Down The Garden Path Podcast

This week, we're continuing our "growing inside" themed episodes of Down the Garden Path. In Seed Starting 101, Matthew Dressing and Joanne Shaw discuss starting seeds for beginners.

In Seed Starting 101, Matt and Joanne review your steps for success:

• Start with a plan
• Choosing seeds
• Seed packages
• Equipment
• Growing media
• Planting
• Troubleshooting
• Hardening off

Check out these other podcasts where Matt and Joanne have discussed seeds, seed-starting and seed saving.

• Growing: Indoors
• Starting Seeds Indoors: Daniel Eggert
• Harris Seeds Organic
• Starting & Saving Seeds: Grow the Perfect Vegetables, Fruits, Herbs and Flowers for Your Garden

Join us in the coming weeks for more "growing inside" themed podcasts:

• 15th: Electric Cars with Tim Burrows.
• 28th: Micro Food Growing with Jennifer McGuinness

About Your Hosts

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

We're kicking off the month of February with our first "growing indoors" episode of Down the Garden Path. In this podcast, we discuss growing indoors and with grow lights with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos.

Julia started growing food after having children and fell in love with it! She gardens organically and tries to keep things simple while growing new and uncommon vegetables each year. Her garden is located in Mono, Ontario, on 25 acres on the Niagara Escarpment. Two years ago, Julia expanded her vegetable garden from 2000 to 7000 square feet, continuing in the formal kitchen garden style.

Julia has been growing vegetables and writing about gardening for over 10 years and has been published twice in the Canadian Organic Grower magazine. She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening.

Join us this week for our conversation with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos.

Julia answers a few of our questions:

• Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got started gardening? What inspired you?
• What inspires you today?
• What are you growing this year?
• How much do you start indoors? What does your indoor setup look like?
• Tell us about some of the resources you have on www.juliadimakos.com and how it can help our readers get started the right way.

You can find Julia online here, as well as on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.

Join us in February for more "growing indoors" themed podcasts:

• 8th: Seed Starting for Beginners with Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing
• 15th: Electric Cars with Tim Burrows.
• 28th: Micro Food Growing with Jennifer McGuinness

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Mat

Happy New Year! We're closing out the month of January with our first Down the Garden Path podcast of the year. Join us as we take a look forward to 2021.

In this week's podcast, learn more about:

• What Joanne and Matthew have been doing over the past few months
• The hot topics that were covered at the 2021 Landscape Designers Conference
• Winter gardening design challenges
• Down the Garden Path's monthly podcast themes for 2021

About Your Hosts

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

Did you know that Down The Garden Path made Garden Media Group's "Best Gardening Podcasts of 2020" list?

Special thanks to all of our listeners, whether you listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast app or tune into the live show each Monday at 7 p.m. ET on www.realityradio101.com. We appreciate your continued support and inspiration. For the full list of gardening podcasts, click here.

Can you believe it's December already? Another year has gone by and what a year it has been! A new month means a new topic here on Down the Garden Path. however, this month, we'll only be recording one live show. This month's theme and this episode's topic is Lessons from 2020. But before we hop into the recap of this week's podcast...

We're excited to announce that Down The Garden Path made Garden Media Group's "Best Gardening Podcasts of 2020" list.

Thank you to all of our listeners, whether you listen to the podcast on your favorite podcast app or tune into the live show each Monday at 7 p.m. ET on www.realityradio101.com. We appreciate your continued support and inspiration. For the full list of gardening podcasts, click here.

Our increased following is just one of the things we discussed in this week's show:

• We've gained over 1,500 listeners since the beginning of 2020! (8,316 at last count!)
• Garden trends: grow your own, sustainability, vertical gardening in small spaces, low maintenance gardening, Cannabis.
• Climate: Our climate is changing and we must, too.
• Some of our favourite shows: Low Maintenance Gardening, Attracting Beneficials, Nativars, and Gardening Authors month.

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

We've reached the end of November here on Down the Garden Path. And although we've been talking with Garden Authors all month, we took a step back into October's 'Our Environmental Impact' theme. In this episode, we discuss solar power with Ray Jarvis of Solar Direct Canada.

Ray is the founder and owner of Solar Direct Canada. Solar Direct Canada has installed in excess of 500 solar projects in Southern Ontario and continues to sell and service systems today. He lives in Acton, Ontario with his wife, son and daughter.

Join us this week for our conversation with Ray Jarvis of Solar Direct Canada.

Ray answers a few of our questions:

• Tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into solar?
• It sounds like you're worth the drive to Acton. Tell us about Solar Direct Canada.
• Where does someone start if they're looking to get into solar power?
• Is solar power becoming more accessible to homeowners?
• Are there any new innovations on the horizon?

For more information on Solar Direct Canada, visit them online at www.solardirectcanada.com.

