Down The Garden Path Podcast

This week on the podcast, Joanne speaks with Bri Petersen from Urban Gardening Canada about her new e-book, Gardening Basics for the Beginner Gardener.

In this episode:

Beginner Gardeners Need Updated Advice, Not Outdated RulesSo much common gardening advice is based on old habits, like turning over the soil every spring, cleaning up every leaf, or planting by a fixed calendar date. Bri's e-book encourages beginner gardeners to understand how gardening has changed with the climate and why weather, growing zones, and local conditions matter more than old rules.

Bri's E-book Gives New Gardeners the Foundations They NeedGardening Basics for the Beginner Gardener is designed specifically for beginners, with 13 chapters covering core topics like annuals, perennials, herbaceous plants, growing in containers, raised beds, in-ground gardens, watering, fertilizing, and vegetable gardening. She also includes practical guidance on insects and pests, helping gardeners identify what they are seeing and manage problems without immediately turning to chemicals.

Gardening Success Comes From Curiosity, Confidence, and Practice

One dead plant does not mean you have a "black thumb." Learn what went wrong, adjust next season, understand your garden's conditions, and keep going. New gardeners feel less intimidated and more confident as they build knowledge year after year.

Find Bri Petersen online:

Website: www.urbangardeningcanada.com

Order a copy of her e-book here.

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 with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

What if you could walk through acres of blooming peonies and cut your own bouquet to take home? In this episode, Joanne welcomes Valérie Chort of Fleur de Roy to share the story behind Southern Ontario's largest pick-your-own peony farm and its short but spectacular bloom season.

Tickets are now available to Pick Your Own Peony Flowers from June 1st to 8th, 2026.

In this episode:

• How did a conservation property become a pick-your-own peony farm? Valérie shares the story behind Fleur de Roy, a Southern Ontario peony farm located on a 150-acre property near Lake St. Clair, where conservation, family, and a love of flowers came together in a surprising way.
• What does it take to grow thousands of peonies for one short, spectacular season? Joanne and Valérie discuss the patience, planning, timing, and care behind growing peonies, including why these plants take years to establish and why the bloom window is so weather-dependent.
• Why is Fleur de Roy's Peony Bloom Festival becoming a must-visit local experience? Valérie explains how the farm has shifted from wholesale flower production to welcoming visitors for a pick-your-own peony experience, with confirmed 2025 opening dates from June 1 to June 8, with the possibility of extending on either side depending on the bloom season.

Visit them online at www.fleurderoy.com or on Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

Tickets are now available. Purchase them here.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne discusses do's and don'ts for your May garden, and walks you through what to do now, what to wait on, and how to give your garden the best start for the season ahead.

Be patient and let the May garden guide your timing. May can be unpredictable, especially after a cool, wet winter. Instead of rushing into cleanup, planting, pruning, seeding, or mowing, gardeners should pay attention to soil moisture, insect activity, nighttime temperatures, and frost risk.

Focus on smart spring maintenance for perennials, shrubs, evergreens, and lawns. Learn what to clean up, what to leave alone, and what to handle carefully. Topics include: pruning spring-blooming shrubs too early, lightly cleaning up evergreens, feeding soil, waiting to seed lawns, and mowing high.

Start vegetables, herbs, annuals, and containers thoughtfully. Get excited about growing food, herbs, and seasonal containers, but with a practical approach. Topics include: hardening off vegetables, planting cool-season crops like lettuce and spinach, using herbs to attract pollinators, involving kids in gardening, and choosing larger containers so annuals can thrive through the season.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

Thinking about growing your own lettuce, spinach, and potatoes this spring? In this April 2025 encore episode, Joanne chats with Julia Dimakos about successfully growing these popular vegetables at home.

In this episode:

• How to grow lettuce successfully for fresh, continuous harvests Julia explores the basics of growing lettuce from seed, including the importance of starting with fresh seed, giving seeds light to germinate, transplanting early, spacing plants properly, succession sowing every couple of weeks, and choosing varieties for cool weather versus summer heat.
• Why spinach is a cool-season crop with a very different rhythm from lettuce Unlike lettuce, spinach prefers cold conditions, struggles in heat, bolts quickly in warm weather, and does especially well when sown now and again in mid-August for fall and even overwintered harvests.
• How to grow healthier, homegrown potatoes Growing your own potatoes can be healthier and more rewarding than buying them. Julia explains the importance of seed potatoes, pre-sprouting, planting whole potatoes rather than cut pieces, choosing between determinate and indeterminate varieties, and growing in raised beds, grow bags, or containers.

Find Julia Dimakos online:

Website: www.juliadimakos.com

Instagram: @juliadimakos

YouTube: @gardeninggirl

Check out a few of her past episodes:

All About Tomatoes

Microgreens & Sprouting

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne chats with Manny Lavrador about the growing interest in native trees and how to choose the right one for your property.

