Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping

Today we hang out with 2 urban gardeners who brainstormed 101 ways we can grow food and beauty in urban gardens. Teri Speight and Kathy Jentz talk about creative ways that city dwellers can make productive, functional, and beautiful gardens.Jentz is a journalist, editor, and frequent radio and TV guest. She is also the editor and publisher of Washington Gardener magazine. Speight is a speaker, writer, and podcaster. She’s the former head gardener of the City of Fredericksburg, founding farmer of a CSA, and an estate gardener. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Gardener and author CaliKim joins us from southern California to talk about growing vegetables in raised beds.Grow Vegetables in Raised BedsRaised beds can have a number of advantages:Soil warms more quickly in springLess back and knee strainA solution for locations with less-than-ideal soilHow to Make Raised Bed GardensCaliKim says that raised bed gardens don’t have to be a box or a square. “Think outside the box,” she advises. A raised bed garden can be tailored to the yard and to the gardener. That could mean: A shape suited to the locationChoosing materials that tie in to the style of the gardenA mobile unit to be place wherever there is available sunlight “You have to make it fit your situation.” ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Gardening with ChickensIn the first part of the show, we chat with chicken expert and author Lisa Steele.Steele is a Maine Master Gardener and 5th generation chicken keeper.In this episode, she tells us about:Integrating chickens into the gardenWhat to grow for chickensWhat to avoid growingThe pecking order, and how to deal with itUsing chicken manure in the gardenUsing eggshells and cycling them back into the gardenGrow Fruit Trees FastIn the second half of the show, we chat with fruit tree expert Susan Poizner, founder of Orchard People.Poizner is the host of The Urban Forestry Radio Show, a college instructor, and the author of the award-winning book Growing Urban Orchards.In this episode, she tells us about:What to do with fruit trees in the springShopping for fruit treesPruning fruit treesCommon problems first-time fruit tree growers often faceThe community orchard she helped found in Toronto ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Heirloom Vegetable SeedsJere Gettle from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds joins us to talk seeds, seed saving, and seed collecting.He loves meeting gardeners, chefs, and farmers who share old seed varieties and the stories behind them.Lifelong Passion for Heirloom SeedsGettle started his seed business as a teenager, with a 12-page photocopied price list.Today, the seed company tests over 4,000 heirloom seed varieties each year.Gettle says that for a variety to make the cut for the catalogue, he’s looking for 3 things:It’s beautifulIt tastes greatIt grows well ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

What do you Need to Raise Chicks?We’ve talked about backyard poultry here on the show before, but we’ve never explored raising chicks. Our guest today is Dr. Scott Gillingham from Guelph, Ontario. He’s a poultry veterinarian who works with big flocks. But he’s also a homesteader with his own small flock. Commercial scale and homestead scale agriculture are often in different silos. His passion is bridging the silos.We’ll hear about:Crop fillBrooding chambersPreventative medicineComfort zonesGiving chicks the right temperatureSuitable feed for chicks“You become the hen and you have to understand the attributes of a hen and how to provide for and nourish that chick.”Observation is Very ImportantWe’ll also talk about something that is very useful tool when raising chicks: A 5-gallon bucket. Gillingham explains how he uses a simple bucket to sit on and observe what’s up. It works in big commercial barns; it works with small home flocks.He says that when chicks have everything they need you’ll see them eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing. If not — you’ll see huddling for warmth or with wings up trying to cool themselves.Book about How to Raise ChicksGillingham’s book is Raising Amazing Chicks: The First Seven Days. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Make Seed and Nut Oils at HomeOur guest today makes oils from a wide range of nuts and seeds. Bevin Cohen runs Small House Farm in Michigan, where he specializes in oils, seeds, and cosmetics. Home Oil PressingCohen says home oil pressing gives fresh oil with superior flavour to oils that are mass produced.He explains how to press small batches of oil at home. Oil Seeds for Northern GardenersIn this episode, Cohen talks about how to press oil from:FlaxHempWalnutPumpkinBlack currantBorageWatermelon ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Crooked FarmzIn the first part of the show, we chat with Sean Smith from Crooked Farmz in Toronto. Smith talks about his journey into growing food, learning about soil and composting, and the beginnings of his Toronto microfarm.Compost Tea by SubscriptionHe calls himself the “brewer” at the farm. The brew? It’s compost tea.Along with selling at farmers markets, Smith has taken another route to selling the compost tea: by