope.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing close off the month of August by answering listener questions about the seasonal stressors we're experiencing in our gardens.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss seasonal stressors in your August garden. 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

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

In this episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing answer questions about their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, on The Food Garden Life Show, a podcast hosted by Emma Biggs and Steven Biggs.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt answer questions about their book on The Food Garden Life Show. Steven and Emma ask Matt and Joanne a variety of questions:

• Tell us more about you and your podcast. How did you start working together?
• How do your approaches to gardening differ?
• What was the inspiration for a book that follows the seasons?
• What are your top tips from the book?

Listen to Steven and Emma on past Down the Garden Path podcasts: Talking Tomatoes

Growing Figs in Cold Climates

Growing Lemons

The Food Garden Life Show Find them online at www.foodgardenlife.com, on Instagram and Facebook.

You can also find Emma online here, as well as on Instagram.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw are joined by Mary Phillips, Head of Garden for Wildlife™ at the National Wildlife Federation. Mary discusses the Federation's wonderful initiatives and shares how we can play a part in growing a bright future for the monarch butterfly and many other iconic native wildlife species.

About Mary Phillips For eight years, Mary has led Garden for Wildlife™ and Certified Wildlife Habitat® as an ambassador for native plants. Her work ensures all habitat programs and resources are rooted in sustainable practices and the latest science. Since 1977, Garden for Wildlife has been the nation’s oldest and largest Backyard Habitat program generating and supporting millions of wildlife gardeners in North America.

Most recently, Mary helped launch the Garden for Wildlife Native Plants Collection™. The goal of this social enterprise is to increase the native plant supply, reduce carbon impacts, and secure the survival of iconic species, such as the monarch butterfly, native bees, and songbirds. The pilot launch in 2021, resulted in over 4,000 native plant collections sold in five months, 237,000 sq ft. of new garden habitat.

Join Joanne and Matt as they welcome Mary Phillips, Head of Garden for Wildlife™ at the National Wildlife Federation. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Tell us more about the Garden for Wildlife organization.
  • Can you describe the different habitat programs you have?
  • What are your native plant collections?
  • There are so many native plants which are not available to gardeners and the public. How is the Garden for Wildlife Native Plants Collection™ increasing the native plant supply?
  • How do you know which collection is right for you?
  • Can you describe how someone’s garden becomes a Certified Wildlife Habitat? Can Canadians get certified?
  • Do you ship to Canada?
  • Do you sell seeds?
• Monarch butterflies
  • What makes a species iconic?
  • Can you share with us what is happening with the monarch? Why are they getting so much attention this summer?
  • What should we all know about the life cycle of the monarch?
  • There is so much we can be doing to restore the native habitats for monarchs and other native wildlife populations. If we could do one thing after the show to help monarchs, what would you recommend?
• How do we get involved with native plants?
• Do you work with any Canadian wildlife organizations?
• What are some of the resources listeners can find on your website?
• Is there anything you’d like to bring to the attention of our listeners?

Find Garden for Wildlife™ online:
Website: www.gardenforwildlife.com
Facebook: @gardenforwildlife
Twitter: @garden4wildlife
Instagram: @gardenforwildlife
Pinterest: @gardenforwildlife
TikTok: @gardenforwildlife

Find National Wildlife Federation™ online:
Website: www.nwf.org
Facebook: @nationalwildlife
Twitter: @nwf
Instagram: @nationalwildlife
Pinterest: @nwfpins
YouTube: @nationalwildlife

Other resources discussed:
Canadian Wildlife Foundation – Similar Canadian Resources.
www.invasivespeciescentre.ca – Dog Strangling Vine information.
www.monarchjointventure.org

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week, Matt and Joanne present an encore presentation of their August in the Garden podcast from 2019.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss the do's and don'ts for your August garden. August can be a challenging month in the garden. The heat is unrelenting and the weeds are growing strong. It’s right around now that our plants can start to look a little tired or spent, and as gardeners, it can be a difficult time because we may be a little tired and spent ourselves!

In this episode, Matt and Joanne talk about the do’s and don’ts for the challenging August garden. From watering tips to weed and insect control, they cover it all.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw talk about native plants with Anna Fialkoff, the Ecological Programs Manager at Wild Seed Project in Portland, Maine.

Join Joanne and Matt as they discuss native plants with Anna Fialkoff of Wild Seed Project. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What does the Wild Seed Project do and why?
  • A non-profit to inspire people to grow native plants
  • Set people up for success with native plants in the landscape
  • Organize walks, talks and workshops
• Sell and promote native plant seeds
  • Easier to grow from seed as they don’t need as much coddling
  • Sow in the late fall and they will germinate in the spring
  • Use a potting mix with compost mixed with your soil
  • Sow them thickly in a 4.5" pot and put them outside with some sand and protect them from rodents
• Tell us about your pledge to rewild and your tree planting initiative.
  • Started in late 2020, helping people find the tools to plant natives and to be more mindful of their practices
  • Mindful practices – less mowing and blowing, unlearning old horticultural practices like cutting everything back in the fall
• Where do you ship to?
  • Currently only ship to the US.
• Are there any special events or items you’d like to promote?
  • Guide publications: Native Ground Covers for Northeast Landscapes and Native Trees for Northeast Landscapes

You can find the Wild Seed Project online at Wild Seed Project and on Facebook and Instagram.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This month on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw discuss the wide assortment of shrubs available for your gardens and landscapes. With so many wonderful new and tried-and-true shrubs on the market, they believe there are a few that deserve more attention. So, in this episode, they share some of the hidden gems you can find at your local independent garden centre.

Join Joanne and Matt as they discuss hidden gems you can find at your local garden centre. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• How do Matt and Joanne define a hidden gem?
• Joanne's favourites:
  • Microbiota or Russian Cypress, Microbiota decussata – zone 3-7, 6”-18” tall by 36” wide, evergreen, full sun to partial shade, burgundy bronze fall colour.
  • Carol Mackie Daphne, Daphne × burkwoodii 'Carol Mackie' – zones 4-8, 2-3’ tall by 3-4’ wide, semi-evergreen, partial shade, fragrant pale pink flowers in May.
  • Cutleaf Gold Elderberry, Sambucus racemosa ‘Lemony Lace’ – zones 3-7, 3-5’ tall by 4-6’ wide, deciduous, full sun to part shade, fragrant white flowers in May and June. Berries are sour but edible.
• Matt's favourites:
  • Low Scape series Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa cultivars from Proven Winners – zones 3-9, 1-5’ tall by 2-5’ wide, deciduous, white flowers in mid spring, edible dark purple berries and orange-red fall foliage. Berries are edible.
  • Tint Tuff Stuff Ah-ha Mountain Hydrangea, Hydrangea serrata ‘SMNHSDD’ – zones 5-9, 3’ tall and wide, deciduous, pink or blue lace cap flowers from summer through fall, with red fall colour.
  • Caryopteris or Bluebeard, Caryopteris cultivars – zones 5-9, 2-3’ feet tall and wide, deciduous, true blue flowers in late summer to fall.

Down the Garden Path Podcast Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

With summer well underway and many of us heading off to the cottage or to spend some time out in nature, Joanne and Matt help you identify some of the harmful plants you might find during your travels. In this episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, they discuss poisonous plants.

Join Joanne and Matt as they discuss poisonous plants. What are the common harmful plants when camping and hiking?

• Poison Ivy

Poison Ivy Dermatitis Causes * Poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac plants contain a compound called urushiol, which is a light, colourless oil that is found in the fruit, leaves, stem, roots, and sap of the plant. When urushiol is exposed to air, it turns brown and then black; plant leaves develop small black spots. * There are several ways that you can be exposed to urushiol: + By touching the sap or rubbing against the leaves of the toxic plant at any time of year + By touching something that has urushiol on it, such as animal fur or garden tools + By breathing in smoke when toxic plants are burned

After contact with urushiol, approximately 50 percent of people develop signs and symptoms of poison ivy dermatitis. The symptoms and severity differ from person to person.

The most common signs and symptoms of poison ivy dermatitis are: * Intense itching * Skin swelling and blisters * Skin redness

These symptoms usually develop within four hours to four days after exposure to the urushiol. After the initial symptoms, allergic individuals develop fluid-filled blisters in a line or streak-like pattern. The symptoms are worse within 1 to 14 days after touching the plant, but they can develop up to 21 days later if one has never been exposed to urushiol before.

The blisters can occur at different times in different people; blisters can develop on the arms several days after blisters on the hands developed. This does not mean that the reaction is spreading from one area of the body to the other. The fluid that leaks from blisters does not spread the rash. Poison ivy dermatitis is not contagious and cannot be passed from person to person. However, urushiol can be carried under fingernails and on clothes; if another person comes in contact with the urushiol, they can develop poison ivy dermatitis.

• Poison Sumac: Poison Oak and Poison Sumac.
  • Appearance: 10 to 15 ft tree
  • Where they can be found: Wet woodland area, moist acidic areas
  • How they grow
  • How to be safe around them

Other poisonous plants mentioned by listeners on the podcast: * Giant Hog Weed * Stinging Nettle * Water Hemlock * Night Shade * Ornamental Plants like Angels Trumpet and Castor Bean Plant

NOTE:
Any treatment mentioned during the show is not medical advice and is based on the personal experience of Joanne, Matthew, and their listeners of the podcast. If you encounter any of the plants mentioned during the show, please seek professional medical attention immediately! In case of an emergency, call 9-1-1.

Source: UpToDate and Poisonous Plants by F. Stary, Z. Berger

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This month on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing are talking about all the wonderful shrubs for your gardens and landscapes. In this episode, they discuss interesting evergreen shrubs.

Join Joanne and Matt as they discuss interesting evergreen shrubs. * What makes an evergreen interesting? * What is an evergreen? * Best practices when caring for your evergreens * Differences between an evergreen vs. a conifer? + Conifers are cone-bearing evergreens * Our listeners' favourite evergreens in the warmer climate * Interesting evergreens listeners should look for? + Golden Mop Threadleaf False Cypress – Chamaecyparis pisifera ‘ Golden Mops' + Fire Chief Cedar – Thuja occidentalis ‘FireChief' + Mr. Bowling Ball & Pancake Globe Cedar – Thuja occidentalis ‘Mr. Bowling Ball’ & T. occidentalis ‘Pancake’ + Moon Frost Canadian Hemlock – Tsuga canadensis ‘Moon Frost’ + Lime Glow Juniper – Juniperus horizontalis ‘Lime Glow’

Joanne and Matt answer listener questions on a variety of topics:

• Needle drop
• Wrapping and screening your evergreens
• Best evergreens for privacy

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing wrap up their look at perennials with an episode dedicated to some of their favourites. These hidden gems of the perennial garden work hard but are often overlooked.

