Down The Garden Path Podcast

In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome George Scott, president and founder of Niagara Beeway, to discuss the importance of protecting native bee species, as well as other native flora and fauna.

About Niagara Beeway

Niagara Beeway advocates for species native to Niagara. Their objective is to protect existing native flora and fauna by restoring and creating a native habitat which services bees, birds, native plants, and animals and provides educational opportunities for their community.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• How did Niagara Beeway get started?
• What is Niagara Beeway's mission?
• What is the Niagara Beeway?
• George shared that after examining his hives today, this season has been a success with the survival rate of his bees.
• What is the beekeeping industry like in the Niagara Region?
• Replacement bees from the Carpathian Region of Ukraine, a region very similar to the Niagara Region.
• The benefits of the Carpathian bees in Ontario.
• What are some myths about the apiculture industry or home beekeeping?
• What is your 'Host a Hive' program?
• If I wanted to have my own hive, what are some things to consider before becoming a beekeeper?
• The importance of planning native plants versus ornamental plants to help pollinators.
• Articles on their site:
  • The Buzz on Pollinators: Keystone Plants Create Biodiversity
  • The Buzz on Pollinators: Beginning a Pollinator Patch is Easy

Find Niagara Beeway online:

• www.NiagaraBeeway.com
• Facebook: @NiagaraBeeway
• Instagram: @niagarabeeway
• Twitter: @niagarabeeway
• Niagara Beeway Store: www.CanadaBeeline.com

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.

With the warmer weather upon us, it's almost time to head out into the garden and get started. In this week's April in the Garden episode, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the do's and don'ts in your April garden.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Veggies
  • Start seeds indoors if you haven't already. Just under eight weeks to the last average frost date.
  • Bulbs – you can start potting up Canna and Calla bulbs
  • Hardening off seedlings
• Plants
  • When are plants arriving in the garden centres?
  • What is it safe to plant when?
  • Many perennials can be divided in early spring.
  • Be mindful of cold-season plants available in garden centres: they are not all grown equally.
  • Deciduous shade – what is it and why is it important?
  • How to protect early spring flowering bulbs.
  • Pruning hydrangeas – which, how, when?
  • Spring pruning other shrubs – how and when?
  • Acclimatizing houseplants – how and when?
• Beneficial insects
  • Place Mason and leaf cutter bee cocoons out in protected housing on the south or southeast wall.
  • Look for praying mantis casings in stores to put out in your yard now.
  • Much too early for ladybugs
• Lawn
  • Cleaning up the yard: the do's and don'ts.
  • Be ready to apply corn gluten pellets, not corn gluten meal (dust). Do this before the forsythia blooms.
  • Too early to rake lawns. Try to avoid walking too much on the lawn.
  • When to start putting down grass seed? Wait for nighttime temperatures to warm up.
  • Top dressing?

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.

To kick off the first day of spring, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss easy-care perennials with returning guest Dawn Golloher from GardensPlus.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• What inspired you to start GardensPlus?
• Your motto is "We focus on easy-care perennials so you can enjoy your gardens not just work in them." Why focus on easy-care perennials?
• In 2021, you decided to cancel the successful Canada-wide mail-order part of the business. Can you tell us more about what led you to that decision?
• How many perennial types do you grow?
• Where are your perennials grown? Greenhouse, field produced.
• How big is your growing space?
• How has your selection of plants changed over the last 4 years? Which species do you not grow anymore, and why?
• Tell us about your perennial collections.

Find GardensPlus online:

• www.GardensPlus.ca
• Facebook: @gardensplus
• Instagram: @gardensplus
• YouTube: @gardensplus
• Pinterest: @gardensplus
• Twitter: @gardensplus

Down the Garden Path - Steppingstones

Joanne and Matthew discuss how to best care for your perennials in the early spring.

• What to look for, when to prune them.

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.

With spring only a week away, our houseplants -- like us -- can tell the days are growing longer. This means it'll soon be time to transplant, propagate, and prune our indoor jungle. This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing provide spring houseplant care tips to keep your collection looking fresh.

Topics and questions discussed in this episode:

• Popular houseplants in 2023
• Watering and feeding your houseplants
• Potting up your houseplants
• Propagating your houseplants
• Troubleshooting common indoor houseplant pests
• Preparing to put them outside for the season

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.

In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss terrariums, a fun and easy project you can do to add a dynamic living ecosystem to your indoor plant collection.

Topics and questions discussed in this episode:

• What are terrariums?
• What do you need to build a terrarium?
• How do you build a terrarium?
• What materials do you need?
• What plants are suitable for terrariums?
• How do I care for my terrarium?

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.

As March arrives and we look forward to spring, we prepare ourselves for the one more blast of winter we know Mother Nature will throw our way. In this week's episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing talk about March in the Garden.

Topics and questions discussed in this episode:

• Planting seeds and staging a crop for a continuous harvest.
• Growing seeds: the best selection is available now! Buy now, plant later.
• Lawn care: we're eager but how long do we have to wait to get started?
• Dormant spray: a key IPM task we can start as the weather warms up.
• Pruning: what trees and shrubs can we prune in late winter and early spring?
• How to protect your evergreens from the weight of snow and ice.
• Buy our book! It's your source for monthly low-maintenance tips and tricks to get your garden off to its best start this spring.

