Down The Garden Path Podcast

This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne explores the benefits of becoming a garden communicator with C.L. Fornari, president of Garden Communicators International.

About C.L. Fornari

C.L. is a creative gardening expert (aka plant geek) who transitioned from artist to garden communicator in 1995. She is the author of eight books including her latest, Sand and Soil – Creating Beautiful Gardens on Cape Cod and the Islands.

She hosts GardenLine, a live call-in radio program heard on WXTK since 2002, and speaks to groups nationwide, in person and virtually. C.L. grows vegetables, flowers and numerous other plants at Poison Ivy Acres on Cape Cod. You can find her at GardenLady.com.

About Garden Communications International (GardenComm)

GardenComm provides opportunities for education, recognition, career development and a forum for wide-ranging interactions and collaborations for professionals in the field of gardening communication.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• How did you get involved with GardenComm?
• What is a garden communicator?
• How long have you been a garden communicator?
• What are the rewards of becoming a garden speaker/author/podcaster/radio host/writer?
• What are the downsides? (there are always downsides)
• How does someone who loves plants and gardening get started?
• What are the benefits of belonging to that organization?
• The GardenComm Virtual Conference, and their online learning

Website: gardencomm.org

Instagram: @GardenComm

Facebook: @gardencommunicatorsinternational

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect via her website at down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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.

Seed-starting season has officially begun! This week on Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw gets tips and advice on seeds for your lawn and garden from Rebecca Boyar of West Coast Seeds.

About Rebecca Boyar

Rebecca Boyar has an extensive and varied career in horticulture, spanning nearly 35 years. She began her journey managing an herb farm on the west coast in the early 90s. From there, she transitioned to developing a non-profit horticultural program and launching the first urban hydroponic training facility in Canada. She later worked as a Non-GMO Commodity Merchandiser at a small agricultural brokerage in southern Manitoba, focusing on soybean and organic production. In 2018, she moved into the cannabis sector, serving as a Master Grower and a Health Canada approved Quality Assurance Processor in Quebec.

Currently, Rebecca is a West Coast Seeds representative in eastern Ontario, offering her horticultural expertise and knowledge in the non-GMO and organic seeds market.

About West Coast Seeds

West Coast Seeds was founded in 1983 in Vancouver, British Columbia, with the purpose of sourcing and supplying seeds of the highest quality while following the traditions of organic farming and gardening. They offer over 1,100 varieties of untreated, non-genetically modified seeds. For them, organic is about much more than saying no to chemicals, it is about saying yes to building a healthy soil for the future.

Renee's Garden and Cornucopia Seeds are sister brands of West Coast Seeds, proudly owned and operated by the same Canadian-based family. You can find these premium-quality seeds at garden centres across Canada.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Rebecca discussed her journey to West Coast Seeds and how the season of seed starting is upon us.
  • Provided tips on the seeds that need an early start and that we should start now.
• The new seed mix from West Coast Seeds called Grub Resistant Lawn Blend.
• Regular turf attracts grubs, which affects our lawns, leading to Japanese beetles, which affect our plants.
  • This new mix of Tall Fescue and pelleted Micro-Clover forms a thick, drought-resistant lawn without the thatch that the beetles love to lay their eggs in.
  • Rebecca discussed the best practices for applying this grass seed and there is more information on their website.
• West Coast Seeds has a nice variety of lawn blends for many situations including a Chafer Beetle Resistant lawn blend for those that battle the Chafer Beetle and an Alternative Lawn Wildflower mix.
  • This blend is an alternative to having a lawn, and it forms low-growing ground cover that includes a mix of fine fescues, flowers and clover species that stay about 6-8 inches high.
  • A nice idea for anyone with a small lawn who wants to support pollinators.
• You can order seed from their website or most garden centres will stock West Coast Seeds.
  • If you cannot find something you want in a local store then you can request the store to order it for you.
  • For those that enjoy a paper seed catalog, you can order one from their website, as well.

Website: www.westcoastseeds.com

Instagram: @westcoastseeds

Facebook: @westcoastseeds

ouTube: @westcoastseedstv

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect via her website at down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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 the podcast, Joanne Shaw welcomes Jazmin Albarran, the Executive Director of Seed Your Future, a national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting horticulture and inspiring the next generation of green industry leaders.