subscription. Home Composting TipsSome of Smith’s top composting tips:Understand what “brown” and “green” ingredients are, and have some of eachMake sure there is enough airMake sure there is enough waterHoney Bees and Native BeesIn the second half of the show, we chat with Missouri beekeeping expert, author, and TEDx speaker Charlotte Wiggins.Wiggins talks about attracting native bees to gardens, gardening for both native and honey bees, and shares tips and ideas for people thinking about getting into beekeeping.Tips for People Interested in Keeping BeesLearn beekeeping lingoJoin a beekeeping club, make beekeeping friendsTake a class about beekeepingVolunteer with local beekeepersDon’t rush getting your own hives, get the hang of things first Looking for more beekeeping guidance? Wiggins’ latest book is the award-winning A Beekeeper’s Diary: Self-Guide to Keeping Bees. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

105 Million Head of LivestockJarrod Goldin, one of the founders of Entomo Farms, talks about how he and his brothers got into the business of raising food-grade crickets, the use and benefits of crickets as a food source — and about using cricket frass as a fertilizer.Cricket Frass FertilizerFrass: It’s the word for insect excrement. If you’re wondering what cricket frass looks like, Goldin describes it a sand-like in texture and light coloured.Entomo Farms initially treated it as a waste product. They gave some away, and stored some on the farm.After seeing how well vegetation grew where they had piled the frass, and after hearing anecdotally about its use as a plant feed, Entomo Farms began to study the use of the frass as a fertilizer. Initial trials on fields of hay have shown surprisingly large yield increases, along with longer-term residual effect.Entomo Farms cricket frass is now available commercially. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Sharing with CommunitySusan Antler joins us to talk about the Plant • Grow • Share a Row program. This program helps groups and individuals to grow extra vegetables to share with nearby food banks and soup kitchens.First StepAs a first step, Antler suggests connecting with a local food agency to find out what is needed, and also find out details such as delivery days and times.Another way to get started is to connect with a group of like-minded people in the community who want to grow to share.Plant • Grow • Share a Row ProgramThe goals of the program include:Helping people plant extra vegetables to share at harvest timeProviding seeds to participantsSharing gardening knowledge ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Winter-Hardy VegetablesWolfgang Palme joins us to talk about winter-hardy vegetables and year-round growing. He is an agronomist, and head of the Research Institute of Horticulture in Austria.Accidental DiscoveryPalme’s journey into winter vegetable growing started by accident one year when autumn weather was unusually cold. Some of the test plots that he had not yet harvested survived, much to his surprise. So he started to investigate cold-hardy crops.He was surprised to find that that published frost hardiness recommendations are often incorrect.Not NewPalme points out that growing cold-tolerant crops and using simple protective measures is nothing new. This knowledge has simply faded with the advent of large-scale, high-tech growing.Low-tech, low-input approaches are often well suited to small farms and home gardeners. As well as costing less, there is a smaller environmental footprint.Surviving WinterPalme explains that frost is not the main challenge for overwintering greens: It’s moisture and disease. A covering such as a hoop house, tunnel, or cold frame can keep leaves dry and reduce susceptibility to disease. In combination with a covering, good ventilation is important, to let humid air escape. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Edible LandscapesLindsay Stuijfzand talks about how she weaves her passion for growing food into her work as a landscaper.Pretty Tasty GardensStuijfzand is a horticulturist who runs Pretty Tasty Gardens, an edible-landscape garden company in Toronto.Roots in LandscapingWhen she first got into the industry, she worked in conventional landscaping — with a focus on ornamental plants and hardscaping.As her interest in edible plants grew, she branched off into edible landscaping. It’s a path that makes her a bit of an outlier—or trailblazer—in the landscape industry. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Grow Food IndoorsIn the first part of this episode we chat about growing food indoors with Kim Roman, a garden educator and square-foot-gardening instructor. Her new book is How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round. Regenerative GardeningIn the second part of this episode we find out about regenerative gardening from Stephanie Rose. She is a permaculture designer and herbalist.Her new book is The Regenerative Garden. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