Join Joanne and Matt as they reveal their top five perennial favourites. Joanne's hidden gems:

• Geum: Geum Triflorum
  • Zone 4
  • Part to full sun
  • Green foliage with small red-orange flowers on tall stems
• Bergenia: Bergenia Cordifolia aka Pig Squeak
  • Zone 4
  • Part shade
  • A clumping perennial with unique evergreen foliage
  • Flower spike in Spring
• Epimedium: Epimedium grandiflorum also known as Barrenwort or Bishop's Hat
  • A perennial groundcover, good for dry shade.
  • Inconspicuous flower but interesting leaf with nice fall colour.
• Ligularia: aka Leopard plant
  • Zone 4
  • Big interesting foliage with yellow flower spike
  • Grows in part to full shade
  • loves moisture and clay soil
• Amsonia x Blue Ice
  • Zone 3
  • An upright clump-forming perennial with pretty clusters of periwinkle blue flowers.
  • The truest blue flower
  • Full sun to part shade

Matt's hidden gems:

• Little Bluestem, Schizachyrium scoparium
  • North American native
  • Zones 3 – 7
  • Full sun to partial shade
  • Blue-green foliage gives way to fall colours lasting through the winter
• Beardtongue, Bearded-tongue, or Foxglove Beardtongue, Penstemon digitalis
  • North American native
  • Zones 3 – 7
  • Full sun to partial shade
  • Tall spikes of white, pinks and deep pinks over sturdy, upright, dark green foliage
• Turtlehead, Chelone obliqua & C. lyonia
  • North American native
  • Zones 3 – 9
  • Full sun to partial shade
  • Good for moist soils and bogs
  • Blooming late summer to mid-fall with hooded flowers which look like a turtle’s head in deep pinks and white.
• Lungwort, Pulmonaria hybrids
  • Native to Europe and western Asia
  • Zones 3 – 9
  • Full shade to partial shade
  • Tall clusters of flowers in late spring to early summer with pink buds turning bluish-pink, blue, purple
• Spigelia, Spigelia marilandica 'Little Redhead'
  • Native to eastern North America in along woodlands and streambanks
  • Zones 5 – 9
  • Full sun to partial shade, with very good shade tolerance
  • Blooms in late spring to mid-summer with upright, arching stems of upward-facing red trumpet flowers with yellow throats

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing look at two classic perennials that have long been staples in our gardens, phlox and campanula, commonly known as bellflowers. Whether you’re looking for a plant with some height, or one a little lower growing, these classics have got you covered.

Join Joanne and Matt as they look at perennial favourites phlox and campanula (aka bellflowers). Some of the questions and topics covered about phlox and campanula (aka bellflowers):

• What are the ideal growing conditions required?
• When do these perennials bloom?
• Popular choices for short and tall cultivars
• How to find them in the garden centre? Are they expensive?
• Where and how to use phlox and bellflowers in the landscape?

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

This month on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss some of their favourite perennials. They begin with a look at a versatile classic, sedums. From shrub substitute to colourful ground cover, it's hard not to have a spot in your garden for a spectacular sedum.

Joanne and Matt kick off the month with a look at sedums, a perennial favourite. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What is the best soil for sedums?
• Matt discussed the Sunsparkler Sedum series.
• The versatility of sedums in your landscape
• Sedum mats
  • available in 1 x 2 foot rectangles to quickly cover an area with a dense thick mat of sedums
• Joanne spoke about attending Toronto Botanical Garden's annual garden tour Through the Garden Gate, exploring the Wychwood area of Toronto
• Matt talked about attending the Oshawa Peony Festival

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now available on Amazon.

View Details

In this episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing kick off the month with a launch party to celebrate their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden.

Joanne and Matthew's new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, is now available on Amazon.* In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden***, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and 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.

Packed with timely seasonal tips for each month to help you create the low-maintenance garden of your dreams, Joanne and Matthew take the guesswork out of what to do and when to do it. You’ll get valuable information on a variety of topics they address each week in their Down the Garden Path podcast:

• How to grow a robust green lawn year-round.
• When to start seeds indoors and hardening-off young plants.
• Tips for choosing and caring for upright cedars.
• How and when to prune to get the most out of your plants.
• And much more.

Tune in to listen to their virtual launch party -- simulcast on Facebook Live and www.realityradio1010.com -- to learn more:

• Why did Joanne and Matt decide to write the book?
• What's inside?
  • How are the sections devised so gardeners can find the information they need quickly and easily?
    • Spring/Summer/Fall/Winter
  • What are Matt and Joanne's favourite sections?
• What are the larger sections of the book dedicated to?
  • Cedars
  • Fertilizing
  • Nematodes/White Grubs
  • Clematis
  • Spreading Grass Seed
  • Laying Sod
  • Lasagna Gardening
  • How to Do a Soil Test
  • Glossary

Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is your roadmap to creating and maintaining a low-maintenance, sustainable garden, and Joanne and Matthew want to help you make it happen.

Order your copy today!

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing wrap up May's focus on wonderful landscape shrubs with an "Ask Us Anything!" episode -- and an exciting announcement!

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt respond to listener questions. Some of the questions listeners asked:

• Is full sun considered to be 6 or 8 hours?
• What is the best way to naturally get rid of weeds in the grass?
• Is mulch the same as compost?
• What is the best way to raise pH levels in my garden soil?
• Can you please again review what the numbers on fertilizer bags mean? And what are the maximum fertilizer numbers that I can use for new grass seed?

Joanne and Matt also announce that their book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, is now available on Amazon.* In Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden***, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and 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.

Packed with timely seasonal tips for each month to help you create the low-maintenance garden of your dreams, Joanne and Matthew take the guesswork out of what to do and when to do it. You’ll get valuable information on a variety of topics they address each week in their Down the Garden Path podcast: * How to grow a robust green lawn year-round. * When to start seeds indoors and hardening-off young plants. * Tips for choosing and caring for upright cedars. * How and when to prune to get the most out of your plants. * And much more.

Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is your roadmap to creating and maintaining a low-maintenance, sustainable garden, and Joanne and Matthew want to help you make it happen. Order your copy today! They're throwing a launch party! Join Joanne and Matt as they simulcast live on Facebook and realityradio101.com to celebrate the release of their new book. You can win a copy of the book or some Down the Garden Path Podcast swag!

When: Monday, June 6th at 7 pm ET

Where: @downthegardenpathpodcast

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week, we present an encore presentation of our May in the Garden podcast from 2019.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matthew discuss the do's and don'ts for your May garden. May in the garden brings many inspiring ideas, but there are many not-so-inspiring May to-do's you will also need to get done to give your garden its best chance in the season ahead.

Joanne and Matthew discuss garden trends which feature some of May’s Stars of the Garden.

The Stars of the Garden plants for this month happen to be the plants of the year for 2019: Hosta, Shrub, Perennial and Annual of 2019.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing continue their look at flowering shrubs and explore the world of Deutzias and Diervillas, some gorgeous small to medium-sized shrubs with a lot to offer your landscape.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt talk about Deutzias and Diervillas. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What are Deutzias?
  • Where are they native?
  • What zone are they?
  • When do they flower?
  • How much do they cost?
• Popular cultivars of Deutzias:
  • Nikko Blush
  • Yuki Cherry Blossom
  • Yuki Snowflake
  • Crème Fraiche Deutzia
  • Pom Pom Deutzia

• How can we use them in the landscape?

• What are Diervillas?

  • Where are they native?
  • What zone are they?
  • When do they flower?
  • How much do they cost?
• Popular cultivars of Diervillas:
  • Kodiak series: Black, Red, Orange
  • Firefly Bush Honeysuckle
• How can we use them in the landscape?

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing continue their look at flowering shrubs, discussing a few classics and a couple of superstars you might be meeting for the first time. In this week's episode, they talk about viburnums.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt talk about viburnums. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What are viburnums?
  • Where are they native?
  • How hardy are they?
  • How big do they get?
  • Where can you find them?
  • How expensive are they?
• Popular species of viburnum:
  • European Snowball
  • Nannyberry
  • Summer Snowflake
  • Korean Spice
  • Highbush Cranberry and Compact Highbush Cranberry
  • Blue Muffin
  • Mariesii Doublefile
  • Cardinal Candy
  • Arrowwood

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing take a look at flowering shrubs, a few classics and a couple of superstars you might be meeting for the first time. In this week's episode, they talk about lilacs. Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt talk about lilacs. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What are lilacs?

• What are the different groups/types of lilacs and what makes them different?

  • general care, fertilizing, pruning, size colours, flowering time and use for each

• Common lilacs: French hybrids, Korean lilacs, Preston lilacs, Bloomerang

• Some of the pests and diseases common with lilacs
• Joanne and Matt tell us their favourites.
• How to use lilacs in the landscape.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designer Joanne Shaw wraps up "critter month" with the ultimate critter we would all love to have: chickens. Joanne welcomes Homestead Phil, the co-founder of Rent the Chicken.

About Rent the Chicken

Homestead Jenn and Phil are the co-founders of Rent the Chicken. It started as a way to earn supplemental income and is now full-time employment for both stretching across the United States and Canada. They feel blessed to be connected with many hard-working individuals that make Rent the Chicken successful. On their homestead, they raise chickens, meat rabbits, and ducks. Seeing the smiles on their renter's faces is what they look forward to when making deliveries for Rent the Chicken and Hatch The Chicken.

Don't miss Joanne's conversation with Homestead Phil from Rent the Chicken. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• How did you come up with the idea for Rent the Chicken?
  • Many people thought about having chickens in their garden and the benefits they bring, but what does it take to raise chickens from an egg or a peep?
• Tell us how Rent the Chicken works?
  • How much food do you need each day to feed the chickens?
• How old does the chicken need to be before it starts to lay eggs?
• What are some of the regulations around renting a chicken in the States? What about in Canada?
• Where would you recommend someone go to find out the regulations in their area?
• If there is a problem with the chicken, how easy is it to get a hold of Rent the Chicken for help?
• What happens if a predator or a disease causes the chicken to pass while in a renter’s care?
• Phil told us all about the other program offerings like Hatch the Chicken, Coops for Troops and the Give a Chicken program.