Jazmin has over 20 years experience in youth development, outreach, and mental health, and is passionate about creating opportunities that empower young people and showcase the diverse career paths within horticulture. Under her leadership, Seed Your Future has launched innovative programs like Seed to STEM and Green Career Week, which provides industries with a toolkit to connect students to horticulture employers.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Joanne and Jazmin discussed the importance of promoting the industry to students, as it is often misunderstood as a hobby rather than a multi-billion-dollar business.
  • Over 900 individuals have downloaded their toolkit, which includes resources for setting up field trips and class presentations, as well as social media guidance.
  • The goal is to showcase the passion and commitment of the horticulture industry to the next generation.
• Seed Your Future aims to raise awareness of horticulture as a business and industry, particularly among middle school students and career changers.
  • Jazmin shared that Seed Your Future assists individuals in finding opportunities in the industry, even without formal education.
  • They also discussed the impact of COVID-19 on the plant industry, with Jazmin citing a survey by the Garden Media Group that found 16-18 million people discovered plants for the first time during the pandemic.
  • Joanne shared her own experience of having a second career in horticulture and the challenges she faced in finding education opportunities.
• They announced the upcoming 5th Green Career Week from March 3rd to 7th, which aims to connect students with green careers and promote awareness of local businesses in the horticulture industry.
  • Jazmin also mentioned the availability of internships and apprenticeship programs, which are more prominent in the United States.
• The website is open to anyone interested in learning about horticulture careers, featuring 147 different career profiles.
  • Joanne shared her personal experience of transitioning to a landscape design career, and Jazmin confirmed that their program covers all aspects of the industry.
  • They also touched on the potential for careers that don't involve direct contact with plants but still offer immersion in the industry.

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect via her website at down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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.

Welcome back to season 11 of Down the Garden Path podcast! After a winter hiatus, landscape designer Joanne Shaw is excited to kick off a new podcast season revisiting new topics and old favourites while gaining valuable wisdom and advice from industry experts.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Plans for the new season, including interviews with experts and authors in the landscape and horticulture industry
• Her recent experiences at the Landscape Designers Conference and Landscape Ontario Congress:
  • At the Landscape Designer Conference, keynote speaker Dr. Allan Armitage, a professor from Atlanta, spoke about transforming chaos into contentment.
  • This concept of transforming a chaotic outdoor space into a contented and enjoyable environment emphasizes the importance of curb appeal and year-round outdoor enjoyment.
• During the Landscape Ontario Congress, Joanne attended a talk by OMAFRA, (Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs) that discussed the impact of the box tree moth on the boxwood industry including prevention methods and treatment options:
  • It has spread across most of Ontario and Quebec since its first sighting in 2017 and has caused significant damage to boxwood plants.
  • While efforts to contain the moth have been unsuccessful in the east, they have managed to prevent its spread to Western Canada.
  • Joanne discusses potential remedies, including using a bacterial spray (Btk) but notes that frequent application is necessary due to the moth's voracious appetite.

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect via her website at down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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

What's Wrong With Your Boxwood?

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.

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing provide some tips and tricks and do's and don'ts for your November garden. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Planting bulbs
• Cleaning up your vegetable garden in time for winter
• Why you should not cut back your perennials
• Check out their Five Fall Lawn Care Tips for November lawn care
• How to protect your trees, shrubs, and evergreens from animals and winter

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with her here: down2earth.ca

You can find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

You can find Matthew Dressing at naturalaffinity.ca.

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

Down the Garden Path: Five Fall Lawn Care Tips

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.

Fed up with critters stealing your bulbs or waiting for the foliage to die back after your bulbs finish flowering? In this episode of Down the Garden Path podcast, Joanne Shaw explains why creating a layered bulb planter may be the solution you're looking for.

How to build a layered bulb planter:

• Choose the container carefully.
  • Size and drainage are important.
  • You can choose a plastic one that you will then use as a liner inside a "prettier" pot, or you can plant it right into a decorative pot -- just make sure you can move it to the garage now and back out into the garden in the spring.
• Choose at least 3 types and or sizes of bulbs.
  • Be sure to consider the bloom times.
  • Do you want them to stagger out a few weeks to bloom, or do you want them to bloom at approximately the same time?
  • This is not an exact science so there are no guarantees that bulbs will bloom when you want them to.
• Make sure the bottom layer of bulbs is tall enough to grow out of the pot.
  • Start by adding at least 1 to 2 inches of potting soil at the bottom of the pot.
  • You can sprinkle a bit of bulb fertilizer if you would like.
  • Insert the bulbs approximately a couple of inches apart, close enough for the bulbs to support each other.
  • Top with another 2 inches of potting soil and a handful of fertilizer, then add the second layer of bulbs.
• Repeat for the subsequent layers.
• Water the container thoroughly after planting: you should see that a bit of water has come out of the drainage hole.
• These pots can then be stored in an unheated garage, shed or sheltered area between garages for instance.
  • Do not store in direct sunlight. The goal is to avoid the freeze and thaw that inevitably occurs in our winters.
• Throughout the winter, water the plants thoroughly but intermittently.
  • Think about doing it when it rains or snows outside.
  • You don't want the soil too wet or the bulbs may rot.
  • If there's snow, you could even top them off with a shovel of it to keep them watered and cool.
• In the spring, take them out of storage and place them around the yard.
• You can also do this on a smaller scale to have some small bulb planters in the house for spring or maybe even an Easter centrepiece or gift.
• These would make great Christmas gifts for other gardeners or people in an apartment or condo.

