Down The Garden Path Podcast

Oh, the weather outside! Snow came early to southern Ontario last week and put an abrupt end to many of our gardening chores. 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. We do our best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics to help you keep your gar...

  The Down the Garden Path podcast is five years old this month! In this special "Ask Us Anything" episode , Joanne and Matthew celebrated by inviting listeners to write or call in with their gardening, landscape design or podcast-related questions. Some of the topics they covered include: whether it's safe to plant trees in the fall or should it wait until they are dormant and plant in the winter...

It's November in the garden! As the gardening season slows down, there are still a few gardening chores to accomplish. 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 you need to do in your garden this month so you'll see the results you want in the spring. Each month in our "In the Garden" podcast, prof...

Trees. They provide us with so much. They clean our oxygen, give us shade, provide food and act as a habitat to wildlife. And despite all of this, whether you're a homeowner or landscaper, there is still some debate about how to properly plant a tree. On this week's episode of Down The Garden Path , we're joined by Sean James of Sean James Consulting & Design . With time left to plant a tree in yo...

With October well underway, one of the gardening tasks on our minds and our to-do lists is planting fall bulbs. For the most part, we think of them only as early spring colour, when really, they're so much more. On this week's episode of Down The Garden Path , Peggy Anne Montgomery from flowerbulbs.com joins Joanne and Matt in the studio. She discusses the importance of spring bulbs as a source of...

Despite a brief respite of steamy weather in southern Ontario, fall truly is upon us. 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 October in the Garden with down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. Each month in our "...

On this week's episode of Down The Garden Path , Joanne and Matt talk discuss tips and tricks for successfully growing garlic in your garden. A species in the onion genus, Allium, garlic's close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and Chinese onion. Garlic is native to Central Asia and northeastern Iran and is a common seasoning found across the globe. Cultivated for over 5,000 year...

On this week's episode of Down The Garden Path , Susan Poizner of Orchard People joins Joanne and Matt in the studio to discuss growing exotic apples. Susan is the author of the award-winning fruit tree care book, Growing Urban Orchards. She is also the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show and Podcast , and offers online courses in fruit tree care. If you're considering planting an apple tree in...

This past spring, in our first Down the Garden Path podcast on Growing Cannabis , we took a look at this controversial plant. What it is, how it's grown and what laws and regulations face Canadians with its recent legalization. In Cannabis: Part 2 , we dive a little deeper. As temperatures drop and the harvest season quickly approaches, Canadians are learning what they can about the best practices...

September in the garden is upon us! Although September marks the end of summer and the gradual change to fall, it doesn't have to signify the end of the gardening season. In fact, September should be a wonderful time in your garden and yard. Each month in our "In the Garden" podcast, we attempt to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible. In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Ma...

In our weekly podcast, we often talk about the ever-growing trend of growing your own fruit and vegetables. This week on Down the Garden Path , we look at the challenge of growing lemons, a fruit which can be difficult to grow here in the GTA. Author Steven Biggs joins us to discuss his book Grow Lemon s Where You Think You Can't. Steven and his daughter Emma are the Garage Gardeners and have co-a...

In this episode of Down the Garden Path , we discuss nematodes, the primary method homeowners here in Canada use to control pests such as grubs on our lawn. 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 ar...

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 our weekly Down the Garden Path podcast , we discuss down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens an...

With the heat of July comes many things: walks on the beach, drinks on the patio, lounging by the pool, and the dreaded Japanese Garden Beetle. But fear not, we can help you with that last one! Not sure if Japanese garden beetles are wreaking havoc in your garden? These garden beetles are strangely beautiful, measuring roughly 3/8" long and 1/4" wide. They have shiny, metallic-green bodies and cop...

The wait has been long but daylily season is finally here! On this episode of Down the Garden Path , Tim Hobbs from TrueNorth Daylilies joins me and Matthew to talk all about hybridizing daylilies and their low-maintenance characteristics. For the past 25 years, Tim has gardened on a two-acre property just south of Warkworth. He creates shade gardens, with sun gardens covering the majority of the...

Each week on Down the Garden Path, we discuss down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As landscape designers and gardeners, we believe it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance.  Joining me on Down the Garden Path this week for Perennial Talk is Dawn Golloher, owner of Gardens Plus . Gardens Plus is a garden nursery near Peterborough...

Tonight, we're talking July in the Garden! In this episode, we look at some of the ways to help you keep your garden cool and happy, and some of the fantastic plants we still have to look forward to. We've seen a wet, cool Spring 2019. Although all the rain has made our gardens lush and green, July is finally here and so is the heat! Here are some of the highlights from this week's episode: Water...

Shade gardening: just the thought of it makes some gardeners cringe, with images of hostas racing through their mind. In this episode of Down the Garden Path , Matthew and I shed some light on the issue of shade gardening, offering tips and looking at a variety of interesting shade plants to brighten the dark recesses of your yard. Believe it or not, it's easy to have a beautiful, colourful shade...

This week on Down the Garden Path , we tackle a more serious topic: Climate Change in Our Community. Entrepreneur Richard Gauder joins Matthew and Joanne for a candid conversation on how climate change is affecting our community. Richard and his wife Sandi are co-founders of CMS Web Solutions . They use gardening as a way to counter the effects of electronics and their endless hours at the office....

Our show this week is all about Trees in the June Garden. Each week on Down the Garden Path we discuss down to earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As Landscape Designers and gardeners we think it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance.  Thanks for joining us here. In our regular monthly  " In the Garden " show we like to help you prepare...

Growing Cannabis. Whether you are a lifelong gardener or just beginning your journey, there is one plant we are all talking about. Cannabis. On this episode of Down the Garden Path we take a look at this controversial plant. What is it, how it's grown and what laws and regulations face Canadians with Cannabis' recent legalization.  Each week on Down the Garden Path we discuss down to earth tips an...

We created a Gardening Question Period. Each week on Down the Garden Path we discuss down to earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As Landscape Designers and gardeners we think it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance.  Thanks for joining us here. On this episode Matthew and Joanne answer listener questions. We had a jam-packed Gardening...

We are excited to welcome Veggie guru Niki Jabbour and her latest book Veggie Garden Remix to this episode of Down the Garden Path Podcast.  One of the hottest and consistently growing topics and commodities in the gardening world is growing your own food. But knowing where to start can be a bit overwhelming. It was wonderful to chat with Niki to learn about what drew her into veggie gardening. Ni...

May in the garden brings us many inspiring ideas, but there are many not so inspiring May to do's we also need to get done to give our gardens their best chance in the season ahead. We are excited to be back with our regular monthly " In the Garden " episodes. In the last show of each month, we discuss what tasks need to happen in the garden the next month.  Joanne and Matthew talk about what and...

One of the highlights of Spring in the Eastern GTA is the Peterborough Garden Show . It will be timed perfectly to help us all usher in Spring. Joining me for this episode of Down the Garden Path is Cauleen Viscoff Chair of the Peterborough Garden Show. The "Everything's Comin Roses " 2019 show is bringing us a new date and a new venue and partnership at Fleming College in Peterborough. This is th...