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.   Shade Gardening Tips and Defining Shade 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.    What plants thrive in the shade? 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.  

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

On Down the Garden Path Podcast, landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses down-to-earth tips and advice for your plants, gardens and landscapes. She believes it is important and possible to have great gardens that are low maintenance. On Down the Garden Path, she speaks with industry experts and garden authors to educate listeners on how to seasonally manage their gardens and landscapes.

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In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses Hosta Virus X with returning guest Dawn Golloher from Gardens Plus. Dawn Golloher is the owner-operator of Gardens Plus, an independent garden centre in Peterborough, Ontario, specializing in easy-care perennials.  Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:  Can you tell us more about Hosta Virus X?  The virus was first discovered in 1996. It spreads from the sap in the hosta leaves and roots. The best way to protect your plants is to buy from reputable sources and to practice good hygiene when dividing or cleaning up hostas. Use disinfectant wipes or have a bottle of diluted bleach handy to spray down your tools and then wipe off. This would help many things from spreading throughout our gardens, including powdery mildew.   Hosta Virus X doesn’t kill the hosta.  It will just have mottled or blotchy colouring and the hostas may not thrive in the long run. It will also not spread to other perennials in your garden.   The best way to remove an infected plant Three ways to recognize Hosta Virus X:  ink bleeding mottled tissue collapsed tissue   Gardens Plus is opening May 9th this year and will be open Thursday to Sunday until June 30th, 2024.  Find Gardens Plus online:  www.GardensPlus.ca Facebook: @gardensplus Instagram: @gardensplus YouTube: @gardensplus Pinterest: @gardensplus Twitter: @gardensplus  Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca  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 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.

Hosta Virus X with Dawn Golloher from Gardens Plus

This week on Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Garden Media's Katie Dubow back to the podcast to discuss new plants and products for 2024. About Katie Dubow Katie Dubow is the president of Garden Media Group, a women-owned and run public relations firm specializing in the home and garden industry and celebrating its 31st year in business. Author of the annual Garden Trends Report, Dubow travels the world scouting and presenting garden trends to audiences from Italy to Chicago. Some of the questions and topics covered:  The spring runways shows are in full swing Foraging brings the beauty of nature indoors  What is foraging? Are there tools for foraging that make it easy to do?   Knock Out roses are easy-care year-round blooming roses  What’s new this spring?   Azaleas are beautiful shrubs, but gardeners should know about new Autumn azaleas: what are they? What is a combo that will attract bees, birds, and butterflies?  What have you found works for a succulent garden and provides resources for night pollinators? Spring is the season for migration and having food as they travel back north: what do you suggest for our yards?   What are other organic products that support a healthy environment? Tomatoes are one of the most popular vegetables to grow in the garden or containers, especially cherry tomatoes  What is your favourite this year?   Where can listeners learn more about these new garden Superstar flowers and products?  Follow Katie Dubow online: Facebook: KatieGardenGirl Instagram: KatieGMG Find Garden Media Group online: Website: www.gardenmediagroup.com Facebook: Garden Media Group Instagram: GardenMedia Pinterest: GardenMedia LinkedIn: Garden Media Group Twitter: GardenMedia Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca  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 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.

