Down The Garden Path Podcast

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: [email protected]

Instagram: @plantzzahut

Facebook: Carnivorous Plant Club Toronto & GTA

Carnivorous Plant Society of Canada

California Carnivores

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

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.

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?

Website: www.empressgardeningservice.com

Instagram: @empress.gardens

Facebook: @empressgardeningservice

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

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.

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

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

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."

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Groundcover Revolution

GardenDC Podcast: Groundcovers vs. Ground Covers

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.