The Best Way to Grow TomatoesThere’s more than one way to slice a tomato; there’s more than one way to grow a tomato.Growing tomatoes is like many things in life…there are lots of ways you can tackle it. Do you have a favourite way? Or a tomato-growing tip handed down in your family?Different Strokes, Different FolksIn this episode, we take a deep-dive into growing tomatoes with two experts who have very different approaches to growing tomatoes.Garden expert, author, and broadcaster Joe Lamp’l loves growing tomatoes. He’s met lots of gardeners using a wide range of tomato-growing techniques through his work as the host and producer of the Growing a Greener World television series, and through his podcast, The joe gardener Show. World-renowned tomato grower Craig LeHoullier co-leads the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project, has named and popularized many well-known tomato varieties such as ‘Cherokee Purple,’ and is an expert on straw-bale gardening. He’s the author of the book Epic Tomatoes.Tomato TalkLamp’l and LeHoullier talk about:The tomato-growing methods they use in their own gardensHow their gardens differTomato-growing ideas they’ve learned from each otherFavourite tomato varietiesTomato-growing techniques they’ve seen in other gardensThey also share tips for new gardeners. “Don’t get hung up on the destination, but learn to love the journey,” says LeHoullier.Growing Epic TomatoesLamp’l and LeHoullier bring together their tomato-growing experience in an online course called Growing Epic Tomatoes. Registration is open now. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

One Farm, Many FarmersDaniel Brisebois joins us from La Ferme Cooperative Tourne-Sol near Montreal. The farm operates as a workers co-operative, where farm owners are the workers. When the farm started in 2005, sales were through both farmers markets and CSA baskets. Today, sales are entirely through CSA baskets. Work-Life BalanceThere is a focus on work-life balance. Vacation and parental leave — challenges for many farmers — are possible under the co-operative model.“It’s always been important to us that we don’t burn people out.” Seeds and BreedingSeed sales have always been part of the farm business, but were a small portion in the beginning — $700 in the first year. Today, the farm sells more seeds than vegetables, with an online seed store and seed racks in over 150 retail locations.Spreadsheet ManiacBrisebois believes in the importance of making business decisions based on data. He uses spreadsheets to collect and understand farm data. He shares his passion for spreadsheets through his Farmer Spreadsheet Academy. Daniel Brisebois website: goingtoseed.netLa Ferme Cooperative Tourne-Sol: fermetournesol.qc.caFarmer Spreadsheet Academy: farmerspreadsheetacademy.com ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Beneficial InsectsIf you’ve heard the terms beneficial insects, beneficial bugs, or biological control, these all relate to this ideas of letting some bugs help us deal with the challenges that other bugs cause for us.In commercial horticultural production, beneficial bugs are big business. They’re used for some field crops, in greenhouses, in nurseries. In GardensBeneficial bugs can help to control infestations of insect pests in gardens too. The gardener just needs to know where to look…and how to garden in a way that’s friendly to these beneficial bugs.Pittsburgh-based horticulturist and award-winning author Jessica Walliser joins us to talk about attracting beneficial insects to gardens. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Today we talk about wind tunnels, horticultural therapy, landscaping with edibles, and gardening with kids. Our guests today are professional garden educators who have an infectious love of gardening.We start in Prince Edward County in Ontario, chatting with consultant and horticulturist Charlie Dobbin about using edible plants in ornamental gardens, gardening in windy areas, and birds in the garden.Then we head to Puerto Rico to chat with Perla Sofia Curbelo about horticultural therapy, gardening and wellness – and about gardening with kids! ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Wood chips: They’re abundant, inexpensive, and renewable. There are many possible applications in horticulture.Uses of Wood ChipsWood chips have many uses in gardens, farms, and landscapes:Mulch to suppress weeds and conserve moistureHeat for propagationGrowing mediaHigh-carbon ingredient for composting systemsSoil amendmentsBen Raskin’s new book is The Wood Chip Handbook.He sees a lot of untapped opportunity for wood chips in horticulture. He uses wood chips at the agroforestry farm he manages. And through his work as the head of horticulture and agroforestry at the Soil Association, talks to growers and researchers working with wood chips. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