New Plants and Products for 2024 with Katie Dubow

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, landscape designer Joanne Shaw discusses hellebores with returning guest Dawn Golloher from Gardens Plus. Dawn Golloher is the owner-operator of Gardens Plus, an independent garden centre in Peterborough, Ontario, specializing in easy-care perennials.  Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:  Can you give us a bit of a history on hellebores? There are several classifications of hellebores.  Helleborus niger and Helleborus orientalis are the most common.   Helleborus niger also called Christmas Rose.  Native to the mountains of southern and central Europe. Christmas Rose can bloom around Christmas time in warmer regions. It is an early blooming perennial for part-shade to shade conditions. They have rose-like petals, some single and some double. The foliage often comes up after the flowers are evergreen. They are a low-maintenance, slow-growing plant and long living in your garden. Because they are slow growing, they are often quite expensive.   Helleborus orientalis is slightly larger than Helleborus niger and is also called Lenten Rose.  It is native to Asia Minor, Eurasia, Greece and Turkey. Also blooms late winter into spring. The foliage is dark glossy green, evergreen and palmately divided. They require shady to part-shade conditions, but it is important to note that they need well-drained moist soil. Not recommended for dry shade. The flowers are distinctive and a lovely palette of colours is available, so it is hard to have only one in the garden. Thanks to their early blooming, they do make a good pollinators. They are disease-resistant, toxic to cats and dogs (so bitter tasting that they really never get eaten) and deer-resistant, as well.   Some of the favourites that Dawn highlighted were:  Ivory Prince (hardy for lower zones) The Wedding Party series of double-flowering hellebores, including Blushing Bride, Confetti Cake The Honeymoon series of single-petaled flowers New York Night and Carnival   Dawn provided some other easy-care perennial recommendations for this year. How is Gardens Plus different from larger nurseries? They add a personal touch to everything that they do. Gardens Plus is opening May 9th this year and will be open Thursday to Sunday until June 30th, 2024.  Find Gardens Plus online:  www.GardensPlus.ca Facebook: @gardensplus Instagram: @gardensplus YouTube: @gardensplus Pinterest: @gardensplus Twitter: @gardensplus  Find Down the Garden Path online: Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca  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.  Her book Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is available 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.

Hellebores with Dawn Golloher from Gardens Plus

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes author Margot Anne Kelley to discuss her new book, A Gardener at the End of the World. A gardener’s pandemic journal that combines memoir with an exploration of the natural world both inside and outside the garden, it explores questions of what we can preserve - of history, genetic biodiversity, culture, language and what we cannot. It is ideal for any reader curious about the overlap of nature, science and history. Here are some of the topics covered in this episode:  Margot’s pandemic journal and interest in seeds became the raw material out of which the book evolved. The book is a gardener's pandemic journal with a lovely overview of her garden throughout the season, complemented with a timely history of previous world pandemics and how they related to the current one as a way to understand what was going on. An overview of seeds and plants and their origins, and how they travelled the world and impacted how and what we eat now. How researching past plagues and pandemics was therapeutic: the human race survived many horrible things before and it gave her hope that we would prevail again We can all relate to Margot's solace in her evolving garden, as many of us turned to gardening during that time and even still see the importance of growing our food or at least supporting those who do.  A Gardener at the End of the World is available on Amazon. Find more information about Margot Anne Kelley:  Website: www.margotannekelley.com Social Media: @margotannekelley  Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca  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.  Her book Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden is available 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.

A Gardener at the End of the World with Margot Anne Kelley

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Tom Watson from BOLD to discuss landscape lightning. Tom Watson is a Senior Business Development Manager with BOLD (Best Outdoor Living Design), focusing on his territory in Central Ontario. After working in business operations for over nine years, leveraging cutting-edge technologies for strategic growth and process improvement, Tom entered the outdoor lighting industry. Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:  Tell us more about BOLD, the new industry-leading landscape lighting company Landscape lighting is so important, why do you think it can sometimes be forgotten?  We forget about evenings at times during the landscape planning process.   Now that many want to use their outdoor spaces, people are realizing the importance of lighting the space.  New landscape lighting can be added to existing landscapes.   The impact is immediate when homeowners can now use their outdoor spaces in the evening and entertain longer on the weekends.  Mature plants and gardens look beautiful when highlighted with proper low-voltage lighting. Tom refers to this as painting with light!   BOLD lights are CRI 90 or above. Sunlight is 100.  They come with a 7-year warranty.   Are you seeing new trends in landscape lighting?  Black is still the most popular fixture colour. New shape is a reflection of some new shapes in the interlocking industry Smart technology is also popular. Products can be set up and managed through Google Home, Alexa etc.   Where can contractors' homeowners see BOLD products?  Products are available at landscaping dealers. oDisplays will be there for people wh want to see them in person.   BOLD is currently offering Mini Acadamy training to landscapers and designers.  Find more information about BOLD:  Website: www.boldpros.com Instagram: @boldpros @boldpros_tom Facebook: @boldpros  Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast. You can also email your questions and comments to downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca  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 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.

Shade: Beyond the Hosta

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