You can find Rent the Chicken online here, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing continue their "critter month" with a look into the soil and its diverse life. In this episode, they welcome Root Rescue's Bob Reeves to talk about how you can put little critters to use in your garden.

About Bob Reeves

Bob has come to believe that the secret to plant success is hiding in the soil beneath our feet. He began the Soil Health/Root Rescue project in 2005 with a discovery made at Reeves Florist & Nursery, his family's garden centre in Woodbridge, Ontario. Bob is the founder and CEO of Root Rescue Environmental Products. He also serves as a Soil Microbiome Advisor to Flash Forest, a leading innovator in drone-powered reforestation.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Root Rescue's Bob Reeves. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• How did Root Rescue get started?
• What is Root Rescue?
• What are mycorrhizae fungi and how do they work? Compared to fertilizer?
• Why are urban soils dead soils?
• Is there any harm to people or pets?
• How is Root Rescue different from other mycorrhizae products on the market?
• What can’t I use Root Rescue on?
• How often should I apply Root Rescue?

You can find Root Rescue online here, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing gear up for spring by taking a look at some garden products that will help you enjoy your garden to the fullest. In this episode, they welcome David Smorenburg from Upper Canada Organic Products to discuss their line of pest control products.

About David Smorenburg and Upper Canada Organic Products

David is the founder and president of Upper Canada Organic Products, Inc. Upper Canada Organic Products (U C Organic Products) has been a family-run business since 2002. They register, develop, and distribute the least-toxic pest control products in Canada and are a pioneer in bringing plant-based pest control products to Canada.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation on organic pest control with David Smorenburg. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• We first learned about you from a previous guest, Guy Ruccolo from Blue Star Nursery. He recommended your products, saying that he couldn’t keep them on the shelves.
• Tell us about Upper Canada Organic Products.
• U C Organic was instrumental in assisting the change to the Pest Control Products Act that made it easier for people or companies to bring low-toxic pest products to market in the future.
• Garlic juice and orange peel extract are two of the food-based items now available to Canadians for use to assist in controlling pests.
• What are the names of your popular products?
• How does your mosquito repellent work?
• How does the Orange Guard work?
• What other products do you have available?

You can find Upper Canada Organic Products online here, as well as on Facebook.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing continue March's edible gardening theme with a look into the ways we can make our vegetable gardens more beautiful with ideas on how to incorporate vegetables with our ornamental gardens.

This week, learn how to make your vegetable gardens more beautiful and explore ways to incorporate vegetables with ornamental gardens. Some of the topics covered:

• The “traditional rectangular or square vegetable garden” and how not everyone has that space; for those who do, the garden tends to only be attractive at certain times of the year.
  • • Make it more attractive by setting it in the lawn or using raised garden bed products for use on a patio or in a smaller space.
• Pay extra attention to raised beds with soil and water; they can be a great solution for beginners with less space.
• Learn about some vegetable beds that can be planted in the front yard.
  • Consider interesting shapes like a parterre
  • Or vegetables can be planted in between shrubs and perennials
• Use structures like obelisks or arbours to make use of vertical space while creating visual design features in the front or back.
• Fences can also be used by using chains for the plants to grow up or wall pockets to create a green wall on the fence, especially with herbs or lettuce.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing continue their month-long look at edible gardening by talking tomatoes with author, speaker, and blogger Emma Biggs. About Emma Biggs

Emma is a 16-year-old gardener, author, speaker, and blogger. Her passion is growing tomatoes, trying new, unusual crops, and saving seeds. She has raised over 150 tomato varieties in her Toronto garden and loves to try weird and wonderful plant projects. Emma gives talks at libraries, seed exchanges, garden clubs, and garden events. She is the co-host of The Food Garden Life Show, and her latest book is Gardening with Emma.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation on growing tomatoes with author Emma Biggs. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What are your top tips for starting tomatoes from seed?
• Do you have a favourite type of tomato to grow?
  • How do you grow them, in beds or containers?
• We know you grow a lot of varieties: How do you harden them all off to get them outside?
• How do you handle pests and diseases?
• What's your actual favourite tomato variety that everyone should grow?
• What do you do with all those tomatoes?
• Is there anything else that you like to grow?

You can find Emma online here, as well as on Instagram.

You can order her book Gardening with Emma here.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing begin their month-long look at edible gardening. In this episode, all-star guest Julia Dimakos returns to the podcast to discuss growing herbs and her new e-book How to Plan a Vegetable Garden, available now at www.juliadimakos.com

About Julia Dimakos

Julia gardens in 7000 square feet in Mono, Ontario, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style. She has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 10 years and has been published in Canadian Organic Grower magazine twice.

She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening. She enjoys teaching others, speaking, and holding workshops. You can read her blog at www.juliadimakos.com.

Don't miss our conversation on growing herbs with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What are the best conditions to grow herbs inside?
• What herbs are easiest to grow?
  • Easiest to grow: Dill, cilantro, basil, thyme, ginger (from store-bought rhizome), sweet marjoram
• Is it hard to start herbs from seed?
  • Harder to grow from seed: parsley, sage, oregano, lavender, savory (summer or winter), lemongrass
• Is it better to buy herbs for indoors vs. starting from seeds?
  • Better to purchase as a plant: rosemary, mint, lovage
• What conditions do we need to have to grow herbs outside?
• Is there a special fertilizer required for herbs?
• Should we use organic fertilizer when feeding herbs and other edibles?
• What are some of the common pests and diseases herbs are susceptible to?

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

You can also listen to past Down the Garden Path podcasts featuring Julia:

Growing Under Lights

Digging Deep with Veggies

Growing Indoors

Autumn Edibles

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing wrap up February's houseplant theme with an "Ask Us Anything!" episode.

Tune in to hear Joanne and Matt respond to listener questions. Some of the questions listeners asked:

• Does rock salt for ice hurt lawns?
• Are your past shows posted anywhere?
• After that beautiful flower blooms and dies off, what do I need to do to the plant?
• I already see that the home improvement stores have their spring fertilizer out. As soon as the snow melts, what is the earliest time to put this down on our lawns?
• When’s your book coming out?
• I want to plant a red maple in my yard this year. I live just outside of Toronto. What is the earliest that I can do so?
• My kids saw a seed package of giant pumpkins at the store the other day, and they want to grow them for this coming year's Halloween. Any tips or advice on how to do this properly? How soon can we put the seed in the ground? Do you need a lot of room? What about fertilizer?
• You had a gentleman on your show a while back talk about garden ponds. Can you please tell me his name or company?

Resources mentioned during the show:

• Where can we find past episodes?
• Air Plants with David Lin
• Tropical Plants and How to Love Them with Marianne Willburn
• Julia Dimakos's past two episodes: Growing Under Lights and Autumn Edibles
• Ernest Williams from Aquascape Inc. and his past shows: Water Garden Trends and Water Features for the Garden with Aquascape

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with author Marianne Willburn about her new book Tropical Plants and How to Love Them.

About Marianne Willburn

Marianne Willburn is a gardening columnist, speaker and author of Big Dreams, Small Garden, and one of the six-person writing team at GardenRant. A regular contributor to Better Homes and Gardens, The American Gardener, and other national gardening magazines, Marianne has also been a weekly newspaper columnist for over a decade and is the recipient of several Gold and Silver Media Awards from Garden Communicators International (formerly GWA).

She believes strongly that you should never wait for the ‘perfect space’ to create a restful garden oasis for yourself and your family; and she has spent much of her gardening life in small city and suburban gardens in places as diverse as California, England and the Mid-Atlantic. In 2013, she began gardening intensively and exhaustively on ten acres in a rural corner of Northern Virginia and shares her gardening life each week on her blog, smalltowngardener.com.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Marianne Willburn. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• How do you define a tropical plant?
• Why should we grow them?
• Summer romances
• Frugal gardens
• Bringing houseplants inside

You can find Marianne online here, as well as on Facebook and Instagram.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

It's all about houseplants this month on Down the Garden Path podcast. In this episode, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Kevin Tholenaars about his online houseplant business, www.plantsome.ca.

About Kevin Tholenaars

Plantsome co-founder and CEO Kevin Tholenaars moved to Port Moody, B.C., six years ago from the Netherlands. When Plantsome's founding team realized there were very clear signals that the needs of consumers in the archaic home and garden industry were not being met, the idea for Plantsome was born. In March of 2020, Plantsome opened its digital doors to the public -- right in the middle of a global pandemic! It was scary but it ended up being the right service at the right time. As people were forced to look closer to home for hobbies and things to keep them occupied, many flocked to plant care as a new obsession. Plantsome delivers tropical plants to homes all across Canada using sustainably sourced packaging and custom-designed boxes for safe transportation of plants. Plantsome also has an app that helps customers take care of their plants by sending watering and fertilizer alerts.

Don't miss Matt and Joanne's conversation with Kevin Tholenaars from Plantsome. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What is Plantsome?
• How did it get started?
• How do you order plants?
• Where do you ship to?
• How do you ship live plants with our varying temperatures?
• Are there any trends you’ve noticed people ordering?
• You also have an app. How does that work?

Find Plantsome online:

• Website: www.plantsome.ca
• Facebook: @plantsomeCA
• Instagram: @plantsome_ca

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing have been talking all about planning your garden, growing hydroponically, and growing anywhere you can squeeze in a plant! In this episode, returning guest Julia Dimakos discusses growing under lights and her new e-book How to Plan a Vegetable Garden, available now at www.juliadimakos.com

About Julia Dimakos

Julia started growing food after having children and fell in love with it! She gardens organically and tries to keep things simple while growing new and uncommon vegetables each year. Her garden is located in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Two years ago, Julia expanded her vegetable garden from 2000 to 7000 square feet, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style.

She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening. She enjoys teaching others, speaking, and holding workshops. You can read her blog at www.juliadimakos.com.

Don't miss our conversation on growing under lights with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• You’ve been growing under lights now for 10 years; was there a time you weren’t using lights to grow your plants? Why do plants do better with grow lights?
• When should someone consider adding lights to their space to help their plants?
• Julia answers listener questions regarding how close the plants are to the lights and how long the lights should be on.
• You use both LED and fluorescent lights with what you grow.
  • Do you find one works better than the other?
  • Do you recommend either LED or fluorescent depending on what you’re growing or is it more situational or a personal preference?
    • • What do you look for when purchasing a light?
      • Is there a best way to set them up when growing?
      • How does one know how long to leave their lights on?
• Can you describe your setup? Shelf units? Do you rotate plants onto different shelves?

