This month on Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing have been talking all about planning your garden, growing hydroponically, and growing anywhere you can squeeze in a plant! In this episode, returning guest Julia Dimakos discusses growing under lights and her new e-book How to Plan a Vegetable Garden, available now at www.juliadimakos.com

About 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.

She loves to inspire others to have their own vegetable gardens by showing them the simpler side of gardening. She enjoys teaching others, speaking, and holding workshops. You can read her blog at www.juliadimakos.com.

Don't miss our conversation on growing under lights with Gardening Girl Julia Dimakos.

Some of the questions and topics covered:

• You've been growing under lights now for 10 years; was there a time you weren't using lights to grow your plants? Why do plants do better with grow lights?
• When should someone consider adding lights to their space to help their plants?
• Julia answers listener questions regarding how close the plants are to the lights and how long the lights should be on.
• You use both LED and fluorescent lights with what you grow.
  • Do you find one works better than the other?
  • Do you recommend either LED or fluorescent depending on what you're growing or is it more situational or a personal preference?
    • • What do you look for when purchasing a light?
      • Is there a best way to set them up when growing?
      • How does one know how long to leave their lights on?
• Can you describe your setup? Shelf units? Do you rotate plants onto different shelves?

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

You can also listen to past Down the Garden Path podcasts featuring Julia:

Digging Deep with Veggies

Growing Indoors

Autumn Edibles

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.