Down The Garden Path Podcast

August can be a challenging month in the garden. The heat is unrelenting and the weeds are growing strong. It's right around now that our plants can start to look a little tired or spent, and as gardeners, it can be a difficult time because we may be a little tired and spent ourselves!

In our weekly Down the Garden Path podcast, we discuss down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As professional landscape designers and passionate gardeners, Matthew Dressing and I believe it's not just important but possible to have beautiful gardens that are low maintenance. We know you love your gardens, too, and want to help you make it happen.

We are loving our regular feature, the monthly "In the Garden" episode. In this last show of each month, we discuss the tasks you should undertake in the garden the next month. We do our best to give you all the information you'll need to keep your garden thriving and as low maintenance as possible.

In this episode, Matthew and I talk about the do's and don'ts for the challenging August garden. From watering tips to weed and insect control, we cover it all.

With the heat of July comes many things: walks on the beach, drinks on the patio, lounging by the pool, and the dreaded Japanese Garden Beetle. But fear not, we can help you with that last one!

Not sure if Japanese garden beetles are wreaking havoc in your garden? These garden beetles are strangely beautiful, measuring roughly 3/8" long and 1/4" wide. They have shiny, metallic-green bodies and copper-colored wing covers. Their damage is pretty easy to identify and the beetles can usually be caught in the act. Some telltale signs include skeletonized leaves or total defoliation.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designer Matthew Dressing discusses down-to-earth tips and tricks on how to control and protect your garden and lawn from these abundant plant-eating pests.

The wait has been long but daylily season is finally here! On this episode of Down the Garden Path, Tim Hobbs from TrueNorth Daylilies joins me and Matthew to talk all about hybridizing daylilies and their low-maintenance characteristics.

For the past 25 years, Tim has gardened on a two-acre property just south of Warkworth. He creates shade gardens, with sun gardens covering the majority of the property. The property boasts an extensive collection of hostas, lillium and hemerocallis (daylilies).

Around 2007, Tim bought some daylilies from a daylily hybridizer and was fascinated with the idea of making new, never-seen-before daylilies. It wasn't too long afterward that he tried some hybridizing. Slowly but surely, the flowers expanded beyond the two acres, jumping the fence onto an additional two acres which now houses a greenhouse and approximately 50,000 daylilies.

About five years ago, TrueNorth Daylilies was born offering daylilies for $15 each or three for $40. Tim's goal as a hybridizer is to create beautiful, fancy faces on cold-hardy strong well-branched plants.

TrueNorth Daylilies cross modern southern plants with cold-hardy dormants. Mother Nature weeds out those not suitable for our climate. As dormants display the desired traits, they are selected and moved for further evaluation and continuous hybridizing with southern and dormant plants.

Interested in making a visit to TrueNorth Daylilies? They are open every day in July from 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. at 59 Hutchinson Rd., Warkworth. To learn more or purchase plants online, visit them online at www.truenorthdaylilies.com.

Each week on Down the Garden Path, we discuss down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As landscape designers and gardeners, we believe it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance. Joining me on Down the Garden Path this week for Perennial Talk is Dawn Golloher, owner of Gardens Plus.

Gardens Plus is a garden nursery near Peterborough, Ontario, and an online plant mail-order business, specializing in easy-care perennials.

Their motto,

"We focus on easy-care perennials so you can enjoy your gardens not just work in them."

is one gardeners everywhere can appreciate.

During Perennial Talk, Dawn and I remind everyone that it's not too late to buy and plant perennials. We also discuss some tips for helping your plants thrive.

We chat about the best perennials for shade and sun. Dawn shares a variety of tips and tricks to make easy-care perennials even easier.

Dawn also shares some of her favorite new varieties and highlights some great pollinators for the garden. And we learn more about Gardens Plus as their business transitions into the next season.

Please head on out and support Dawn at Gardens Plus or your local garden centre.

Tonight, we're talking July in the Garden! In this episode, we look at some of the ways to help you keep your garden cool and happy, and some of the fantastic plants we still have to look forward to.

We've seen a wet, cool Spring 2019. Although all the rain has made our gardens lush and green, July is finally here and so is the heat!

Here are some of the highlights from this week's episode:

Keep watering plants! This is especially important since we are in quite a drought. Remember, summer rain does not count as proper watering!

To learn more about irrigation systems, check out our Aquaman Irrigation podcast from April 8th. In that podcast, Aquaman Irrigation's Daniel Domingues shared the basics of what is involved in irrigation installation and explained the benefits of the New SMART controllers for irrigation systems.

