The Landscape Ontario Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

On today’s episode we are gearing up for the Congress Trade Show and Conference. Hosted by Landscape Ontario, this is Canada's largest and longest-running trade show for landscape and horticulture professionals, happening in Toronto, Ontario, from January 7th to 9th, 2025. If you're in the business of transforming outdoor spaces — whether through landscaping, horticulture, or outdoor design — this is the event you can’t afford to miss. Our guest is Heather MacRae, the trade show director for Congress. With over a decade of experience in bringing this iconic event to life year after year, Heather is here to share what’s new for 2025, some can't-miss features and what makes this trade show a key date on the calendar for industry pros. Stay tuned to the end for a promo code that gets you free tickets to the show.

Resources
Episode Transcription
LOCongress.com
Why people love to attend Congress

As students head back to school this month, many are probably wondering what they should be “when they grow up.” While plenty of adults are still trying to figure that out, high schoolers have a great opportunity to explore different topics before planning their post-secondary path. And maybe, just maybe, that’s a garden path.

In this episode, we talk about how exposure to horticulture and landscaping at the high school level can inspire youth to explore the green trades as a career option. Guest Darren Schmahl has been engaging grade 11 and 12 students through the Green Industries program for the Niagara Catholic District School Board for the past 15 years. Teaching has allowed Schmahl to witness students of all kinds transform as they discover a passion for working in the landscape, so he wants youth and their parents to understand that a career in this field can be rewarding, lucrative and important as we face an ever-changing climate.

Resources
Episode Transcription
Niagara Catholic District School Board SHSM
Niagara Parks School of Horticulture
John Brookes book, Room Outside
Elliot Alkemade Young Scholarship Profile
Ontario Horticultural Trades Foundation Scholarships
Landscape Ontario Congress Trade Show & Conference
Landscape Ontario Youth Engagement Coordinator: 1-800-265-5656 x2335

Are you ready to take your career to the next level, or do you know someone who shows management potential? In this episode of the Landscape Ontario Podcast, we talk to Charolette Cascioli, an experienced HR professional who helps landscape-related companies establish better cultures to attract and retain talent. Charolette is also the facilitator of the GROW Supervisory Foundations program offered by Landscape Ontario. In our conversation, she explains how the program helps people develop confidence and improve their communication skills to embrace leadership opportunities. By working through real-life case studies, with peer collaboration and self-reflection, attendees come away equipped to resolve workplace conflict and positively contribute to the overall culture of their companies.

Resources
Episode Transcription
GROW Program
New Entrant
Supervisory Foundations Skills
Employers of Choice
StrengthsFinder 2.0 by Tom Rath (now known as CliftonStrengths)
Working Genius by Pat Lencioni
Labour Market Impact Assessment
Connect with Charolette Cascioli: SimplifiedHRConsulting@gmail.com

Get ready to write your garden centre shopping list because this episode is all about high-performing new plants coming to the market in 2024. Trial Garden manager Rodger Tschanz shares his observations and highlights from the 2023 Trial Garden located at the Landscape Ontario head office. We also talk about the value of skipping the fall clean-up to let perennials overwinter so they provide texture, dimension, and habitats all year long. Rodger also reveals an exciting interior plantscape coming soon to the University of Guelph. If you love plants (and who doesn’t?), you’ll want to listen to this interview.

Resources
Episode Transcription
Proven Winners
Ball Horticultural
Dummen Orange
PanAmerican Seed
Danziger
Benary
Selecta One
Guelph Turfgrass Institute
Landscape Ontario Congress 2024

Video: Plants with Lingering Fall Colour

Life is better outside. Scott Wentworth, owner and president of Wentworth Landscapes in Picton, Ont., says this is what drives him and his team. Their mission is to craft outdoor spaces that set the scene for building memories, celebrating milestones, and spending more time in nature.

This mission is integral to onboarding staff, understanding their clients’s needs, and especially building relationships within the community as green stewards. The pursuit to get people to love the outdoors has earned Wentworth Landscapes many awards, including Employer of Choice, the Dunington-Grubb, and the Don Salivan Grounds Management awards at the Landscape Ontario Awards of Excellence.

Scott Wentworth has fostered an enviable company culture, and he joins us on the podcast to talk about how they infuse their mission into everything their team does and, more importantly, why.

Resources
Episode Transcription
Wentworth Landscapes
Landscape Ontario Reconciliation Grove Project
Come Alive Outside Program
Landscape Ontario Awards of Excellence
Horticultural Technician Apprenticeship Program

In this episode, we talk with Grant Harrison, who is no stranger to the Landscape Ontario community. Grant originally joined Landscape Ontario as a landscaper in the early 2000s, has held several leadership roles within the association, and is now the principal consultant at his firm, Nextra Consulting, where he generously shares his wisdom with the landscaping community at every turn. That wisdom comes from owning a landscaping business, evolving it, learning from challenges and understanding how to navigate the many pitfalls and opportunities that come with being a business owner.

Listen to our conversation as Grant shares the benefits of attending his upcoming workshop series for business owners (free for LO members), as well as how the “Great Resignation” and the current economy affect those working in the green trades.

Resources
Episode Transcription
Unlock Your Business Potential Education Series
Nextra Consulting
Certified Landscape Horticulture Manager (CLHM) Program
Book Recommendation: Leaving a Legacy: Navigating Family Businesses Succession by David C. Bentall

Where do you think you might be in your work journey if you'd understood from a young age that you can build a livelihood by being creative, spending time in nature and digging your fingers into the soil? Landscape designer Heather Jerrard and educator Dawn-Marie Deagle teamed up to develop and implement a classroom experience that aligns with the Ontario curriculum and demonstrates how landscaping and horticulture can have a meaningful career path. In this episode, we learn about the inspiration behind this project, how Landscape Ontario’s Peer to Peer Network gave Heather the confidence to pursue it, and how the program might evolve to encourage more students to consider a green career.

Resources:
Transcription
Vesey's Seeds
OSC Seeds
Depave Paradise
ReForest London
Heather's company: My Landscape Artist
Landscape Ontario's Peer to Peer Network
Thames Valley District School Board Outdoor Environmental Leaders Program

One of the big pain points for a lot of landscaping companies over the years has been labour supply. We've heard time and time again how difficult it is to find qualified staff. Liana Desmarais, owner and GM of Plantscape, a full-service landscaping company in the Windsor area, has found success by incorporating apprenticeships as part of her employee recruitment and retention strategy. In this episode of the Landscape Ontario Podcast, she tells us how sponsoring employees through the Horticultural Technician Apprenticeship Program has brought fresh ideas, long-term commitment, and a deeper sense of job satisfaction to her company.

Transcription PDF

Joe Steeves is a young man from Moncton, NB, who exemplifies how a passion for plants can overcome physical challenges and anxiety. In this episode of Landscape Ontario Podcast, we hear about the transformative effect of being accommodated in the workplace. A few simple gestures by his employers at greenhouses and nurseries have created opportunities for Joe to thrive.

Transcription PDF

Landscape Ontario is Ontario’s premier horticultural trades association. For the past 50 years, they’ve been supporting their members through professional development, trade shows and conferences, consumer events and cost savings benefits. Their premier annual event is the Landscape Ontario Congress, Canada’s largest and longest-running trade show and conference for landscape professionals. While the pandemic might have provided a boon to many of their members, it put the long-running event in jeopardy for two consecutive years. Were they able to pull it off? Listen to find out.