In this episode:

• Why are native trees such an important topic right now? More gardeners and homeowners are looking for plants that support the environment, work well in local ecosystems, and respond to growing concerns about invasive species.
• What is the most important thing to remember when choosing a native tree? That even a native tree still needs to be the right tree for the right place, based on the space, conditions, and goals of the garden.
• Are native trees always the best choice for every yard? Not necessarily. This episode demonstrates that while native trees have many benefits, hybrids and nativars can sometimes be a better fit for smaller urban lots or for homeowners looking for lower-maintenance options.

You can find Manny Lavrador on LinkedIn.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

Have you been hesitant to add roses to your garden? This week on the podcast, Joanne talks with Paul Zimmerman about Jackson & Perkins' expansion into Canada, what it means for rose lovers, and why these cold-hardy, Canadian-grown roses may be easier to grow than many gardeners think.

In this episode:

• Roses are becoming more accessible for Canadian gardeners. Jackson & Perkins roses are now available in the Canadian market, with roses being grown, tested, and shipped within Canada through their partnership with Bakker.
• Modern roses are not as high-maintenance as many people think. Paul challenges the old idea that roses are fussy and chemical-dependent, explaining that many newer roses are bred for better disease resistance and can be grown sustainably with good soil, smart plant choice, and realistic expectations.
• Choosing the right rose for the right purpose is key. Roses should be selected based on their role in the garden, whether for height, spread, colour, season-long interest, or vertical growing, rather than just choosing one because the flower looks pretty in the pot.

Learn more at jacksonandperkins.ca. Find them online on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube and Instagram.

Find Paul Zimmerman online at paulzimmermanroses.com and watch his how-to videos on YouTube.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

After a long winter, it's tempting to get outside and start tidying, digging, and checking everything off our spring to-do list. But April is such a gentle, in-between month in the garden, and it really asks us to slow down, pay attention, and let nature lead a little. This week on the podcast, Joanne reviews what you should and shouldn't be doing in your April garden.

Why is patience so important in the April garden?

Because early spring gardening depends more on weather and soil conditions than the calendar. Joanne emphasizes waiting for the ground to dry, the frost to leave, and nighttime temperatures to rise before raking, planting, digging, or cleaning up too much. Acting too early can damage lawns, compact soil, and disrupt beneficial insects.

What garden jobs can you safely do in April?

April is a good time for gentle, low-risk tasks such as starting seeds indoors, refreshing spring containers, adding compost to the vegetable garden, sharpening tools, and lightly cleaning up only when conditions are right. Joanne also suggests using April to plan, take photos, and observe what is happening in the garden rather than rushing into heavy work.

How should gardeners handle pruning and cleanup in early spring? Carefully and selectively. Joanne warns against pruning spring-blooming shrubs too early, cutting back perennials before insects emerge, or shaping evergreens in April. Instead, she recommends watching for insect activity, removing only winter damage where needed, and timing pruning based on the type of plant so gardeners do not sacrifice blooms or stress plants unnecessarily.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

This month on Down the Garden Path, Joanne welcomes five talented landscape designers, each with their own style, story, and specialty. What connects them all is a shared passion for creating beautiful, thoughtful outdoor spaces for their clients. Tune in each week in March as they share their experiences, perspectives, and the many ways landscape design can shape how we live outdoors.

In this episode, Joanne speaks with Abby Rupsa, founder and lead designer of Botanical Living in Colorado, about her path into landscape design, the evolution of her "design bid" service model, and what it really means to offer a high-touch, client-focused experience. Their conversation explores the value of professional planning, collaboration with contractors, material and plant choices, and how thoughtful landscape design can create beautiful, functional outdoor spaces that add lasting value.