The garden is the bridge.For clients of The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) in Toronto, one way to connect with the surrounding community is through gardening.Atullya Singh, CAMH Garden Co-ordinator, talks about the Sunshine Garden, located at the main hospital site in downtown Toronto.When neighbours drop by for the weekly market where CAMH clients sell produce grown on site, Singh considers it as an opportunity to make stronger bonds with the community. “My mission is only accomplished if I have these customers connected to the actual garden,” he explains as he describes taking them over to see the garden.Horticultural TherapyAlong with community connections, the garden is a way of providing horticultural therapy for CAMH clients. Singh explains that for some people, the social aspects are therapeutic. For others, it’s having something to focus on. For others, its being outdoors.The garden is a joint venture between CAMH and a Toronto organization called Foodshare, which supports community-based food initiatives. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Beekeeping with a bees-eye viewOur guests today help us explore bee-friendly beekeeping techniques.Lessons from the way bees live in the wildManagement strategies that respect the functioning of bee hivesHive design elements that promote colony health and resilienceCommon Sense Natural BeekeepingKim Flottum is editor emeritus of Bee Culture magazine. He teaches beekeeping courses, lectures on beekeeping, and writes about beekeeping and the business of bees. He also hosts the Beekeeping Today and Honeybee Obscura podcasts. Stephanie Bruneau is a beekeeper, herbalist, and artist. She runs The Benevolent Bee, where she sells honey and bee-related products. She lectures on bees and bee-derived products.In their new book, Common Sense Natural Beekeeping, they explore ways to keep bees while minimizing human intervention. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Gardening for the BlindChristine Nichols and Gord Johnston share ideas to help blind and low-vision people garden, and talk about the gardens at the Canadian Hellen Keller Centre, which serves the deaf-blind community. They talk about:Using landmarks in the gardenColours for low-vision gardenersSpatial awareness in the gardenVisual memoryBird GardeningSteven Price, past president of Bird Studies Canada, talks about how to attract birds to gardens and how to make gardens bird-friendly.He talks about:PlantsFeatures (e.g. water features)Feed ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

We wrap up the 2021 season of podcasts with 12 ideas for ways that you can give something — something other than material “stuff” — to the gardeners in your life. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Rob Avis from Verge Permaculture shares tips on passive solar greenhouses.Avis says a key consideration when designing a passive solar greenhouse is whether to optimize the design for light or for thermal efficiency. He says it’s a trade off between light and heat. Knowing the balance between light and heat will help inform design choices such as glazing material and the amount of glazing surface. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

From the Ground UpPamela Warhurst from the Incredible Edible Network talks about turning grey spaces green by helping people believe in themselves.The original Incredible Edible project in her hometown started with “propaganda” gardens on public land. It evolved to include edible plants around the community health centre and collaborations with businesses in the community.Today the Incredible Edible Network includes communities around the world.Top TipsWarhust says to start by helping people to help themselves. Here are her top two tips to get started:Just get up and do it. Don’t make a long list.Believe in yourself. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Grow NowEmily Murphy believes individual gardeners doing small things can add up to big change.Murphy is a garden designer, educator, and author with a background that includes botany, ethnobotany, environmental science, and ecology. It gives her a unique vantage point to teach people about gardening and the environment.Murphy is the creator of the website passthepistil.com, and author of Grow What You Love, 12 Food Plant Families to Change Your Life. Her new book is Grow Now: How we can save our health, communities, and plant – one garden at a time. In it, Murphy looks at how individual gardeners can make change positive change in the world.Green Thumbs Growing KidsSunday Harrison gets city kids gardening. She’s with Green Thumbs Growing Kids, which gives hands-on garden and food education to urban school kids.Along with school gardens, she talks about microgreens, a fast maturing crop for kids. And a new project is kids growing trees from seed — trees that will line Toronto streets.Since Harrison joined us on the show a year ago to talk about school gardens, demand for school gardens has been huge. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Have you ever thought of changing your relationship with food?Gary Dickenson put food front and centre in his new life as a homesteader. He tells us about his move from a seaside town in the UK, where he worked in marketing, to a remote corner of northern Latvia.Dickenson says that the thing he best likes about homesteading life is the freedom it offers him.Busy HomesteadIt’s a busy homestead. Projects include:GreenhousesSmoking foodCanningWood heatingMaple syrupHugelkulturNo-Till veg plots ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

