Question: how did you get started in the landscaping?

My original training was as a RN and I did that for a number of years. I then separated from my husband, and since I didn’t work for a few years, it meant my RN lapsed. I had to go back to school to learn something, so I did career counselling.

The gal [career counsellor] ended up, after I did my homework and all my stuff, saying … “Anything outdoors, anything physical, specifically landscaping or gardening.”

And I said, “Really?”

Next day I called up Humber College and said “how does this work? How do I get started?” And I was forty; I had two kids.

Anyhow … the Landscape program is three years. You can go for two and that’s all the landscaping stuff. If you go for the third you can learn about business and how to set up your own business. OK, [I decided] I will do it for three years.

And then when I was finished, I looked at myself. I’m forty and I’m female, and I’m skinny. All these young guys are buff and twenty. Gee … both of us are looking for the same job. Guess who’s going to get hired? Why didn’t I think of that before? Well, I guess I’ll just have to start my own company. So, I did.

Q: What was your company’s name and how did you get business?

Soft Way Landscaping, because I only do the soft stuff, I didn’t do any hard stuff at first. And my name is S. W. They were my initials.

I put an ad in the paper, in the Brampton Guardian, and I got responses from people who just moved into their houses.

Q: What have you learnt over the years of gardening that you wish you knew when you first started gardening…?

There aren’t as many rules in gardening as the Master Gardeners tell you there are.

Q: Be more relaxed about the whole thing?

Oh yeah, yeah …

Because somebody said that such-and-such wouldn’t work, I wouldn’t try it. And I missed a lot because I didn’t have confidence in my own stuff. You know?

What I didn’t do before was look for the differences in leaf shape & colours, and if you have enough variety you are going to automatically have something going into bloom.

This garden [her own garden] sees a riot of colour…it’s huge in spring, probably 2,000 bulbs in here.

Go big, or don’t bother, that’s what I learnt for sure. And the reds, and pinks, and yellows and a few purples in Allium.

There’s a balance of tulips and daffodils, and the squirrels don’t attack my tulips like everybody else gets attacked. I think it’s because I have enough daffodils in there. All the different kinds of daffodils.

Tradewinds is where I get my stuff. So, that’s really bright alive and energetic and “oh my God” when you walk in. And then all of that quietens down and it gets really soft with pinks and purples and blues.

When the garden tour was on it was probably the quietest time for my garden. I understood as I was working in it that it isn’t all about flowers. It’s about atmosphere or something.

I have only recently understood in the last couple years the value of trees and shrubs because this was totally perennial until maybe three or four years ago.

Q: What are your favourite plant(s)?

I really like the Filipendula, Queen of the Prairie, which just finished blooming. Because it’s like cotton candy and it’s big. So, it’s a great big gracious lady.

What else do I really, really, like? It’s really more like I don’t…and that list is so short. I’m not intrigued at all by the hellebores, but I feel I’m going to be converted sometime. Because they are useful…I wish their heads looked up at me. They are shy & nervous.

If it’s soft pink, I love it. If it’s the bright orange surprise in the middle of something, I love it.

If it’s bug-free, I adore it.

I do have a million toads, so my bug issue is pretty small.