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

Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss.

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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 Shaw explores the benefits and steps to creating a no-till lasagna garden.

What is lasagna no-till gardening?

• Often called "lasagna" gardening because of the layering involved or no-till gardening because there is no need to dig up and disturb the existing organic matter.

Reasons to consider a lasagna no-till garden:

• You want to create a new or expanded garden area in your yard
• You're considering planting a vegetable or herb garden next year

When's the best time?

• October/ November is the best time to do it and in the least back-breaking and simplest way.

Joanne's experience:

• Joanne did this with her garden in October 2016.
• Check out the Lasagna Gardening section of Joanne's book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden. You'll find pictures of Joanne's garden in 2016 and how she tackled creating a new garden area that she planted in the following June of 2017. Or listen to her talk about it on a previous show.
• Here are some of the basics and her recommendations eight years later.
  • Joanne lives on a corner lot with no sidewalks: her garden is in the front yard, to the right of the front door from the walkway to the curb and wraps around the corner and ends at the driveway.
  • In 2016, she had a garden in the centre of that space surrounded by approximately 3-4 feet of grass (it was actually barren, dry soil that was hard to water because of the slight slope).
  • It received A LOT of sun. She didn't have time to baby a garden and wasn't going to baby her lawn.
  • She liked the idea of having more garden and less lawn and was looking for a simple way to make this happen.
  • Her research led her to lasagna gardening where you cover your lawn with layers of material to not only kill your lawn but create a "new" garden or new improved garden area to plant in the following spring.
  • Starting a new garden by digging up an existing lawn or maybe an old one that you inherited that needs some major refreshing seems straightforward. But not only is it hard work, it is often hard for most people to dispose of the old sod, or poor garden material.
• The steps:
  • That is the beauty of this method. It starts with cardboard! Lots of cardboard, more than you think you will need because you want to make sure the boxes overlap.
  • Make sure you remove the packing tape and don't use any coated cardboard that may be found at the grocery store/or restaurants.
  • Cover the cardboard with a quality organic material like manure or mushroom compost, at least to 2-3 inches, making sure the cardboard is completely covered.
  • Cover everything once again with an organic mulch, again 2 to 3 inches. Don't worry if this seems high, as everything starts to break down it will "thin" out. Joanne's favourite: composted pine mulch (no dyed mulches please).
  • This is the perfect time of year to do this and as the fall rain and winter snow (hopefully) cover the new garden, it will help everything to break down, especially the cardboard.
  • Once May or June arrives, you should be able to start planting. It is as easy as that!
  • This is great for areas large or small, but also ideal for challenging boulevards, where the grass doesn't grow well or you're tired of cutting it.

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

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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.

In October in the Garden, Joanne Shaw reviews some of the tasks you can do this month but insists it's not as labour-intensive as you may think!

Tasks you can do this month:

Vegetable Gardens

• Clean up and remove the old stems of your tomato or pepper plants that have stopped producing.
• Sow cool weather plants like lettuce and some spinach: they grow better in the shoulder seasons, late spring /early summer or fall.
• Buy plants at a garden centre or start seeds and sow them right into the garden.
• Top up the vegetable garden with some compost or manure to get ahead of next year.
• Take pictures so you know where plants are because next year you may need to put things in different places.
• Plant a cover crop.

Containers

• If you want to take advantage of the nice weather at the beginning of October, take your vegetable out of its container and pop in an aster.

Annuals and Perennials

• Annuals: With no frost anytime soon, annuals are probably still doing okay. They may be a little bit leggy or sad-looking. Perk them up with water and fertilizer.
• Perennials: No need to cut them back. You can do some deadheading if things are really looking brown and not necessarily attractive.

Deciduous Trees and Shrubs

• Trees:
  • It is important to water deciduous trees, especially young ones, certainly ones that you just planted this year.
  • Water them deeply every week.
• Evergreen shrubs:
  • Enjoy the fall colour and shape of your shrubs. Cutting them back now is not necessary.
  • Keep newly planted shrubs well-watered. They need some extra time to get established. Being in a drought situation as they go into dormancy in winter is never a good thing.

Seeds and Bulbs

• It's a good time to buy and plant your garlic.
• Spring bulbs: find and buy bulbs – just don't plant them until the end of October, or the beginning of November!
• I recommend not planting tulips but instead looking at the interesting varieties of daffodils or alliums
• Daffodils and alliums are poisonous to squirrels and other rodents, so they will leave them alone.

Lawn Care

• Time to apply fall fertilizer.
• Pay attention to the weeds, especially crabgrass which is prolific this time of year
• Apply corn gluten to act as a preemergent, preventing the weed seeds from germinating. It's best to apply during spring and fall.