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

You can also listen to past Down the Garden Path podcasts featuring Julia:

Digging Deep with Veggies

Growing Indoors

Autumn Edibles

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week’s episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Tyler Baras, chief science officer and co-founder of Area 2 Farms in Arlington, Virginia, about home hydroponics.

Tyler has a range of urban agricultural experiences from homesteading to commercial hydroponics. He has worked as a grower for 3 Boys Farm Inc., one of the first certified organic hydroponic farms in the United States. In 2015, Tyler wrote one of the best-selling hobby hydroponic books, DIY Hydroponic Gardens: How to Design and Build an Inexpensive System for Growing Plants in Water. In 2017, Tyler wrote Roadmap to Growing Leafy Greens and Herbs, an educational book for new growers and investors interested in commercial hydroponic production of leafy greens in greenhouses and indoor farms. In 2021, he wrote Home Hydroponics: Small-space DIY Growing Systems for the kitchen, dining room, living room, bedroom, and bath.

For more on Tyler Baras, please visit FarmerTyler.com.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Tyler Boras about home hydroponics. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• For people new to the term, what does it mean to grow hydroponically?
• Do you buy plants and transition them to water or can you start seeds in water?
• What are some of the things one should consider before starting a hydroponic set vs. growing in soil? Can anyone do it?
• If there isn’t any soil, how are our plants being supported in a hydroponic system?
• How do we feed our plants?
• What do you think of kits like “Click and Grow” or Aero Gardens, etc.?
• Can you tell us about some of the materials we’d need for a simple beginner setup? Are there DIY starter kits?
• Where can we buy the products for a DIY setup?
• For those of us who might be a bit more adventurous, are there any other items we could use to enhance our hydroponic setup?
• Your new book Home Hydroponics is filled with interesting DIY hydroponic projects. Tell us about how the book came about?
• What are some of your favourite projects?

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing talk about your plant and garden goals for 2022.

Tune in for help with your plant and garden goals for 2022. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• How do Matt and Joanne each plan their garden?
• What are the benefits of planning ahead, starting a garden plan for growing vegetables or flowering annuals for a cutting garden?
• How do you determine the goals for your garden and outdoor spaces?
• What tools are available for you to help you plan your garden?
  • journals, photos, etc.
  • seed catalogues or online ordering from seed companies
    • Ranunculus and Anemone bulbs
    • Peony roots
• Now is a good time to look at your ornamental garden and its winter interest.
  • What do you like in other gardens? How can you add it to your own garden for interest in the winter months?

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

Welcome to the new year and a new season of Down the Garden Path! In this week’s episode, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing review Garden Media Group’s 2022 Garden Trends Report with returning guest 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 33 years in business. Author of the annual Garden Trends Report, Dubow scouts the world for garden trends.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Katie Dubow, president of Garden Media Group, about the 2022 Garden Trends Report. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• Tell us about yourself and what you do for Garden Media Group.
• What else does Garden Media do to support the industry?
• The trends report is highly anticipated every year and it’s something Garden Media Group has published annually since 2001. How much work goes into producing the report and how are you able to spot trends?
• What was some of the thinking behind the report title this year: From Crisis to Innovation?
• Let’s walk through some of the main points that make up the Garden Trends report.
  • Shoppertainment
  • On-Demand Flowers
  • Living Television
  • Bridging the Gap

Click here to get your copy.

Find Garden Media Group online:

Website: www.gardenmediagroup.com

Facebook: Garden Media Group

Instagram: GardenMedia

LinkedIn: Garden Media Group

Twitter: GardenMedia

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In the final Down the Garden Path episode of the year, Matt and Joanne look at some of their favourite gift ideas for the gardeners in your life, or maybe even for yourself.

Looking for gift ideas for the gardener in your life? Here are some of Joanne and Matt's favourites. Joanne's favourite gift ideas for gardeners:

• Floratopia by Jan Johnson
• Tiny Plants by Leslie Halleck
• Dahlia May Florals calendar
• Forged pocket pruner
• Radius Ergonomic Shovels
• Sun Joe electric leaf shredder

Matt's favourite gift ideas for gardeners:

• The Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal
• The Whole Seed Catalog
• Garden kneeler
• Hori Hori knife
• Tool sharpener
• Root slayer carbon steel trowel and shovel
• Wheelbarrow organization shelf

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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. And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In the second-last episode of Down the Garden Path for the year, Matt and Joanne take a look back at the popular topics and guests of 2021.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt as they take a look back at the popular topics and guests of 2021 on the Down the Garden Path podcast.

They also answer some listener questions:

• What does girdling mean as it refers to gardening?
• Are there any weeds that are good for your garden?
• Can you explain what the three numbers in fertilizer mean?
• What's the best way to lower the pH level in your lawn and garden?

Looking for the perfect gift for the gardener on your list? Tune in next week for Garden Gift Ideas.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome author Sarah Battersby to discuss the 2022 Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal, now celebrating its 30th year. This wonderful publication will help both you and your garden stay organized for the new year.

About Sarah BattersbyAlong with coaxing anything to grow in her dry-shade city rock garden, Sarah has been carving a cultivated space out of a forest of lilacs and sumachs at her schoolhouse in Hastings County for 30 years. Sarah got the gardening bug with indoor plants as a teenager, co-writes at TorontoGardens.com and is particularly interested in planting for wildlife and for scent. She wishes she’d never planted that goutweed.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Sarah Battersby, co-author of The Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener's Journal. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• How did the garden journal start?
• How did you and your sister Helen become involved?
• Tell us about the digital sourcebook.
• How is the book's creator, Margaret Bennet-Adler, still involved?
• What feedback have you received from last year which prompted changes this year?

To purchase a copy, visit GardenJournals.ca.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome David Lin, owner of Dave’s Air Plant Corner, to learn how to grow and care for this interesting and wonderful group of houseplants.

About David Lin

David has been growing Tillandsia for more than seven years, and as soon as he started collecting them, he was hooked! His goal is to share these amazing plants with more people and hopefully, everyone can take a breather from their busy life and admire the unique beauty and characters of air plants.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with David Lin from Dave's Air Plant Corner. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• Tell us why you think air plants are so cool.
• What exactly is a “Tillandsia”?
• Do you remember what the first Tillandsia you purchased was?
• How do our Canadian listeners get plants from your shop?
• When buying air plants, what should you look for to make sure you’re getting good air plants?
• How do we care for air plants once we get them home?
• Is there anything special we need to grow air plants?
• What’s the best way to display air plants?
• What are some of your favourite air plants?
• Tell us about ‘Botanical Toronto’ this Saturday, November 27

Where to find Dave's Air Plant Corner: * www.davesairplantcorner.com * Facebook: Dave's Air Plant Corner * YouTube: Dave's Air Plant Corner * Instagram: @davesairplantcorner

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome Joe Salemi, Deputy Executive Director of Ontario’s premier horticultural trades association, Landscape Ontario. Joe shares the many opportunities a trade association like Landscape Ontario has for landscape professionals and addresses some of the issues currently facing the landscape industry.

About Joe Salemi

Joe is a people-first leader with over 18 years in the professional landscape industry, a career culminating in the observation of the challenges and barriers landscape horticulture business owners face daily. Joe has a combined background with trade association management and driving a vertical market software company. He is a sales leader and product specialist, with a high degree of marketing prowess who focuses on developing relationships for mutual benefit. Joe’s passion is helping companies build efficiencies, increase capacity, and boost profits.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with Joe Salemi from Landscape Ontario. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What is Landscape Ontario?
• What is the benefit to the customers of hiring Landscape Ontario members?
• How do you become a member of Landscape Ontario?
• Professional development opportunities, apprenticeship, and certification.
  • Skills Advance Ontario: second year, test pilot – www.growoutdoors.ca
• Labour crisis management
  • industry hiring hall concept
  • apprenticeship
  • foreign labour
• Landscape Ontario Congress, IPM symposium, and landscape designer’s conference
• Covid-19 task force

Where to find Landscape Ontario: * www.landscapeontario.com * Facebook: Landscape Ontario * Twitter: @green_for_life * LinkedIn: Landscape Ontario * YouTube: Landscape Ontario * Instagram: @landscapeontario

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome landscape designer and author Jan Johnsen to learn more about her book Floratopia - 110 Flower Garden Ideas for Your Yard, Patio, or Balcony. Her latest book is packed with colourful photos exploring the many flower varieties for spaces of all sizes and addresses common gardening questions, with great tips for gardeners of all skill levels.

Jan Johnsen began her professional life in Japan in a landscape architecture office. She has been a principal in the landscape design firm Johnsen Landscapes and Pools, based in Westchester NY, for more than 30 years. Her natural design approach is evident in the landscapes that she shares in her books: Heaven is a Garden, The Spirit of Stone, and Gardentopia. And of course, the book we’re going to talk about today: Floratopia.

Don't miss Joanne and Matt's conversation with landscape designer and author Jan Johnsen. Some of the questions and topics covered:

• What inspired your latest book ‘Floratopia’?
• The format change is different from your earlier books. Why is that?
• Tell us about your other books.
• Your book is filled with so many wonderful tips, one of them being the benefit of not cutting plant material back.
• Does every design you do involve a pool?
• The use of annuals in the landscape and the value they add to the garden
• Dutch landscape designer Piet Ouldof’s garden design tips
• Claude Monet designed the gardens he painted.
• What are some of your favourite perennials to use in containers?
• The power of umbel-shaped flowers.
• When you do a design, do you spec annuals for a landscape?
• Deer-resistant, not deer-proof, flower gardens and plants: what can we plant?
• Jan is startig a new online course touring her gardens and sharing her knowledge in the spring of 2022.

Where to find Jan Johnsen online: * www.janjohnsen.com * Facebook: The Spirit of Stone and Heaven Is A Garden * >Twitter: @janjohnsen23 * Pinterest: Jan Johnsen * YouTube: Jan Johnsen * Instagram: @johnsendesign

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome horticulturist and author Leslie Halleck. Tune in as they discuss Leslie's latest book, Tiny Plants, and explore the fascinating world of tiny indoor plants, inspiring you to creatively get growing indoors.

Leslie began her career in horticulture in 1992, where she worked at and helped run a retail plant nursery while operating her own small gardening business. In December 1998, she started at the Dallas Arboretum and Botanical Garden as Curator of Plants, and then Director of Horticulture Research. One of her specific duties included the creation of their nationally recognized plant trials program and gardens, design, and plant selection for all the display gardens, plant collections management, teaching, and website development.

