Description

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 downthegardenpathpodcast@hotmail.com, 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.