Join us in the coming weeks:

• December 7th: Lessons from 2020: A Look Back
• January 25th: Welcome back! A look towards a new year.

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

We are more than halfway through November on Down the Garden Path, and this month we're speaking with gardening authors. In this episode, we head to our bookshelves to take a closer look at The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful and Bountiful Garden by author Daryl Beyers.

Daryl Beyers is the gardening program coordinator at the New York Botanical Garden. He was a staff writer, photographer, and editor for Fine Gardening and a contributing garden editor for Martha Stewart Living.

The New Gardener's Handbook is a comprehensive overview of the fundamentals of gardening, based on the introductory gardening class that Beyers teaches at New York Botanical Gardens. Readers will learn about soil, plant selection, propagation, planting and mulching, watering and feeding, pruning, and weeds, pests, and diseases. The information applies to both ornamental and edible plants. Additionally, the book features inspiring photography and helpful illustrations. The New Gardener's Handbook gives home gardeners a foundation upon which they can grow, and encourages them to apply the lessons they've learned in an intuitive, natural way.

This week: Author Daryl Beyers discusses his book The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful and Bountiful Garden.

Daryl answers a few of our questions:

• What inspired you to write The New Gardener's Handbook?
• What advice in 'The New Gardener's Handbook' do you feel most new gardeners, and maybe even some old veterans, need to hear?
• Tell us a bit more about your work at New York Botanical Gardens.
• Describe the types of topics you tackle in your "weekly garden chat."

Find Daryl online at www.thenewgardenershandbook.com and on Instagram @newgardenershandbook.

Join us in the coming weeks:

• November 30th: Solar Power with Ray Jarvis of Solar Direct Canada
• December 7th: Lessons from 2020: A Look Back
• January 25th: Welcome back! A look towards a new year.

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

We are halfway through November on Down the Garden Path, and this month we're speaking with gardening authors. In this episode, we head to our bookshelves to take a closer look at Garden Alchemy by author, blogger and www.gardentherapy.ca's Stephanie Rose.

Stephanie Rose is an award-winning author, freelance writer, instructor, and international speaker who aims to encourage healing and wellness through gardening. For over ten years, she has been both a student and teacher of organic gardening, permaculture design, herbalism, and natural skincare formulation. She is a member of Garden Communicators International, the Permaculture Institute of North America, the International Herb Association, and volunteers to develop children's gardens as a Vancouver Master Gardener. She shares stories, recipes, and projects on her inspiring website, www.gardentherapy.ca.

Stephanie spends her time as an organic gardener, writer, and artist in Vancouver, B.C. She is passionate about organic gardening, natural healing, and art as part of life. Stephanie lives with her family and a motley crew of animals, which provide her with inspiration and delight both in and out of the garden.

Garden Alchemy is a hands-on guide for do-it-yourself gardeners who want to turn their garden into gold using natural recipes and herbal concoctions (while saving both time and money). This gardening recipe and project book is packed with over 80 ideas to naturally beautify your garden, using organic methods that regenerate your soil and revitalize your plants. By following the processes that are closest to nature, it brings the gardener in sync with the garden, allowing plants to thrive with less effort and less cost.

Tune into this week's podcast as we learn more about the book Garden Alchemy with our guest, author Stephanie Rose.

Stephanie answers a few of our questions:

• Tell us about Garden Therapy.
• What inspired you to write Garden Alchemy?
• Tell us about the other books you've written.

You can learn more about how to purchase Stephanie's books here, find her online at www.gardentherapy.ca and on social media:

• Facebook: @gardentherapy
• Instagram: @garden_therapy
• Twitter: @garden_therapy
• YouTube: Garden Therapy

Join us in November for more conversations with gardening authors:

• 23rd: Daryl Beyers, author of The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful Garden
• 30th: Solar Power with Ray Jarvis of Solar Direct Canada

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

This month on Down the Garden Path, we're speaking with gardening authors about their interesting and informative books. In this episode, we head to our bookshelves to take a closer look at Houseplant Party: Fun Projects & Growing Tips for Epic Indoor Plants by author Lisa Eldred Steinkopf.

Lisa Eldred Steinkopf is The Houseplant Guru and features all things houseplants on her blog www.thehouseplantguru.com. Lisa grew up in rural mid-Michigan, where being immersed in nature everyday nurtured her love for all things outdoors, especially plants. Living "down the road" from her grandma meant spending a lot of time watching her lavish attention on her African violets and other houseplants. This is where the love for them began.

Also an avid outdoor gardener, Lisa has a column for Michigan Gardener magazine. She has written for HGTVgardens.com, MarthaStewart.com, OprahMagazine.com, Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens, Horticulture, Fine Gardening, and the houseplant section of Allan Armitage's Greatest Perennials and Annuals app. She lectures extensively around the country, spreading the word about the importance of houseplants and how to care for them.