In 2000, Leslie launched Halleck Horticultural which she operated in addition to her position at the Dallas Arboretum. For almost a decade, Halleck Horticultural has provided a variety of services to the green industry, including horticultural consulting, marketing, and branding plants and development -- as well as garden center design -- and consulting. Leslie has won multiple awards for writing, creative direction, and marketing from the Turf & Ornamental Communicators Association, including the coveted Gardner Award for Writing in 2017.

Don't miss our conversation on tiny plants with author Leslie Halleck. * Leslie shared that during an internship in Puerto Rico to study the effects of Hurricane Hugo. she discovered a colony of tiny orchids (Lepanthes rupestris) growing and this led to a lifelong interest in “tiny plants” and inspired her latest book. * Tiny Plants are defined as species that are genetically determined to grow under 6 inches. * During the show, Leslie breaks down the basic plant classification based on how plants grow and uses that to explain the differences in a variety of “tiny” plants in the book. * These classifications help us to determine how to best group these plant types together, and the best way in our indoor environments (e.g., window sills vs grown under glass) * The book outlines some great ways to display our tiny plants * What is the difference between a terrarium and a cloche? * Leslie answers some listener questions about indoor lighting and bonsai and tells us about the Garden Society Project.

Where to find Leslie Halleck online: * You can order all of her books (Tiny Plants, Gardening Under Lights, Plant Parenting) on her website: www.lesliehalleck.com * Twitter: @lesliehalleck * Pinterest: lesliehalleck * YouTube: lesliehalleck * Instagram: @lesliehalleck

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

Every fall on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw review the benefits of not cleaning up the garden as plants and leaf debris overwinter many beneficial insects. There are, however, some pest concerns in the garden you can take steps to manage now. In this episode, Joanne and Matt discuss a few major garden pests which have been causing some trouble in their own gardens, some of which you may have heard of and some new ones.

Tune in to learn more about what you can do to manage pests in your garden. Matt and Joanne discuss:

• Gypsy moth, also known as LD Moth
• When to use BTK to kill the caterpillars and how and when to get the traps to kill the adult male moths.

• Some things you can do to prevent the caterpillars from boxwood tree moth.

• Boxwood blight:

  • Life cycle, controls, what to look for in the garden. There is no known treatment for blight.
  • If infested, it is important to remove and destroy plants and disinfect your garden tools, etc.
  • Identify and manage common problems with boxwoods
• Recommendations when bringing houseplants inside, common pests and their control.

Resources mentioned in the show:

https://onnurserycrops.com/author/jenllewellyn/

https://landscapeontario.com/box-tree-moth-help

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Thanks for listening! Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome Guy Ruccolo, the owner of Blue Star Nursery, a gardening centre located in Windsor, Ontario.

Don't miss our conversation with Guy Ruccolo, owner of Blue Star Nursery. Guy answers a few of our questions:

• What's your background in the industry?
• How did you come to own Blue Star Nursery?
• What happens each season at Blue Star? Can you give us a year-at-a-glance look?
• Tell us about the products you carry at your garden centre. Do you grow your own plants?
• How do you find climate change affecting the plants we’re selecting and planting?
• Do you warranty your plants? (The unpredictable weather has affected plants so much that now they are warrantying regular-priced plants until Nov 1st.)
• What do you do with the plant material you don’t sell by the end of the year?
• What is the effect of certain bans on insecticides on plant choices?
• How have you found the pandemic has affected the horticulture industry?
• What have your biggest challenges been over the last year and a half with Covid-19?
• What are some of the new and hot plants your customers are asking for?

Guy said the hot trend this year is fruit trees, especially the four-in-one fruit tree!

He also recommended applying nematodes on your lawn to address grubs. The Windsor area is currently being hit hard by them. Mosquito Barrier (made with Californian Garlic Juice) is amazing for treating your yard for mosquitos and can even help with Japanese beetles.

Here are Guy's plant recommendations for 2022: * Firelight Tidbit Hydrangea– new dwarf paniculata hydrangea * Summer Crush Hydrangea– intense “ red” macrophyla hydrangea * Firefly Nightglow Diervilla – Native Pollinator, Burgundy Foliage with yellow flowers, part shade to shade * Brandywine Maple– Acer Rubrum, seedless 30ft Maple tree

You can find Blue Star Nursery online at www.bluestarnursery.com.

To learn more about how to apply nematodes, listen to our episode Applying Nematodes.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw discuss how to keep your roses protected all winter long. Different roses require varying levels of care and protection. Listen to this week's podcast for tips on keeping your roses growing beautifully every year.

Tune in to learn more about how you can best protect your roses over the winter months. * What are the types of roses? + Hybrid tea, floribunda, grandiflora, shrub roses (knock out roses), carpet roses, miniature * What are some ways you can protect your roses for the winter? + Learn how to mound your roses for the winter. + What is a rose cone? Is it better than mounding a rose? + What are some ways you can protect your rose from rodents and rabbits? * When should you wake up your roses for the season? * How should you prune each rose in the spring for its best start? * How can you protect your roses from pests and diseases like Japanese beetles and black spot * Answers to your frequently asked questions about climbing roses * How much sun do roses really need to be successful? * Learn the importance of confirming the size of the mature rose bush and leaving space for it to grow; this allows for good air circulation. * It's okay to remove a struggling rose bush and replace it with a more disease-resistant variety.

Past shows:

Japanese Beetles
Applying Nematodes

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw discuss "lasagna gardening."

Lasagna gardening helps you build healthy soil, even in the most challenging locations and without the back-breaking labour. Whether you're growing beautiful flowers or tasty vegetables, lasagna gardening is a great way to easily give your plants healthy living soil.

Tune in to learn more about "lasagna gardening." * What is lasagna gardening? * When is the best time to start your lasagna garden and why? * What tools and materials do you need to build a lasagna garden? * How long does it take to put together a lasagna garden? * How long does it take until the lasagna garden is ready to use? * What are some of the pros and cons of lasagna gardening?

Past shows:

My Fall Landscaping Project, November 2016

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome returning guest Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos to discuss autumn edibles and her gardening endeavors for 2021. Even though the days are getting shorter, Julia shares some of the wonderful edibles you can still plant for a late-season harvest and to help us get ready for next spring.

About Julia Dimakos

Julia started growing food after having children and fell in love with it! She gardens organically and tries to keep things simple while growing new and uncommon vegetables each year. Her garden is located in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Two years ago, Julia expanded her vegetable garden from 2000 to 7000 square feet, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style.

She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening. She enjoys teaching others, speaking, and holding workshops. You read her blog at www.juliadimakos.com.

Don't miss our conversation on autumn edibles with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos. Julia answers a few of our questions:

• In February you mentioned you were expanding the garden. How many square feet is it this year, and what did you plant in your expansion?
• In February, we talked about all the wonderful vegetables you were growing for 2021. What were some of the plants you were most excited to grow this year and how did they turn out?
• What were some of the challenges you faced in the garden this year?
• How do we know when late-season fruit and vegetables, like melons and pumpkins, are ready?
• What can we start growing in September for a mid-to-late fall harvest?
• What should we be planting now for next year?

Julia also answered a wide range of listener questions.

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

You can also listen to past Down the Garden Path shows featuring Julia:

Digging Deep with Veggies

Growing Indoors

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw cover a variety of gardening topics in their September Grab Bag podcast. Join them as they answer listener questions and share with you what is happening in the garden centre and in their own gardens.

Some of the topics they cover in the September Grab Bag podcast: * What's happening in each of their gardens * garlic * bulb planting * fall plants * lawn-to-do's

Coming up next week: September 20th: Fall vegetable gardening with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this last Down the Garden Path podcast of August, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw wrap up the summer months by getting your questions answered!

Matt and Joanne conclude their month-long discussion of popular flowering trees in the landscape, and their summer of deep dives into the perennial, shrub, and tree staples of our landscapes covering a few trees they didn't discuss in previous episodes and then focus on your gardening dilemmas.

Tune in this week as Joanne and Matt finish their discussion on trees and answer listener questions. Learn more about:

• Ornamental Flowering Cherry tree - Prunus spp.
  • Kwanzaan Cherry tree - large ornamental cherry tree (30x30 ft)
  • Mount Fuji Cherry tree
• Redbud - Cercis canadensis. Native shrub/tree
  • Different cultivars: Weeping Redbud, Lavender Twist Redbud, Forest Pansy
• Tulip Tree - Liriodendron tulipfera

Past tree-related episodes: Trees: Native Trees

Trees: Japanese Maples

Trees: Questions & Answers

Trees: Native Tree Care

Trees in the June Garden

Upcoming Shows: September 6th: Encore presentation of September in the Garden

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw continue their month-long discussion of popular flowering trees with a look at some of the other popular flowering tree cultivars we often see in the landscape.

Tune in this week as Joanne and Matt discuss:

• The following popular flowering tree groups, their preferences, size, zones, and recommended cultivars:
  • Crab Apple – Malus spp.
  • Ivory Silk Lilac – Syringa reticulata.
  • Magnolia – Magnolia spp.
  • Ornamental Flowering Pear – Pyrus spp.
  • Serviceberry – Amelanchier alnifolia.
  • Serviceberry – Amelanchier canadensis.
  • Serviceberry – Amelanchier x grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’
  • Tartarian Maple – Acer tartaricum.

Joanne and Matt also answer some listener questions:

• What is a cultivar?
• What are grafted trees?
• How can you reduce stress to your trees?
  • What are the best practices to reduce the stress?
• How do you choose a fruit tree?

Past tree-related episodes: Trees: Native Trees

Trees: Japanese Maples

Trees: Questions & Answers

Trees: Native Tree Care

Trees in the June Garden

Upcoming Shows: August 30th: Your Questions, Our Answers

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw continue their month-long discussion on flowering trees with a look at some of the popular flowering species of dogwood.

Tune in to learn more about how to successfully include dogwoods in your garden. Joanne and Matt discuss:

• Where does the term ‘dogwood’ come from?
• Common species, their popular cultivars, and growing conditions of the dogwoods found in garden centres (soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering)
• Is the fruit that appears on dogwoods edible?
• When do dogwoods need to be pruned?
• How do you propagate dogwoods?
• What are some of the plants they combine well within the landscape?

