Women in Landscaping with Carla Bailey

06/07/24 • 58 min

In this episode of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Carla Bailey to discuss Women in Landscaping, a supportive community for green professionals that encourages women to enter the profession.

About Carla Bailey An HR professional for over a decade, Carla Bailey honed her expertise working for a leading landscaping company in London, Ontario. Dedicated to creating a positive work environment and resolving employee matters, her commitment to staff growth led her to discover and implement various government initiatives to support employee development.

In 2018, Carla and three other green professionals founded Women In Landscaping to introduce women to green professions and provide a community to help them thrive.

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

What led to the creation of Women in Landscaping (WIL)?
- Business support for women in the Landscaping industry with a variety of issues in addition to business development
When was WIL started?
- The group started in the greater London area in 2018.
- It grew quickly until the pandemic hit. They held their numbers steady and registered as a non-profit in 2024.
How often does WIL meet?
- WIL currently holds monthly drop-ins on the fourth Thursday of the month across the province. Approximately 10-20 women attend, ranging from new to the industry to 30-year business owners to women going through career changes.
100,000 jobs in the trade in Ontario, with 25,000 vacancies. Still less than 30% are filled by women.
- This demonstrates that the industries have not been successful on their own in attracting women into the landscaping industry.
In 2023, WIL hosted the Touch-a-Truck event to promote awareness of women working in green professions, and 3,300 people turned up!
- WIL has five Touch-a-Truck events planned for July 20th this year and another for September.
WIL has partnered with Landscape Ontario
- They will be hosting a Women in Landscaping Luncheon at the Landscape Ontario Congress in January 2025.

You can find Women in Landscaping on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

You can also email your questions and comments to [email protected], 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 their combined experiences in helping others create and maintain thriving gardens into one easy-to-read monthly reference guide. Get your copy today on Amazon.

You can now catch the podcast on YouTube....

In 2018, Carla and three other green professionals founded Women In Landscaping to introduce women to green professions and provide a community to help them thrive.

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

What led to the creation of Women in Landscaping (WIL)?
- Business support for women in the Landscaping industry with a variety of issues in addition to business development
When was WIL started?
- The group started in the greater London area in 2018.
- It grew quickly until the pandemic hit. They held their numbers steady and registered as a non-profit in 2024.
How often does WIL meet?
- WIL currently holds monthly drop-ins on the fourth Thursday of the month across the province. Approximately 10-20 women attend, ranging from new to the industry to 30-year business owners to women going through career changes.
100,000 jobs in the trade in Ontario, with 25,000 vacancies. Still less than 30% are filled by women.
- This demonstrates that the industries have not been successful on their own in attracting women into the landscaping industry.
In 2023, WIL hosted the Touch-a-Truck event to promote awareness of women working in green professions, and 3,300 people turned up!
- WIL has five Touch-a-Truck events planned for July 20th this year and another for September.
WIL has partnered with Landscape Ontario
- They will be hosting a Women in Landscaping Luncheon at the Landscape Ontario Congress in January 2025.

You can find Women in Landscaping on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Find Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

You can also email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca

Down the Garden Path Podcast

You can now catch the podcast on YouTube....

Previous Episode

Landscape Design: Luxury or Necessity?

This solo episode of Down the Garden Path is a bit of a rant!

Recently, I heard landscape design referred to as a luxury product, giving the illusion that only the wealthy need one. I disagree.

Despite the initial investment, I believe landscape design will save you money in both the short and the long run. And I am confident that after working with a landscape designer, your project will be even more successful.

Luxury or necessity? Tune in to hear Joanne discuss landscape design.

Things to consider:

Your landscaping project most likely contains hardscaping (patio, walkway, garden walls) and softscaping elements (gardens, trees) and having both of these addressed from the start is crucial to a successful project.

In my opinion, no one should treat the softscaping as an afterthought and try to “fill” it in after the hardscaping features are completed.

Here’s a good example that I share in this episode:

A 2.5-foot-deep garden was left at the side of a pool for the large trees the pool clients wanted for privacy after the pool was installed. These clients called me for a planting plan to recommend the appropriate trees. Unfortunately, large trees have root balls that are 3-4 feet wide. There was no way the clients could get anything but small trees.

If a design had been done at the start of the project, the trees would have been put in earlier and the patio would have allowed for them, or the pool location would have been adjusted.

Landscape designers, like interior designers, view the big picture and look at things from different perspectives. We consider things like the views from the windows, especially the kitchen sink. Our drawings are to scale, allowing you to visualize your outdoor living space to ensure that the patio will fit your table or your new furniture set.

We are also aware of how things grow. We have seen the home where a tree was planted in the “wrong” spot. Too close to a walkway, too close to the back gate so that it limits access, etc.

There have been so many times that I have been called in to help clients “after the fact,” and they all say, I wish we had a design to begin with.

I firmly believe that having a landscape design that you approve ahead of time will help you spend your money wisely on the things that matter and ensure that your project is exactly what you want when it is complete.

Look for Down the Garden Path on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube: @downthegardenpathpodcast.

You can also email your questions and comments to [email protected], or connect with Joanne via her website: down2earth.ca

Down the Garden Path Podcast

Next Episode

Landscape Lighting with BOLD

In this encore presentation of Down the Garden Path, Joanne Shaw welcomes Tom Watson from BOLD to discuss landscape lightning.

About Tom Watson

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.