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

Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss. Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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.

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw discusses how to extend the blooming season in your garden by adding asters.

Topics covered in this week's episode:

• Gardens don't have to stop blooming in September. We can extend the season to October and November.
• It's very important to have because the pollinators still need something blooming.
• There are over 30 different species of asters.
• They have a huge variety of growing conditions, so there is an aster for whatever challenging growing condition you have.

Here are the five asters discussed:

• New England Aster, Symphyotrichum nova-angliae
  • The showiest, and likely the one you're most familiar with
  • Native to most U.S. states and provinces
  • It is large and very showy, with a bright cozy blue flower with a yellow centre
  • The leaves on the stem are densely arranged on the stem
  • Prefer soil moist and they can grow in part shade
  • One of the larger varieties: up to six feet tall
• Whitewood Aster Eurybia divaricata
  • Delicate looking flowers
  • Grows in dry shade which means it makes a wonderful addition to the shade garden
  • Not super showy like most shade plants
  • Found in Ontario in dry, deciduous forests
  • So that's exactly what we want in our garden. If you have maple trees, pine trees, or something like that where the soil underneath is very dry and it's very shady, then this is something worth giving a try to
  • Only gets two to three feet tall
• Smooth Aster Symphyotrichum laeve
  • Similar to the New England Aster, although hence its name, it has leaves that are very smooth lavender and blue
  • Has a daisy-type flower with a yellow centre
  • Blooms from August to October
  • A huge pollinator for butterflies and a larvae host for the pearl crescent butterfly
• Heart leaf Aster Symphyotrichum cordifolium
  • Lavender to light blue
  • It is one of the latest ones to bloom and actually goes into November
  • An excellent pollinator for butterflies and bees at late in the season
  • Spreads slowly by rhizomes and it lightly self-seeds
  • Two to three feet tall, sandy to loam soil, and part shade to full shade
• Panicled Aster Symphyotrichum lanceolatum
  • This one blooms with sprays of white flowers, open spreading form, so also known as floppy
  • Best grown with other plants to kind of support it
  • If you already have a native garden, or if you're planting a native garden with other large tall plants, then this could be an addition if you want that
  • Prefers moist soil, but it likes full sun
• You can purchase seeds from Wildflower Farm and you can again, sprinkle them or plant them in your garden this fall
• You can also start them like you normally would do if you wanted them to grow in February/March under lights and go through that type of thing indoors and then put them out next year

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

Fall Mums and Asters

Please let me know what other topics you would like me to discuss.

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with me on my website: down2earth.ca

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

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 Shaw speaks with Wildflower Farm's Miriam Goldberger about Eco-Lawn, the answer to a truly low-maintenance lawn, as well as some of her favourite native plants you can include in your garden.

About Miriam Goldberger

Miriam Goldberger is the founder and co-owner of Wildflower Farm, a wildflower seed production company in Ontario — a magical 100 acres where the flower gardens and meadows thrive without pesticides and are a pollinators' paradise. To learn more about Miriam's journey, visit the Wildflower Farm website.

Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:

• Miriam's book, Taming Wildflowers, was published over 10 years ago.
  • Joanne noted how Miriam has become a pioneer in the industry of native plants and wildflowers.
  • The book contains helpful information about how to grow native plants in specific locations and is available on the Wildflower Farm website.
• Miriam recommends three of her favourite "polite" wildflowers:
  • Black-eyed Susan, a stable perennial for late-summer/early-fall
  • Gaillardia or blanket flower, a vivid and bright yellow/orange/red colour that will stay in bloom
  • Prairie drop seed, a clump-forming, non-aggressive grass that looks beautiful from late spring right through into the fall.
• Miriam also discussed Eco-Lawn:
  • Our customers had urged us to develop a lawn that was just as sustainable, drought tolerant and low maintenance as our wildflower gardens and meadows.
  • While walking in the forests of Ontario, we spotted clumps of rich green grass growing in the deep shade of the northern woods. Could these emerald patches be used as natural grass pathways around and through our wildflower meadows?
  • After three years of research and trials later, Eco-Lawn was born.
  • Since its introduction in 1998, it has changed the face of lawnscaping across North America for homeowners, businesses and municipalities.
  • Eco-Lawn combines several native fescues that grow together to create a matte or lawn.
  • The roots are deeper than our Kentucky Bluegrass which makes it much more drought tolerant and can grow under a variety of light conditions.
  • You can start a new lawn with the seed or slowly convert an existing lawn into a low maintenance Eco- lawn.
  • The fall is the best time to start Eco-lawn! Full instructions on how to prepare for applying Eco-lawn are available on their website.

You can find Wildflower Farm at www.wildflowerfarm.com.

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

Email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca

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.