Past tree-related episodes: Trees: Native Trees

Trees: Japanese Maples

Trees: Questions & Answers

Trees: Native Tree Care

Trees in the June Garden

Upcoming Shows: August 23rd: Large Flowering Trees

August 30th: Your Questions, Our Answers

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw continue their month-long discussion on flowering trees with a look at some of the medium-sized flowering landscape specimens.

Tune in to learn more about how to incorporate medium-sized flowering trees in your garden. Joanne and Matt pick up where they left off last week and expand their answers to some questions they are were unable to explore fully:

• What is considered a “standard” flowering tree?
• How are standard, or small flowering trees, formed?
• Where do we measure the height of a standard tree?
• How are we using them in the landscape?
• Some cultivars of standard flowering shrubs include:
  • Lilac, European Snowball Viburnum, Rose of Sharon, Flowering Crab Apple, Dapple Willow

Past tree-related episodes: Trees: Native Trees

Trees: Japanese Maples

Trees: Questions & Answers

Trees: Native Tree Care

Trees in the June Garden

Upcoming Shows: August 16th: Flowering Dogwoods

August 23rd: Large Flowering Trees

August 30th: Your Questions, Our Answers

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw start the month exploring a new topic on Down the Garden Path: flowering trees. In this episode, they begin with a look at small flowering trees, which are referred to as standard trees.

Tune in to learn more about how to incorporate standard flowering trees in your garden. Joanne and Matt discuss:

• What is considered a “standard” flowering tree?
• How are standard, or small flowering trees, formed?
• Where do we measure the height of a standard tree?
• How are we using them in the landscape?
• Some cultivars of standard flowering shrubs include:
  • Hydrangea, Ninebark, Weigela, Weeping Pea Shrub, Smoke Bush, Flowering Almond, Rose trees, Cotoneaster
• Other non-flowering standard forms:
  • Junipers, Nest Spruce, Globe Blue Spruce

Upcoming Shows: August 9th: Happy Birthday Questions & Answers

August 16th: Flowering Dogwoods

August 23rd: Large Flowering Trees

August 30th: Your Questions, Our Answers

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw explore some of the most popular shrubs to grace nursery benches and gardens. In this episode, they take a look at weigelas, their colourful foliage, seasons of bloom, and the different sized cultivars to fit perfectly in any garden.

Tune in to learn more about how to successfully grow weigelas in your garden. Joanne and Matt discuss:

• How to pronounce weigelas
• Growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
• Blooming: type, when and for how long, what colours
• Their use and value to the perennial garden
• Cultivars of note for each plant

Enjoy last year's Down the Garden Path podcast episodes on shrubs: Shrubs: Pruning - July 9th, 2020

Shrubs: Evergreens - July 15th, 2020

Hydrangeas - July 16th, 2018

Shrubs: Nativars - July 28th, 2020

Upcoming Shows: August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw explore some of the most popular shrubs to grace nursery benches and gardens. In this episode, they discuss the many colourful ninebarks, their multiple seasons of interest, and the different cultivars which fit perfectly in any garden.

Tune in to learn more about how you can include ninebarks in your garden. Matt and Joanne review:

• Ideal growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
  • Full sun to part shade for best colour
  • Quick growing
  • Zones 2-9
  • Transplant well as they are very adaptable to different soil conditions
  • Heights range from three to six feet depending on cultivar with steps arching as they mature
• Blooming: type, when and for how long, what colours
  • Bloom in late spring to early summer with white or pink button-type flowers
• Their use and value to the perennial garden
  • Interesting seed heads remain after flowering
• Native to North America, Ninebark's cultivars include:
  • Old fashioned Diablo
  • Amber Jubilee Ninebark
  • Little Devil Ninebark
  • Tiny Wine Ninebark
  • Tiny Wine Gold Ninebark
  • Summerwine Ninebark
  • Coppertina Ninebark
  • Lemon Candy Ninebark
  • Dart’s Gold Ninebark

Enjoy last year's Down the Garden Path podcast episodes on shrubs: Shrubs: Pruning

Shrubs: Evergreens

Shrubs: New for 2020

Shrubs: Nativars

Upcoming Shows: August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw explore some of the most popular shrubs to grace nursery benches and gardens. In this episode, Matt and Joanne finish up where they left off in last week's conversation about hydrangeas.

To listen to Hydrangeas Part One, click here.

Tune in for the second in a two-part series on hydrangeas. In Hydrangeas: Part 2 – Panicle and Mountain, Joanne and Matt discuss:

• Hydrangea growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
• Blooming: type, when and for how long, what colours
• Their use and value to the perennial garden
• Cultivars of note for each plant
  • Paniculata Hydrangea cultivars
  • Limelight Hydrangea
  • Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangea
  • Phantom Hydrangea
  • Quickfire Hydrangea
  • Smaller varieties of Paniculata Hydrangea are
  • Little Lime Hydrangea
  • Little Quickfire Hydrangea
  • Bobo Hydrangea
  • Little Lime Hydrangea
• Serrata Hydrangea cultivars
  • Tuff Stuff Hydrangea
  • Beni-Gaku Hydrangea
  • Smaller varieties:
    • Tiny Tuff stuff
    • Tiny Tuff Stuff Red
    • Tiny Tuff Stuff Aha

Enjoy last year's Down the Garden Path podcast episodes on shrubs: Shrubs: Pruning

Shrubs: Evergreens

Shrubs: New for 2020

Shrubs: Nativars

Upcoming Shows: August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw take a deep dive into some of the most popular shrubs which grace the nursery benches and our gardens. In this episode, they begin their discussion with a two-part series on hydrangeas.

Tune in for the first in a two-part series on hydrangeas. In Hydrangeas: Part 1 – Annabelle & Oakleaf, Joanne and Matt discuss:

• Growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
• Blooming: type, when and for how long, colours
• Cultivars of note for each plant
• Annabelle or Hydrangea arborescens cultivars
  • Hydrangea arborescens Incrediball
  • Hydrangea arborescens Invincibelle Spirit
  • Hydrangea arborescens Invincibelle Limetta
• Oakleaf Hydrangea or Hydrangea quercifolia cultivars
  • Hydrangea quercifolia Alice
  • Hydrangea quercifolia Pee Wee
  • Hydrangea quercifolia Ruby Slippers

Enjoy last year's Down the Garden Path podcast episodes on shrubs: Shrubs: Pruning

Shrubs: Evergreens

Shrubs: New for 2020

Shrubs: Nativars

Upcoming Shows: August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw wrapped up their deep dive into some of the colourful and resilient staples of the perennial garden with a look at a favourite of many, perennial geraniums, or cranesbills.

Tune in to learn more about perennial geraniums. Matt and Joanne explain:

• the difference between hybrid, cultivar and variety; this is consistent across all the perennials discussed this month.
• how they are different plants from the annual geraniums or pelargoniums, the popular bedding plant.

Matt gives a great overview of :

• Growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
• Blooming: the type, when and for how long, and what colours to expect
• Their use and value to the perennial garden
• Cultivars of note for each plant, including, but not limited to:
  • Geranium macrorrhizum (Bigroot Geranium)
  • Geranium sanguineum (Bloody Cranesbill)
  • Geranium Rozanne

Check out Joanne’s pictures of her Rozanne and the cuttings she shared with a neighbour in the past two years on the @downthegardenpathpodcast Instagram account.

Joanne and Matt answered listener questions about Rozanne: Is it invasive? Does it grow in the shade? Tune in to hear their answers to these questions and more!

Enjoy past perennial Down the Garden Path podcast episodes: Intro to Perennials

Perennials: Peonies

Perennials: Groundcovers

Perennials: Ornamental Grasses

Perennials: Attracting Beneficial Insects

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

Upcoming Shows: July: A month dedicated to popular shrubs, including hydrangeas, ninebarks and weigela.

August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on the podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw take a deep dive into some of the colourful and resilient staples of the perennial garden. Last week on Down the Garden Path, they examined Echinacea & Rudbeckia, and in this episode, they discuss perennial foliage plants.

No garden is complete without some interesting perennial foliage. Tune in as Matt and Joanne discuss:

• Their favourite perennial foliage plants.
  • Matt’s choices include: Ligularia, Rodgersia, Bugbane (Actaea), Lamium, Carpet Bugle, Kirengeshoma, Mukdenia, Mudgenia, Heuchera/Tiarella/Heucherella, Pulminaria, Sedum
• Growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting, watering.
• Blooming: Type, when and for how long, what colours.
• Use and value to the perennial garden.
• Cultivars of note for each plant.

Enjoy past perennial Down the Garden Path podcast episodes: Intro to Perennials

Perennials: Peonies

Perennials: Groundcovers

Perennials: Ornamental Grasses

Perennials: Attracting Beneficial Insects

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

Upcoming Shows: June 28th: Pernnial Geraniums

July: A month dedicated to popular shrubs, including hydrangeas, ninebarks and weigela.

August: A month dedicated to flowering trees, including standard trees, flowering dogwoods and large flowering trees.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw take a deep dive into some of the colourful and resilient staples of the perennial garden. Last week's topic was Salvias and Speedwells and in this episode, they discuss Echinacea & Rudbeckia, also known as Purple Coneflower and Black-eyed Susan.

Tune in to learn more about Echinacea & Rudbeckia. Discover useful information about each plant, including:

• Growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting, watering.
• Blooming: type of blooms, when & for how long, what colours.
• Use and value of each to the perennial garden.
• Cultivars of note for each plant.

Matt and Joanne also answer some great listener questions about perennials:

• How deep should you plant in the garden?
• What does dead-heading mean?
• What are the best perennials and annuals to grow in the shade?
  • Suggested perennials: Brunnera, Lungwort, Tiarella, Bugbane, Columbine
  • Suggested annuals: Begonias, Calla lilies, Impatiens, Wishbone

Enjoy past perennial Down the Garden Path podcast episodes: Intro to Perennials

Perennials: Peonies

Perennials: Groundcovers

Perennials: Ornamental Grasses

Perennials: Attracting Beneficial Insects

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw take a look at salvias and speedwells, the colourful and resilient staples of the perennial garden.

Tune in and learn more about how to include salvias and speedwells in your garden. Perennial Salvias (also known as “sage”) are a must-have for the garden border, blooming early summer to autumn! Planted in the spring, these aromatic beauties are great for cutting and beloved by bees and butterflies. They are drought-tolerant, too.

Surprisingly, they are in the mint family and also related to the kitchen herb, garden sage. They grow well across many zones and are available in different shades of purple, pink and white. As an added bonus, they stay upright without splitting in the center.