Topics Covered

• Abby explains her "design bid" model, in which she stays involved throughout construction without doing the installation work herself.
• She says many homeowners do not understand the design process and need help seeing the full picture.
• Unlike traditional design-build firms, Abby focuses on the best outcome for the client rather than pushing sales.
• She emphasizes "value engineering" so projects can be built realistically within budget.
• Abby now works closely with one trusted contractor to create a smoother client experience.
• Contractor meetings happen with the client, designer, and builder together to review the estimate in detail.
• Joanne notes that this shared meeting format reduces confusion and speeds up decisions.
• Abby says landscape designers are educators and problem-solvers, not just creatives.
• She explains that homeowners often become blind to problems and miss better possibilities for their yard.
• One project revealed major structural problems that required a more honest renovation approach.
• Abby says trust and authority matter because clients need confidence in the guidance they receive.
• Good design sometimes means challenging what a client asks for to create a space that truly works.
• Abby uses software and furniture layouts to show how a space will function in real life.
• Joanne stresses the importance of planning the whole landscape before adding features in stages.
• Abby agrees, noting that early planning avoids rework and prepares for future additions.
• She describes her "white glove" approach, with 3D presentations and a more thoughtful client experience.
• Abby wants the process to feel easier and more supported for homeowners.
• She uses digital lookbooks and physical samples to help clients compare materials.
• 3D visuals help clients picture the finished landscape and feel excited about the result.
• Abby discusses xeriscaping in Colorado and the need for drought-tolerant, climate-appropriate planting.
• She explains that xeriscaping should still feel lush and intentional, not just rocky and sparse.
• Her planting designs balance structure, blooms, texture, evergreen interest, and lower maintenance.
• Abby also educates clients about plant establishment and care in Colorado's dry climate.
• Her design packages are detailed enough for any contractor to build from.
• She notes that 3D renderings require clear communication so clients understand that plant growth takes time.
• Even unbuilt landscape plans can add appeal and value if a homeowner decides to sell.
• Joanne and Abby close by discussing how landscape design can improve both lifestyle and property value.

Takeaways and Tips

• Start with a full landscape plan before making construction decisions so the entire space works together cohesively over time.
• A good landscape designer does more than make things look pretty. They solve problems, educate clients, and help prevent costly mistakes.
• Design decisions should be based on how a space will actually function, not just on what sounds good in theory or looks fine on paper.
• Bringing the designer, contractor, and client together early can improve communication, speed up decision-making, and create more realistic budgets.
• Value engineering is not about cutting corners. It is about spending wisely and making strategic adjustments that protect the integrity of the design.
• In dry climates, xeriscaping should focus on smart plant choices and water stewardship, not simply replacing everything with rock.
• 3D renderings can be powerful tools, but homeowners should understand that mature landscapes take time to grow into the vision shown.
• Investing in professional landscape design can improve not only daily enjoyment and function, but also long-term property value.

Find Abby online at www.botanicallivingdesigns.com, and on Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

This month on Down the Garden Path, Joanne welcomes five talented landscape designers, each with their own style, story, and specialty. What connects them all is a shared passion for creating beautiful, thoughtful outdoor spaces for their clients. Tune in each week in March as they share their experiences, perspectives, and the many ways landscape design can shape how we live outdoors.

In this episode, Joanne speaks with Jeff Collins of Ottawa's REWILD Landscapes about ecological landscaping, native plants, edible gardens, and outdoor spaces that support both people and wildlife.

Topics Covered

• Jeff Collins is the owner of REWILD Landscapes, a queer-owned ecological landscaping company in Ottawa.
• Their work combines horticulture, landscape design, food security, and ecological restoration.
• Jeff's childhood experience with food insecurity strongly influenced their interest in growing food and building community through landscapes.
• They studied horticulture at Algonquin College, where they focused on urban agriculture, sustainability, and native plants.
• Their landscape philosophy centres on creating spaces that support life from the soil microbes up to people and wildlife.
• Jeff encourages homeowners to rethink the role of the front lawn, replacing it with meadows, native gardens, rain gardens, and habitat-rich planting.
• They focus primarily on native plants and also incorporate non-invasive edible plants where appropriate.
• One of their favourite plants is the pawpaw, a native fruit tree they describe as delicious and underappreciated.
• Jeff looks for plants that do more than fill space; they should also provide ecological function, food value, or habitat.
• They often replace invasive plants with alternatives that match both the look and the ecological role of the original plant.
• Examples of native replacements discussed include serviceberry, sweet crabapple, switchgrass, little bluestem, and false sorghum.
• Jeff often uses plugs instead of one-gallon nursery plants for large-scale planting projects.
• They explain that plugs are more affordable, easier to plant in large numbers, quicker to adapt to site conditions and better at forming strong root systems over time.
• While plugs require patience, Jeff believes they create a more resilient, cooperative plant community.
• They encourage clients to accept a more natural look and allow landscapes to evolve.
• A recurring theme is that larger garden beds can be lower-maintenance than tightly packed, narrow planting strips.
• Jeff challenges the common assumption that "small garden = less work."
• They emphasize that native gardens often become easier to care for as plants establish and fill in naturally.
• Joanne and Jeff discuss how homeowners often begin with hesitation, then become more engaged as they notice wildlife, seedlings, and seasonal changes.
• Jeff sees gardens as a way to rebuild a connection to nature, food, childhood memories and place. They talk about the emotional pull of foraging, berry picking, and growing food at home.
• Jeff notes that many clients are motivated not just by food prices but also by a desire for meaningful outdoor experiences.
• Their three common client groups include families with children, professionals seeking a restorative retreat at home and retirees wanting to give back and reconnect with nature.
• Water management is another major focus of Jeff's work.
• They incorporate features such as rain gardens, permeable bases and dry creek beds and deep-rooted plantings that improve infiltration.
• They explain that lawns do a poor job of recharging groundwater compared to diverse plantings with deeper roots.
• Joanne and Jeff discuss Ottawa's Rain Ready rebate program and how it helps create opportunities for stormwater-friendly landscapes.
• Jeff uses flagstone and cedar structures rather than interlock whenever possible, aligning hardscape choices with their ecological values.
• Joanne reflects on the importance of sharing knowledge among landscape designers, rather than reinventing the wheel.
• Jeff shares their experience appearing on Dragon's Den, where they pitched their business as an ecological, food-focused, inclusive landscaping company.