• Keep the lawn watered to one-inch deep each week.
• Cut your lawn no lower than three inches for cool-season lawns.
• Apply a summer fertilizer in early to mid-July.

• Keep tomatoes watered and mulched. Blossom end rot will begin to appear.
• Plant a fall crop of potatoes before the 15th of July.
• Keep fleshy, juicy fruit and vegetables, like cucumber, well-watered in times of drought.

Tune in to hear about our favourite stars in the July Garden!

Shade gardening: just the thought of it makes some gardeners cringe, with images of hostas racing through their mind. In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Matthew and I shed some light on the issue of shade gardening, offering tips and looking at a variety of interesting shade plants to brighten the dark recesses of your yard.

Believe it or not, it's easy to have a beautiful, colourful shade garden filled with more than just hostas.

We discuss how to define shade, as it is different in every garden. What's the best way to measure it?

We also highlight some tips for shade gardening, including:

• • Mulch: Learn the different types of mulch available and the benefits of each– watering, weed control, soil enhancement, beneficial insects.
  • Planting: Dig the hole more than twice as wide and line with newspaper.
  • Watering: How often should you water and how deep? Test yourself!
  • Designing in shade: Learn how to achieve all-summer colour with foliage and texture.

Matthew and I discuss what shrubs and perennials truly thrive when planted in the shade. Tune in to find out our favourites and learn more tips for planting in the shady areas of your garden.

This week on Down the Garden Path, we tackle a more serious topic: Climate Change in Our Community.

Entrepreneur Richard Gauder joins Matthew and Joanne for a candid conversation on how climate change is affecting our community. Richard and his wife Sandi are co-founders of CMS Web Solutions. They use gardening as a way to counter the effects of electronics and their endless hours at the office.

For over 25 years, climate change has been Richard's hobby. Five years ago, he was approached by the Region of Durham to serve on the Durham Region Roundtable on Climate Change. This group consists of senior Regional political leaders, senior staff and local climate and industry experts. They advise the Region on climate mitigation and adaptation. For three years, Richard served as Chair, leaving only after a move to Kawartha Lakes.

In this episode, we discuss the greenhouse effect and how changing weather patterns affect our community. Richard feels that sometimes politics need to be put aside and that now is the time for individual action. It is his belief that there is magic in keeping it simple and we need to stop waiting for government to fix things. Individuals need to act.

Richard and Sandi Gauder took this sentiment to heart and founded Plant a Forest. This new grassroots organization focuses on replacing trees to combat flooding from runoff. These are trees we've lost due to housing developments, expanding agricultural lands, disease and bugs. To learn more about Richard and Sandi's venture, follow along at www.plantaforest.ca. We hope you enjoy our conversation.

Our show this week is all about Trees in the June Garden. Each week on Down the Garden Path we discuss down to earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As Landscape Designers and gardeners we think it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance. Thanks for joining us here. In our regular monthly " In the Garden " show we like to help you prepare for garden tasks in the upcoming month. We also know that timing is everything in the garden and there is a definite right time for many things, especially trees.

Mark Irwin, arbourist with Bartlett Trees Experts joins us in the studio again. This time we focus on trees in the June Garden. As all our Spring Flowering trees, wind down their beautiful displays now is the time to pay closer attention to them. Mark gives some tips on what to look for as far as insects and diseases and the importance to get on a program so that the tree is treated for them at the correct time of year.

We also discussed best practices to care for some of the most popular small evergreens and small trees in a typical garden. Boxwood, Yews and Japanese Maples. Have a listen and learn along with us on this timely show.

Growing Cannabis. Whether you are a lifelong gardener or just beginning your journey, there is one plant we are all talking about. Cannabis. On this episode of Down the Garden Path we take a look at this controversial plant. What is it, how it's grown and what laws and regulations face Canadians with Cannabis' recent legalization.

Each week on Down the Garden Path we discuss down to earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As Landscape Designers and gardeners we think it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance. Thanks for joining us here.

We created a Gardening Question Period. Each week on Down the Garden Path we discuss down to earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. As Landscape Designers and gardeners we think it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance. Thanks for joining us here.

On this episode Matthew and Joanne answer listener questions. We had a jam-packed Gardening Question period answering listener questions to help them with their low maintenance gardens. Questions about pruning, planting veggies, lawns of course and even insects. Tune in for this really informative show.