Matt and Joanne discuss:

• The growing conditions: soil, temperature, zones, lighting and watering
• Blooming: type, when and for how long and the colours
• Use and value to the perennial garden
• Cultivars of note for each plant
• The Color Spires and Profusion series from Proven Winners.

Speedwell (Veronica) is an easy-to-grow perennial with long tall spikes of small petals in different shades of blue, purple, pink, or white. Speedwells are a little shorter than salvias and some varieties are even prostrate, offering more of a ground cover.

Matt and Joanne discuss:

• The growing conditions: it grows best in full sun and best be deadheaded to extend bloom
• The Magic Show series from Proven Winners

Enjoy past perennial Down the Garden Path podcast episodes: Intro to Perennials

Perennials: Peonies

Perennials: Groundcovers

Perennials: Ornamental Grasses

Perennials: Attracting Beneficial Insects

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path, Matt and Joanne welcome returning guest Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos to discuss digging deep with veggies.

Julia started growing food after having children and fell in love with it! She gardens organically and tries to keep things simple while growing new and uncommon vegetables each year. Her garden is located in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Two years ago, Julia expanded her vegetable garden from 2000 to 7000 square feet, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style.

Julia has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 10 years and has been published twice in the Canadian Organic Grower magazine. She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening.

Don't miss our conversation on "digging deep with veggies" with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos. Julia answers a few of our questions:

• How is your garden doing?
• What did you do to prepare?
• Once everything is planted in the vegetable garden, do you have advice for what to do next?

Julia discusses her favourite tomato varieties and helps Joanne understand the difference between determinate and indeterminate tomato plants.

She also gives some excellent advice on growing lettuce and answers a listener's question about growing strawberries.

There's so much valuable information in this show, you won't want to miss it!

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw take a look at new and unusual annuals in the garden and the best way to care for them.

Joanne and Matt discuss new and unusual annuals and how to care for them. Some of the topics include:

• What’s the difference between annuals and perennials?
• How do we take care of our annuals in the garden?
  • Conditions that need consideration: light, soil, watering, fertilizing
• What’s happening in the garden centres with the availability of annual plants.
• What are some of the new annuals for 2021?

Listener questions and feedback:

• What are some annuals that spread?
• Why has the price of annuals increased this year?
• What are the best hardy annuals?
• Listeners weighed in about whether they put their annuals in pots or the ground.
• Do you have any recommendations for soil additives for annuals?

Matt and Joanne also discuss the importance of water for annuals and how simply putting the right annual in the right spot can lead to greater success.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

May is a busy gardening month as we prepare our gardens for a new season. But what about ourselves? How we get ready to garden is just as important. This week on Down The Garden Path, we’re joined by chiropractor Dr. Geoff Smith with the tips and tricks we need to keep ourselves safe, healthy, and happy while working in our gardens. Dr. Geoff Smith is a chiropractor with 20 years of experience. He is the proud owner of Oshawa South Chiropractic Clinic and a team member at the Clarington Rehabilitation Clinic. Gardening injuries have been a common source of patients during his years of practice. He enjoys helping people keep up with their gardening adventures. Geoff’s passions lay in the world of health and fitness. He is an avid trail runner and exercise enthusiast. Gardening was a natural fit and the COVID-19 pandemic provided the perfect opportunity to “dig in” and get started with a new healthy hobby.

Join us this week for a conversation with chiropractor Dr. Geoffrey Smith about fitness and the garden. Some of the things we discuss in this episode of Down the Garden Path:

• Although seen as a relaxing hobby, gardening can be physically demanding. What can we do to warm up before heading out into the garden each day?
  • Dr Smith talks about how stretching routines like yoga has many benefits for gardeners.
• Are there ways we can do things differently while gardening to prevent injury?
  • Dr. Smith discussed the importance of varying our positions and or the chores we are doing in the garden.
• Should we do a cool-down after we've finished working in the garden?
• What inspired you to start gardening last year? Tell us a bit about your gardens.
• As a new gardener, what are your thoughts on the types of tools to safely stay active in the garden?

You can find Dr. Smith online at www.oshawasouthchiropractic.com.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw kick off the month by answering your questions about planting and what you should be doing in the garden in May.

This week, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing answer your May planting and gardening questions. They cover a variety of topics, including:

• The popularity of fruit trees: Matt discusses cocktail trees with different varieties of fruit on one tree.
• Tomatoes & Potatoes: He also mentions a new “product” -- a tomato plant grafted on a potato, called Ketchup and Fries. Hilarious but true! Ask for it at your local garden centre. Once the tomato plant is done in the fall, you can harvest the potatoes in the pot below.
• Hydrangeas: Joanne discusses the challenges with Macrophylla Hydrangeas and/or the Easter Hydrangeas and why they shouldn't be planted in your GTA garden.
• Cedars: Matt discusses the differences in cedars in response to a listener's question about their hardiness.
• Roses: The popularity of roses and the hottest varieties: Now is the time to find that specific one you may be looking for, but tune in if you want to hear Matt help you determine which variety you should get based on the space you have.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw wrap up their month-long discussion on lawn care with a look at the different ways to control white grubs and other pests in the lawn.

Joanne and Matt answer your questions on grub control. * What beetles are leaving white grubs in the lawn? + What is the life cycle of these insect pests? * What products are there? In Canada vs. the U.S. * We discuss nematodes and Scotts® Grub B Gon® + When is the best time to apply these products? + How are they applied? * Do these biological solutions work? + Can you use both?

Down the Garden Path listeners had a lot of nematode questions! For a deep dive on how to apply nematodes, check out past episodes of Down the Garden Path:

Applying Nematodes

Japanese Beetles

The Benefits of Natural Insect Control

Also discussed was weed control, as well and the best way to try and control challenging weeds like Creeping Charlie. Matt told listeners about a new product, Wilson’s Weed Out, and how it works as systemic weed control.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw continue their month-long discussion on lawn care by looking at the different lawn fertilizers and what works best when.

Joanne and Matt answer your questions on lawn fertilizer. * What times of the year do we put down lawn fertilizer? * How do I apply lawn fertilizer? + Can I apply it by hand? * Synthetic vs. organic fertilizer + What are the pros and cons of each? * Which is best? Why? * What should you do if you burn your lawn with synthetic fertilizers?

Matt and Joanne discuss the importance of renewing the “good” organisms in your lawn by using good quality top dressers, compost or manure. And how that helps organic fertilizers succeed. They also answer a listener's question about if we should mix fertilizers with grass seed when spreading it.

Tune in to hear Matt's success stories about revamping a lawn with synthetic fertilizer and once established, successfully transitioning to organic fertilizers.

More Down the Garden Path Lawn Care episodes

Lawn Care Q&A

Lawn Care: Lawn Alternatives

Lawn Care: Artificial Turf

Lawn Care 101

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Thanks for listening! Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw kick off their month-long discussion on lawn care by looking at where we are now with our lawn care and answering your questions.

Joanne and Matt answer your questions and discuss where the lawn care season is so far. * + How did your lawn make it through the winter? + What lawn issues do you have to address this spring? + Matt recommends Viva Lawn Repair as it is a one-step seed and compost mix. + Joanne recommends Eco-Lawn Grass Seed. + They discuss where to start if you need to repair your lawn. + Now is the time to use Corn Gluten for weed control. Corn Gluten is not a one-and-done solution, you need to use it both spring and fall for best results.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

Goodbye March and welcome to April! This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw discuss what NOT to do in your garden this month.

Tune into this week's podcast to learn what you shouldn't be doing in the garden in April. Matt and Joanne covered four of their top "don'ts" for April:

• • Rake and take away leaf debris
  • Walk on soggy parts of the lawn and garden
  • Aerate and dethatch your lawn
  • Prune spring flowering plants

They also answered listener questions about:

• Aeration. Shouldn't there be a certain depth of the tines on the aerator? Someone told me a lot of consumer aeration equipment does not go down into the soil far enough. How deep should the cores be?
• Bees. What are good plants to put into our garden to attract bees?
• Moving plants outside. When is the best time to transplant my tomato plants outside? I live in the GTA and started them already from seeds.
• Raking. When we are able to rake our lawns, should we use plastic or metal rakes? Plastic seems to be a lot harsher on our grass, whereas metal rakes tend to bend easier with less damage to the lawn.
• Timing for grass seed. Is it too early to put down grass seed?

Great Grow Along
Check out this virtual Garden Festival to help gardeners learn. There are 40+ sessions and six months of access. You can find this wonderful resource at greatgrowalong.com

Edible Garden Makeover
Want to learn more about growing an edible garden? Check out Steven Biggs' course Edible Garden Makeover here.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down The Garden Path, we wrap up our month-long talk about hardscaping with a look at water garden trends. Joining us is returning guest Ernest Williams from Aquascape.

Ernest Williams is the Territory Sales Manager at Aquascape for Eastern and Northern Ontario. Aquascape is a manufacturer of water garden products and connects people to water the way nature intended. Homeowners have been enjoying professionally installed Aquascape water features or doing it themselves for close to 30 years. Ernest has been with Aquascape for over 15 years, and in the horticultural industry for 22 years. Ernest has been involved in many aspects of the water feature business including warehousing, purchasing, sales, installing, training, and consulting. He encourages everyone to take the "plunge" into the water feature lifestyle.

"When the water feature is done right, they'll never look back!"

Join us this week for our conversation about water garden trends with Aquascape's Ernest Williams. Ernest answers our questions and tells us about the upcoming trends:

• What’s changed in water gardens over the last three years?
• What are the current and emerging trends in water gardening?
  • Pondless water features have increased in popularity. New for the 2021 season are many water features that also incorporate fire, like Basalt columns that include propane torches.
• What’s new and exciting at Aquascape?
  • Aquascape has products like a rain exchange system that can help with stormwater management. They also have an assortment of water treatment solutions for your pond.
• Ernest answers a listener's questions about the pros and cons of a prefab pond liner vs a rubber liner. He explained and walked us through the many benefits of a rubber liner in our climate here in Ontario.
• How do you determine the pump size that you need for your pond?
  • Ernest does the math for us!

For more great insight on setting up your water garden feature, be sure to listen to our past shows featuring Aquascape: Podcast Water Features for the Garden with Aquascape

Radio Show More About Ponds with Aquascape

Water Features for the Garden

Find Aquascape online You can find Aquascape online here.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

This week on Down The Garden Path, we speak with Connie Cadotte of Garden Retreats about pool design.