Takeaways and Tips

• Replace at least part of your lawn with planting that provides habitat, beauty, and ecological function.
• Do not assume a smaller garden is easier: well-sized planting beds are often lower maintenance.
• Native plants can support pollinators, birds, and beneficial insects while also reducing long-term upkeep.
• Consider adding edible plants to create a stronger personal connection to your outdoor space.
• Use rain gardens and deep-rooted plants to help manage water and reduce runoff.
• For larger naturalized projects, plugs can be a smart and affordable planting strategy.
• Be cautious about accepting shared plants from friends and neighbours, since invasive species can spread that way.
• Focus on creating a garden that invites you outside to observe, harvest, explore, and participate.
• A thoughtful design plan can save money, reduce mistakes, and help you build your landscape in phases.
• The best gardens are not just decorative; they help people feel more connected to the natural world.

Find Jeff online at www.rewildlandscapes.ca, on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.

This month on Down the Garden Path, Joanne welcomes five talented landscape designers, each with their own style, story, and specialty. What connects them all is a shared passion for creating beautiful, thoughtful outdoor spaces for their clients. Tune in each week in March as they share their experiences, perspectives, and the many ways landscape design can shape how we live outdoors.

This week, Joanne welcomes Rita Nugent, a landscape designer in Southern Ontario, and owner of Rita Nugent Landscape Design.

Topics Covered

• Rita's journey from solving problems in her own garden to becoming a professional landscape designer
• How compacted soil, mature trees, pools, pets, and family life shaped her practical design philosophy
• Why Rita focuses on design-only services and how that helps homeowners stay in control of projects and budgets
• The importance of planning both hardscaping and softscaping together, rather than treating planting as an afterthought
• How thoughtful design considers entertaining space, traffic flow, privacy, recreation, and future phases of a project
• The rise of virtual landscape design and how Rita uses Dynascape, client photos, surveys, and Google Earth to make it work
• Why designers often notice bigger issues homeowners may miss, including neighbouring trees, conservation land, municipal regulations, and permit-related planting requirements
• How municipalities are increasingly focused on tree canopy, flood mitigation, and sustainable planting
• Why starting with a landscape design can help avoid costly mistakes, bylaw issues, drainage problems, and neighbour disputes
• The role of landscape designers in helping homeowners choose plants that will actually thrive, not just survive
• Why good design saves money by helping contractors quote accurately and reducing changes later
• Sustainable landscaping ideas, including enlarging garden beds, using natural mulch, amending soil, reducing unnecessary lawn, harvesting rainwater, and supporting pollinators
• Rita's insight that gardening and landscaping are "the purest form of optimism"
• The impact professional landscaping can have on property value, resale appeal, and long-term enjoyment
• Common homeowner requests such as low-maintenance gardens, privacy solutions, deer resistance, and goose deterrence
• Rita's current favourite plant choice: a unique Japanese maple, chosen for beauty and year-round enjoyment

Takeaways and Tips

• Start with a professional landscape plan before hiring contractors or installing patios, decks, pools, or planting beds.
• Treat the landscape as a whole system rather than separating hardscaping from planting.
• Think beyond your property line. Neighbouring trees, conservation land, drainage patterns, and bylaws can all affect your project.
• Ask about future phases of your yard so today's choices do not create tomorrow's headaches.
• Use accurate measurements and documentation to avoid design and installation mistakes.
• Consider virtual design if you live outside your designer's local area or need a more flexible process.
• Choose plants based on your site conditions, climate, and maintenance goals, not just online inspiration photos.
• Preserve and support mature trees whenever possible. They add beauty, shade, environmental value, and property value.
• Harvest rainwater and direct it into your garden, where possible, to support healthier plants and reduce runoff.
• Low-maintenance does not mean no-maintenance, but smart plant choices and proper installation can dramatically reduce the workload.
• Before digging, always arrange for utility locates through Ontario One Call
• A well-designed landscape is not just attractive. It can improve privacy, function, sustainability, resale appeal, and day-to-day enjoyment.

Find Rita online at www.ritanugentlandscapedesign.com.

Have a topic you'd like Joanne to discuss?

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne on her website: 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.

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.