January 13, 2026
Listen in
Landscape Ontario Podcast delivers insights, ideas and inspiration
If you haven’t tuned into the Landscape Ontario Podcast yet, now’s the perfect time to dive in. With 76 episodes to choose from, and a new one added each month, the podcast features real conversations with people shaping Canada’s landscape and horticulture industry.
Started in late 2019, episodes have featured a wide range of experts, plus arborists, designers, business owners, innovators, educators and emerging leaders. The podcast explores a wide range of topics, including: safety, climate change mitigation, pest management, career pathways, inclusive work culture, business growth and profitability, as well as the creative work happening in communities across the country. More than updates and industry trends, these conversations highlight the stories, challenges and successes that define life in the green trades.
Whether you’re a seasoned contractor, a new apprentice or simply passionate about plants and people, the Landscape Ontario Podcast offers actionable insights and inspiration. Episodes are available at landscapeontario.com/podcast or via your favourite podcast app.
Here are some highlights of the conversations, topics and personalities that have appeared over recent years.
Liana Desmarais
The many benefits of sponsoring apprentices
"To say I'm passionate about apprenticeship at this point would be kind of an understatement. I'm literally a die-hard champion of this apprenticeship program now."
Bill Hardy
Think globally, act locally
"I can't think of anything else that produces air other than plants. It's the plants that are doing the heavy lifting in this whole relationship."
Rob Murray and Vanessa McQuade
Marketing Options for Small Business
"Marketing done poorly is an expense that people shouldn't afford. Marketing done properly is an investment that pays for itself."
Guinevere Kern
Horticultural therapy careers
"There truly is no limit to the impact that horticultural therapy as a profession can have."
Nathan Helder
Family business succession
"If you're coasting, you're actually sliding downhill. In today's world, you're either growing or you're declining. You don't coast because everything costs more."
Hella Keppo
Interior plantscaping
"It all starts with putting the right plant in the right spot, which sounds simple, but it takes a lot of years of trial and error — seeing what works and what doesn’t in certain circumstances."
Scott Wentworth
Life is better outside
"One of the lines we use in our team meetings all the time is ‘no one of us is as smart as all of us,’ and we really live that in trying to gain from one another's knowledge as we apply that to the things we built and the processes we use to build them."
Dr. Jeanine West
Protecting our landscape from Spotted Lanternfly
"We could actually delay this thing by two, three years even, if everybody was out there with their eyes peeled looking for it."
Dr. Merle Massie
Free online mental health support
"When people in your business really understand that good mental health is part of a good business risk management effort, then maybe they'll put a little bit more effort into it."
Brandon Comstock
A landscaper's journey into tech
"That’s the key to freedom from your business — building up the people around you and sharing the journey with them."
Peter Guinane
The benefits of building a safety culture
"You'll get staff that's more likely to come back year after year, willing to commit to making a career of this because they see a future in it."
Darren Schmahl
High school horticulture
"The reality is trades do amazing things. They build amazing projects and they make amazing money and they have amazing lifestyles. So it's really a perception. And we need to, not just in our industry but in all the different trades industries, change that perception."