Since 1997, Garden Retreats has been creating residential gardens across the GTA. Their philosophy is to create a garden that will reflect a family’s lifestyle and provide years of enjoyment. Their goals is to achieve a balance between the client’s wish list and the actual implementation of the garden; to create a sustainable garden, one that will work the existing site and minimize the environmental impact.

Join us this week for our conversation about pool design with Connie Cadotte of Garden Retreats. Connie answers our questions and tells us about the work she does:

• Tell us more about yourself and the work you do at Garden Retreats.
• What should people consider before purchasing a pool?
• What are the main differences between vinyl, fiberglass and concrete pools?
• Is there an ideal size or shape of pool?
• What are the new trends in pool design?
• Is a landscape design recommended before a pool installation?
• What permits or rules do homeowners need to be aware of when considering a pool?
• What should homeowners look for in a pool installer?

You can find Garden Retreats online here.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Don't forget to check out Down the Garden Path on your favourite podcast app and subscribe!

View Details

This week on Down The Garden Path, we speak with Aquatech Irrigation Systems' Paul Kostka about lighting and irrigation.

Paul Kostka has worked in the irrigation business for 18 years with Aquatech Irrigation Systems. For the past nine years, he has specialized in landscape lighting with the creation of the lighting branch of the company, Lightech.

Join us this week for our conversation about lighting and irrigation with Paul Kostka of Aquatech Irrigation Systems. Paul answers our questions and tells us about the work he does:

• Tell us more about your time at Aquatech Irrigation.
• What are the different types of lighting systems you install?
• We discuss “low-voltage lighting." (The energy efficiency, and bulb longevity.)
• What should homeowners consider before when choosing landscape lighting?
• What are the benefits of installing landscape lighting?
• How easy is it to install? What does it take to have a properly set up system?
• What is the difference between DIY light kits/box store lights and a professionally installed system?
• Can you install it in an existing landscape? How much disruption does it cause?
• In a brand-new install with a brand-new landscape, when is the best time for you to get involved? At the design stage or after everything is installed? Installing irrigation at the same time?
• Is there an estimate based on the size of the back yard how many lights you should have?
• Can you speak to the low maintenance features? How you control lights, and timing, can you change to Christmas lights? Do you offer maintenance packages?

You can find Aquatech Irrigation Systems online here.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down The Garden Path, we speak with The Growing Season's Matt McFarland about landscape design.

Matt McFarland grew up in a Landscape household and after 32 years in horticulture, he still gets excited about plants. Matt’s father Jack ran Glen Echo Landscaping and Blue Jay Landscaping for 20 years. He instilled in Matt a love of the outdoors and the elegance of working with rocks and plants.

Matt attended Humber College’s Landscape Technician Program. Graduating top of his class, Matt ventured out and took over the family business. Currently, Matt consults, designs, and installs many of his creations. His design services are now being requested internationally.

Join us this week for our conversation with The Growing Season's Matt McFarland. You'll learn more about Matt and the work he does:

• tiny gardens but quickly grew to involve landscape designs and installs of all shapes and sizes.
• Matt walks us through his design process: his garden designs start with a colour scheme, taking cues from the homeowner and from the house itself to create a wonderful plant palette for his clients.
• For designs and installations, Matt tries to get ahead of the trends and strives to give his clients unique designs with both interesting plants and other features.
• When asked why he believes homeowners should invest in a landscape designer, Matt used a great analogy: creating a successful landscape without a plan is like putting IKEA furniture together without the instructions.
• Matt’s company The Growing Season is based in the Bolton/Caledon area and Oakville is the farthest west they will go.
• His radio show and podcast ‘The Growing Season’ can be found at SAUGA 960. It airs live Saturday mornings at 10 am with podcasts that can be found here.

You can visit Matt McFarland online here.

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

Goodbye February and welcome to March! With spring just a few weeks away and warmer weather creeping into our forecasts, we're looking ahead to landscape design projects. This week on Down the Garden Path, landscape designers Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw answer your (many!) hardscaping questions.

Tune into this week's podcast and get Your Hardscaping Questions Answered. Matt and Joanne fielded a record 22 questions during their hour-long show.

They start by answering the basics:

• What does “hardscaping” mean?
• And by contrast, what does “softscaping” or landscaping mean?
• It is all about the base! Are limestone screenings a good base to put down under paving stones?
• What are some of the other base options?
• Is there a best way to put sand in between patio stones? Is there "better" sand to use?

Matt and Joanne also answered listener questions about:

• the use of plastic, fabric and mulch in gardens
• low voltage lighting best practices
• the best trees you can choose for privacy
• fruit trees and their suggestions for choosing one for your garden

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path podcast, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down The Garden Path, we speak with author and blogger Jennifer McGuinness about her new book Micro Food Gardening, hitting shelves in April 2021.

Jennifer began regularly blogging as Frau Zinnie in 2011. You can find Jennifer’s writing, photography and personal gardening experiences in her Connecticut garden on her website, along with interviews with garden experts.

Jennifer follows organic gardening methods growing both ornamental and edible plants. She likes to experiment with growing compact and dwarf edibles in containers. When Jennifer is not in the garden, she works in the communications field as a writer and editor. She is also a professional photographer and available for gardening lectures.

What is micro food gardening? Here's an excerpt from Jennifer's book Micro Food Gardening:

WHAT IS CONSIDERED A MICRO VEGGIE, FRUIT, OR HERB? Generally speaking, it is any plant that is approximately 18 inches (46 cm) or smaller when the plant has reached harvest size. Some plants, such as vines, may grow a little larger but still produce mini-size fruits. Veggies, fruits, and herbs all offer an edible component, which makes them different than a plant considered ornamental, which does not feature any edible parts. There are even some micro edible flowers, which can add a splash of color to salads, ice cubes, and cakes.

Join us this week for our conversation with author and blogger Jennifer McGuiness. Jennifer answered our many questions:

• What inspired you to write Micro Food Gardening?
• In the book, you talk about setting up your small space and the considerations when doing so. Can you share with our listeners what they need to start micro food gardening?
• Is it best to start from seed? Do garden centres carry these dwarf vegetable cultivars?
• If growing from seed, where do you recommend looking for micro food varieties?

Jennifer advises to search out dwarf plant seeds at any seed company paying particular attention to the plant size. Garden centres may carry dwarf plant varieties as well; now you know to look for them.

Containers are an important feature in growing micro plants. Micro Food Gardening covers different types of containers and their pros and cons. Many of the projects featured in the book use common containers in really creative ways.

• You have so many inspiring DIY projects in the book: what is one you hope readers will try?
• Which project do you think would be most successful on a balcony?

Jennifer's favorite project from the book? The Strawbery Cake Stand project (shown on the book's front cover).

You can find Jennifer online here.

Micro Food Growing: Pre-Order Special Micro Food Growing will be available to order April 6th. Click here to order your copy.

Pre-Order Special: Order your copy of Micro Food Growing by April 5th and Jennifer will send you a collection of recipes. All you have to do is email her a screenshot of your order (frauzinnie@gmail.com).

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week on Down the Garden Path, we continue to explore ways we can have a positive impact on our environment with a discussion about electric cars with Tim Burrows. We enjoyed learning more about the topic and realize it is an important discussion to have. Change is coming but will be happening slowly.

Tim has owned and driven battery-electric cars for the past seven years and has logged over 250,000 kilometres without the need for gasoline or diesel fuel. He now enjoys sharing his EV experience with others and breaks down many myths and misconceptions about electric vehicle ownership.

Tim is a member of the Electric Vehicle Society, a non-profit organization that works to promote the understanding and adoption of electric mobility in Canada. In his role there, he chairs the EV Society’s Mississauga Chapter.

Join us this week for our conversation with electric car enthusiast Tim Burrows. Tim fielded a lot of questions from our radio audience in this popular episode and answered some of our own.

• What made you buy your first electric car?
• Electric cars have been around for a while; what are some new developments?
• What are some of the concerns and objections about electric cars (like the expense -- we can't all afford a Tesla).

Despite the high upfront cost involved in purchasing an electric car, there are many factors that contribute to you saving money in the long run. A lot of the concern seems to surround the batteries. Tim discusses the length of the charge, and how the cars actually work to conserve the energy they have in them. He also points out that you start with a full charge every morning.

• We learn about the issues surrounding the materials in the batteries: cobalt and lithium. Some of these concerns centre around the environmental and humanitarian factors impacted by those components.
• Electric car companies and other electronics companies like Apple are striving to find ways to remove cobalt from their batteries.
• We discuss how in Ontario and Canada our electricity is very “clean” energy and despite possible rate increases for electricity, the per km rate of electricity will still be on par or lower than what we are paying per litre for gas

Tim is an enthusiast in the electric car industry and has no affiliation with any company. You can check him out at TimTalksTesla.com

Join us next week for our final February podcast: * February 28th: Micro Food Growing with Jennifer McGuinness

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

This week, we're continuing our "growing inside" themed episodes of Down the Garden Path. In Seed Starting 101, Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw discuss starting seeds for beginners.

In Seed Starting 101, Matt and Joanne review your steps for success:

• Start with a plan
• Choosing seeds
• Seed packages
• Equipment
• Growing media
• Planting
• Troubleshooting
• Hardening off

Check out these other podcasts where Matt and Joanne have discussed seeds, seed-starting and seed saving. * Growing: Indoors * Starting Seeds Indoors: Daniel Eggert * Harris Seeds Organic * Starting & Saving Seeds: Grow the Perfect Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs and Flowers for Your Garden

Join us in the coming weeks for more "growing inside" themed podcasts: * 15th: Electric Cars with Tim Burrows. * 28th: Micro Food Growing with Jennifer McGuinness

About Your Hosts Each week on Down The Garden Path, professional landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss 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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

View Details

We're kicking off the month of February with our first "growing indoors" episode of Down the Garden Path. In this podcast, we discuss growing indoors and with grow lights with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos.

Julia started growing food after having children and fell in love with it! She gardens organically and tries to keep things simple while growing new and uncommon vegetables each year. Her garden is located in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Two years ago, Julia expanded her vegetable garden from 2000 to 7000 square feet, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style.

Julia has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 10 years and has been published twice in the Canadian Organic Grower magazine. She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening.

Join us this week for our conversation with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos. Julia answers a few of our questions:

• Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started gardening? What inspired you?
• What inspires you today?
• What are you growing this year?
• How much do you start indoors? What does your indoor setup look like?
• Tell us about some of the resources you have on www.juliadimakos.com and how it can help our readers get started the right way.

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.