Lisa's latest book is Houseplant Party: Fun Projects and Growing Tips for Epic Indoor Plants. This fun book is not only about growing plants but also about making projects that will add to the beauty of your plants. Have fun with your plants! The projects include building shadow boxes, air plant displays, macrame and so much more. There is something for every age and "crafty" level. It includes basic plant care and also more advanced techniques such as bonsai and grafting cactus.

Tune into this week's podcast to learn more about houseplants with our guest, author Lisa Eldred Steinkopf.

Lisa answers a few of our questions:

• Tell us about your blog, The Houseplant Guru.
• What inspired you to write your new book?
• What are some of your favourite, fun projects in Houseplant Party?
• Share your growing tips to help our listeners grow epic plants.
• Tell us about the other books she's written.

You can learn more about how to purchase Lisa's books here, find her online at www.thehouseplantguru.com and on social media:

• Facebook: @houseplantguru
• Instagram: @thehouseplantguru
• Twitter: @houseplantguru
• Pinterest: @thehouseplantguru

Join us in November for more conversations with gardening authors:

• 23rd: Daryl Beyers, author of The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful Garden
• 30th: Solar Power with Ray Jarvis of Solar Direct Canada

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

A new month begins a new topic here on Down the Garden Path. This month, we're speaking with gardening authors about their interesting and informative books. In this episode, we head to our bookshelves to take a closer look at Growing Figs in Cold Climates: 150 of Your Questions Answered by author and fellow radio personality, Steven Biggs.

Steven Biggs is a food gardener, horticulturist, college instructor, and an award-winning writer who pigs out on homegrown figs in Toronto. He is the host of The Food Garden Life radio show and podcast. His articles have appeared in many magazines, including Garden Making, Country Guide, Trellis, Today's Parent, Edible Toronto, and Small Farm Canada.

Steven joined us in August 2019 to discuss his book Grow Lemons Where You Think You Can't.

Tune into this week's podcast to learn more about growing figs in cold climates with our guest, author Steven Biggs.

Join us as we ask Steven:

• What inspired you to follow up your book Grow Figs Where You Think You Can't with Growing Figs in Cold Climates?
• What inspired the unique layout of your new book?
• What's the most surprising thing you learned from the gardeners who asked the questions in your book?
• What other books have you written?

You can find Steven Biggs online at www.stevenbiggs.ca and on social media:

• Facebook: @foodgardenlife
• Instagram: @foodgardenlife
• Twitter: @foodgardenlife
• You can find his daughter Emma Biggs at www.emmabiggs.ca.

Join us in November for more conversations with gardening authors:

• November 9: Lisa Eldred Steinkopf, author of Houseplant Party: Fun Projects and Growing Tips for Epic Indoor Plants
• November 23: Daryl Beyers, author of The New Gardener's Handbook: Everything You Need to Know to Grow a Beautiful Garden
• November 30: Solar Power with Ray Jarvis of Solar Direct Canada

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

As we reach the end of October, we turn back to shore on our adventure into waters many dare not tread: climate change and our environmental impact. We've discussed what climate change is and what we can do to help slow it down. In this week's episode of the Down the Garden Path podcast, we wrap up the conversation with a look at the seasonal climate challenges facing us gardeners. Joining us are Deborah Pearson and Ginny Colling.

Tune into this week's podcast for a climate conversation with Deborah Pearson and Ginny Colling.

Deborah Pearson and Ginny Colling have both enjoyed long careers in education. Deborah worked with Trillium Lakelands District School Board and Ginny in the Journalism Program at Durham College.

Since retirement, they have been busy in a variety of volunteer activities. These have included serving on the City of Kawartha Lakes Environmental Advisory Committee and the Healthy Environment Plan working group that produced a climate action and adaptation plan in 2018 for the City. In addition, Deborah is a member of the Bee City Pollinator Action Committee for the City of Kawartha Lakes and the Kawartha Climate Club. Ginny is a member of the Suzuki Foundation Blue Dot Movement and a founding member of Scugog Climate Action Now.

In 2017, Deborah and Ginny travelled to the U.S. for Climate Reality Project leadership training led by former Vice President and Nobel Laureate, Al Gore. Since then, they have been making climate change presentations to community and school groups in the Kawarthas and Durham Region.

Join us this week as we ask Deborah and Ginny:

• Can you tell us about your experiences with the Climate Reality Project?
• What challenges does climate change present to everyday gardeners?
• As the seasons change our gardens change and so do our activities in the garden. What new challenges does climate change present each season to gardeners?

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.

And Matthew Dressing is a horticulturist and landscape designer. He owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, Joanne and Matthew do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and helpful topics. Their goal is to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.