Steppingstones

A new segment where Joanne and Matthew answer more listener questions and give timely tips for your gardens and landscapes.

Listener questions:

• Can we use seeds from last year?
• Can we clean up our flower beds in March?
• Can I start strawberries now in my home? Or is it too early?

Tips to take the next step in your gardening journey:

• Force forsythia and willow branches for a pop of colour in winter.
• Look for leftover fall bulbs in the store to plant now to create a colourful container.
• Growing sweet potato vine from sweet potatoes at the grocery store

Ontario Seed Company Peanut Seeds

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.

With the days growing longer and the weather warmer, the itch to be outside in the garden is growing stronger. This makes it a perfect time to look at what's trending in 2023. This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing welcome returning guest Katie Dubow to share what's trending in the 2023 Garden Trends Report.

About Katie Dubow

Katie Dubow is the President of Garden Media Group, a women-owned and run public relations firm specializing in the home and garden industry and celebrating its 31st year in business. Author of the annual Garden Trends Report, Dubow travels the world scouting and presenting garden trends to audiences from Italy to Chicago. Dubow lives and gardens in West Chester, PA, with her husband, two daughters, one dog, and six chickens. Find her in the garden with her children, practicing yoga or dancing to Zumba. Her goal is to convince people that brown thumbs can, in fact, be turned green.

Some of the questions and topics covered:

• For our new listeners or those who are not familiar with Garden Media Group, tell us a bit about what goes into producing the report each year.
• 'I Believe in Me' is the title of the report this year. Can you tell us why you chose it?
• Let's walk through some of the main points that make up the Garden Trends report:
  • Tesla Effect
  • Backdoor Revolution
  • Accessible Gardening
  • PlantTok
  • All Greek to Me
  • Redrawing the Map
  • Colour of the Year

Click here to get your copy.

Find Garden Media Group online:

Website: www.gardenmediagroup.com

Facebook: Garden Media Group

Instagram: GardenMedia

Pinterest: GardenMedia

LinkedIn: Garden Media Group

Twitter: GardenMedia

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.

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Sam Hoadley from the Mt. Cuba Center about his latest research on Carex and other exciting projects at the center.

About Sam Hoadley and the Mt. Cuba Center

Sam Hoadley is the Manager of Horticultural Research at Mt. Cuba Center. Nestled in the hills of Hockessin, Delaware, the Mt. Cuba Center's mission is to inspire an appreciation for the beauty and value of native plants and a commitment to protect the habitats that sustain them. Sam evaluates native plant species, old and new cultivars, and hybrids in the Trial Garden. He earned his degree in Sustainable Landscape Horticulture from the University of Vermont.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• • • Tell us about the Mt. Cuba Center.
    • Why did you decide to research Carex?
    • What factors did you use to evaluate the 70 types?
    • What did you learn about the various results?
    • Are sod farms interested in the results?
    • Is the industry considering moving away from existing lawn grasses?
    • How can we as gardeners and homeowners help to move to a more sustainable lawn?
    • Can you tell us about another research project that you are excited about?

Find Sam and The Mt. Cuba Center online:

• www.mtcubacenter.org
• Facebook: MtCubaCenter
• Instagram: MtCubaCenter
• YouTube: MtCubaCenter
• Pinterest: MtCubaCenterGarden
• Twitter: MtCubaCente

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!

AI has moved into the world of gardening! This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing speak with Dale and Carrie Spoonemore, creators of the new garden AI app, Seed to Spoon.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Why did you decide to create this app?
• Where does the gardening information come from?
• Who is this app geared towards?
• Is it North-America based only?
• Can users customize their profiles so it remembers the app remembers their location?
• How does it differ from Google search?

Find From Seed to Spoon online:

• www.seedtospoon.net
• Facebook: @seed2spoon
• Instagram: @FromSeedtoSpoon
• YouTube: @FromSeedtoSpoon
• Tiktok: @seed2spoon
• Pinterest: @fromseedtospoon
• Twitter: @fromseedtospoon

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!

If you're not lucky enough to be living somewhere tropical, mid-winter has you in its grasp and you may be wondering what you can be doing in February in the garden. Although there's not much to do outside, there are several activities you can work on inside to get you ready for a new growing season.

Suggestions from Joanne and Matt in this episode:

• Take care of your Christmas houseplants.
• Set up grow lights for starting seeds.
• Check out seed catalogues for interesting veggies or perennials to grow.
• Order seeds from catalogues or from online plant sources.
• Grow sprouts for salad.
• Take an online gardening class.
• Book tickets for a local garden show.
• Attend a local Seedy Saturday.
• Force spring bulbs.
• Force spring branches like pussy willow or forsythia.

How to Grow Amaryllis

Growing Under Lights

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 17 years. A horticulturist, college educator 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. You can find it on Amazon.