Down The Garden Path Podcast

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 U...

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 Cana...

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...

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...

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...

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, a...

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 o...

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 Ga...

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, s...

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...

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 landsc...

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 pro...

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...

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 ga...

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 /ear...

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. T...

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 whe...

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....

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 pu...

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 Macrophyll...

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...

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,...

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 episod...

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...

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...