May in the Garden

Down The Garden Path Podcast

This week on the Down the Garden Path podcast, landscape designers Joanne Shaw and Matthew Dressing discuss the do’s and don’ts for your May garden.

Here are some of the questions and topics covered in this episode:

• Spring lawn care
  • What can you do now?
  • Can you rake and feed?
• Harden off your seedlings before planting.
• Harden off your houseplants
  • Adapt to higher light levels or direct sun; most prefer only direct morning sun
  • Tropical winter is 16°C; bring your plants out only when the outside temperature is as warm, and bring them inside at night.
• Get your garden beds ready by feeding the soil with compost
  • Perform a soil test to see what amendments are needed in your space.
• Fertilizing: If it's dormant, don't feed it.
• Begin to feed your trees and shrubs
  • Granular vs. water soluble vs. tree spikes
  • Stop feeding your trees and evergreens on July 1st

Resources mentioned during the show

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

Down the Garden Path Podcast

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. A horticulturist and landscape designer, Matthew Dressing owns Natural Affinity Garden Design, a landscape design and garden maintenance firm servicing Toronto and the Eastern GTA. Together, they do their best to bring you interesting, relevant and useful topics to help you keep your garden as low maintenance as possible.

In their new book, Down the Garden Path: A Step-By-Step Guide to Your Ontario Garden, Joanne and Matthew 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. It's now 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 and Patreon.