Canada's Local Gardener Podcast

Dorothy and Shauna talk with arbourist Ryan Statham about invasive insects and trees. Ryan is an arbourist with Davey Canada, a company that specializes in urban forestry. Trees of all kinds hold a special interest for Dorothy, a member of the Tree Canada board. They discuss the emerald ash borer and its proliferation throughout North America, wherever ash trees grow. Trees can be treated or inocu...

John Barrett started with growing sunflowers on two acres with the vague idea of selling sunflower seeds, but that first year was a disaster with the birds being the biggest beneficiaries of all that hard work. John was never a quitter and he persevered. Several years later, he was growing 60 acres of sunflowers and found himself on the acquisition list of one of PEI’s major businesses: Veseys See...

Helen Hogue is a Winnipegger with an interesting hobby, or rather, passion. Helen raises monarch butterflies, from egg to adult, then sets them free. It is estimated that people like her increase the survival rate from 5 percent to 95 percent. For more info, click here. Support the show

Shauna and Dorothy discuss their garden tour of BC and Alberta over the summer. This was the first part of Shauna’s 2021 cross-country trip of seeing and photographing gardens. For more info, click here . Support the show

Shauna and Dorothy talk to Mario Doiron, a modern Acadian guy in New Brunswick who moved his family from the city to an acreage in Kent County. He and his wife now enjoy excellent health, spring water and an incredible diversity of food they grow themselves. He calls himself a homesteader, and we cannot think of a better way to describe what he does. For more info, click here . Support the show

Dorothy and Shauna talk with Winnipeg landscaper Keith Lemkey. He has worked on gardens in Canada’s Local Gardener and Manitoba Gardener in the past and has contributed stories to the magazines over the years. Hear about why you should consider hiring an landscape professional for your garden. Support the show

Mike Rosen, the former President of Tree Canada, joins Dorothy and Shauna to talk about these gentle giants who influence our gardens. Tree Canada is the only national non-profit organization dedicated to planting and nurturing trees in rural and urban environments. For more info, click here . Support the show

Colin Remillard is a co-owner of St. Leon Gardens i n Winnipeg, a seasonal shop selling locally grown fruits, vegetables, seeds and plants. He talked to Dorothy and Shauna recently about the business and they traded tips about what he’s doing in his brand-new yard and what gardeners should look for when buying plants at the garden centre. To read more, click here. Support the show

Larry Hodgson is a blogger and broadcaster in Quebec who has written over 60 books on gardening in English and French. His blog can be found at laidbackgardener.blog , and he adds to it every day. Dorothy and Shauna have a chat with him about so many things, ostensibly on the topic of “What’s growing in your garden?” Along the way, they find out about his favourite tool (a Proplugger he picked up...

Guest: Greg Auton of MaritimeGardening.com Greg Auton is The Maritime Gardener, a podcaster and YouTuber in Nova Scotia, with 2500 square feet of vegetable gardens. Shauna and Dorothy set out to talk to him about extending the gardening season, and they did. In part. But they talked about so much more.  Support the show

Guest: Sherrie Verslius of Preferred Perch Sherrie Versluis, the owner of the Preferred Perch in Winnipeg, speaks about backyard birds, what they eat, how they survive winter, and how you can keep them singing in your own backyard. Bit of advice? Don’t feed them bacon fat in place of suet and watch the type of feed you are providing. Some of it can be contaminated. In fact, if your birds are turni...

Guest:  Jan Pedersen of Shelmerdine Garden Center Flowering shrubs are a giving type of plant in gardens across Canada, with every season bringing a different bloom or colour or shape. Jan Pedersen of Shelmerdine Garden Centre talks about various varieties with Dorothy and Shauna, giving a few tips about pruning and cultivars that really perform. Support the show

Guest: Kevin Twomey of T & T Seeds Starting tomatoes from seeds seems like an easy thing to do, but once you actually do it, there are a number of things to remember. What do you plant them in? Do you need a heat mat under the seedlings? Do you need special lights? Support the show

Every gardener ordering seeds has one big question: what the heck happened last year? And will it continue this year? And next? Dorothy and Shauna speak with John Barrett from Veseys Seeds, on of Canada’s largest and oldest seed order companies.  John talks about the pandemic explosion faced by seed companies as well as the viability of seeds, pelleted versus non-pelleted, organic verses standard...

Country Cue 1 by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Artist: http://audionautix.com/ Support the show

Promo for Canada's Local Gardener Podcast first episode with John Barret of Vesey's Seeds as guest. Hosted by Dorothy Dobbie and Shauna Dobbie. Support the show