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 [email protected], 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.

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