The Wateroo Region School Food Gardens project has built 35 school gardens, touching 20,000 students in this region of Ontario.Allison Eady, program co-ordinator, explains that it provides information and curriculum ideas to educators, grants for school gardens, and direct programming for youth.Garden-Based LearningEady sees school gardens as an opportunity for teaching more than gardening. She says garden-based lessons can be used for many subjects, including art, math, and science. Launch a School Garden“The best chance for success is when there’s a network of people who support it,” says Eady as she talks about successful school gardens.She says it’s important to find allies in the community, whether it’s organizations or community members. That’s because school populations change fairly quickly: kids (and parents) move on, and staff are shuffled between schools. That makes the stability of community support important for the long-term success of a school garden. Eady says not to worry about being a garden expert when starting a school garden. “It’s about figuring it all out together,” she says.Youth ProgrammingDuring the COVID pandemic Waterloo Region School Gardens has pivoted to provide more direct programming for youth, including career mentorship and student-run markets.Another initiative helps youth explore food-related topics of interest to them. Youth research a topic, and then create blog posts or videos to teach other youth, with the support of program staff. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Stop and smell the roses? Community event helps people to stop and smell…apples.Susan Poizner recently helped 50 Torontonians to stop and smell…apples. Poizner, a fruit-tree-care educator and college instructor with a passion for growing fruit trees, organized a virtual apple-tasting event as a fundraiser for her local community orchard.Virtual Apple-Tasting EventPoizner visited an orchard specializing in heirloom apple varieties to get enough apples for 50 participants.Participants received a paper bag containing the six apple varieties for the tasting. Each was marked with coloured stickers for identification.To help participants think about what they were tasting, the event was facilitated by an apple sommelier, a researcher specializing in taste perception. Poizner explains that researchers testing new apple varieties for consumer acceptance might consider upwards of 50 things. For this event, participants were asked to share feedback on four things: overall apple intensity, honey, floral, green-herbaceous.Apple VarietiesThe tasting event took attendees to different parts of the world with six heirloom apple varieties. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Grow Quince in Cold ClimatesImagine a job that revolved around a plant you’re passionate about. What plant would it be for you? For Nan Stefanik that plant is quince.She first tasted quince as an adult, on an overseas trip. After returning home, she was surprised to learn it grew locally in New England. With a long history of its cultivation in New England, knowledge of quince had receded over time. #GrowQuinceStefanik’s business, Vermont Quince, makes quince paste, quince preserves, and other specialty quince products using New-England-grown quince. Along with food products, she has made it her mission to collect and share quince information.Using a specialty-crop grant, she started a #GrowQuince campaign to share quince-growing information.Find more information about how to grow and how to cook quince on the Vermont Quince website.What’s next? Stefanik and her son have acquired land for a quince education centre where they can combine a shop, demonstrations, and hold scion exchanges.A fabric showing the different types of quince used in a recent quince taste test. Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s JournalOur second guest today is also passionate about what she does. Helen Battersby produces the Toronto and Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the journal, which includes information about frost dates, seed-starting dates, plant and seed sources — and also has space to record garden successes and failures.There’s a deeply human story behind the journal, the story of a mother helping a son. Battersby shares that story, and talks about what’s new in the 2022 edition. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

A wood-chip compost pile steams up this hot tub.Today we visit a Colorado garden at an elevation of 6,500 feet.Tom Bartels harvests 1,000 pound of fresh produce a year from his 1,300-square-foot garden, even though he has only 130 growing days.Bartels uses a large amount of compost in his garden to maintain healthy soil. Much of that compost comes from wood chips.But wood chips do more than feed his soil: They generate heat as they decompose. He can heat an outdoor hot tub through two Colorado winters with a pile of wood chips. No combustion is needed.Heat from Wood ChipsBartels says that many arborists pay to discard wood chips. By composting them, he removes them from the waste stream and gets both heat and compost for free.The wood-chip pile used to heat the hot tub is approximately 6 feet tall and 12 feet in diameter. As he builds the pile, Bartels wets the wood chips and coils plastic piping within the pile.The added moisture makes conditions suitable to microbial growth, while the water-filled plastic piping collects heat generated within the pile as microbes break down the wood chips.Over two winters, the decomposing pile of wood chips generates the heat equivalent of burning 7 cords of wood. The temperature inside the pile gets as high as 150°F, and it stays warm enough to heat the hot tub for about 18 months. From Heater to CompostAs microbial action slows down and the temperature within the pile drops, Bartels adds worms to speed up the composting process. After another two or three months, the wood chips have been transformed into finished compost—worm castings—ready for the garden. The wood chips that heated the hot tub for two winters are turned into 50 wheelbarrow loads of worm castings. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Fred Hornaday is bullish about bamboo and it’s many uses. From fuel to food to fibre, he sees it as a versatile crop with environmental benefits.He shares his passion for bamboo through his bambubatu website, which has information about bamboo, how to grow it, how to use it, and its lore.Many Uses of BambooBamboo is an extremely versatile crop that be be made into:fabricflooringfuelpaperfoodmatscutting boardsBamboo in Cold ClimatesThere are many types of bamboo that survive in cold climates. Many of these cold-hardy bamboos are in the gemus Phyllostachys or Fargesia.Bamboos in the former are “running” bamboos. Hornaday says most cold-hardy bamboos are running bamboos…those fast-spreading types that gardeners either love or hate. But the Fargesia bamboos are clumping, making them desirable for gardeners not interested in containing their bamboo patch.Bamboo as an Agricultural CropHornaday is hearing from a lot of people interested in farming bamboo commercially in North America. At the moment, he says, there’s a need for processing infrastructure. Farmers growing bamboo for commercial processing could also harvest shoots as a specialty food crop.As a perennial crop that can grow on marginal land, it can be used to stabilize soil. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Wendy Kiang-Spray’s children don’t recognize canned bamboo shoots. That says a lot about the difference between fresh bamboo and its canned cousin.Kiang-Spray, author of The Chinese Kitchen Garden, grew up eating fresh bamboo, one of the many crops her father grows in his large garden.She talks about growing, harvesting, and cooking bamboo. Grow BambooThere are two groups of bamboo:Running bamboos spread quickly by underground rhizomes.Clumping bamboos grow in clumps. Kiang-Spray points out that running bamboo might not be suited to small yards—at least not without measures to contain it. “It would be a big mistake in my suburban backyard; all my neighbours would hate me,” she says, as she talks about how quickly running bamboos can spread. A running bamboo spread to her yard from a neighbour’s yard over 100 feet away…not exactly a slow-growing plant. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Today on the podcast we hear how one person’s journey into food gardening evolved into a documentary film — and then we find out how to use garden covers to take vegetable gardening to another level.In My Backyard: A Documentary about Urban GrowersTorontonian Jamie Day Fleck converted her entire suburban backyard into a kitchen garden. That was the starting point of her documentary, In My Backyard, where she looks at ideas that urban growers have dreamed up in her hometown of Toronto.Fleck talks about the urban growers she met while filming, how their gardens were different — and what they had in common. She also reflects on the future of urban growing.Growing Under Cover with Niki JabbourWe head to Halifax for food-garden inspiration from author, broadcaster, and vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour. Jabbour talks about gardening in a polytunnel, reflects on her 2021 garden, and shares tips about how to use covers in the garden to grow more, protect crops from weather, and minimize pest problems. Her newest book is called Growing Under Cover. It’s a must-have for serious vegetable gardeners. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Pawpaw. It’s a fruit that has a long history in Ontario.Yet it’s not well-known, nor do most people realize it grows wild in some parts of the province.Paul DeCampo, Toronto’s pawpaw ambassador, planted his first pawpaw trees in 1994. “Nobody I knew had ever heard of this fruit,” he says.Working in the food industry, he has had the opportunity to share his pawpaw fruit with chefs. Describing how, years later chefs will still talk about a fruit he gave them, he says, “Even if you’re someone who spends all day tasting the most interesting things, these are particularly astounding.”Why Grow Pawpaw?Besides the fact that the fruit is almost never available for sale, DeCampo says a pawpaw tree is a good fit for the challenges of a city yard.That’s because:Pawpaw does not require full sunPawpaw grows well under black walnut trees (which give off a compound that is toxic to many other plants)There are very few pests that affect pawpawDeCampo’s Pawpaw TipsDeCampo suggests thinking of a forest-edge garden when planting pawpaw. For urban gardeners, the shade of the forest is replaced by the shade of buildings.Other tips: Get three plants (two genetically-distinct plants are needed to get fruit…but nothing is certain in gardening, so DeCampo says to play it safe, and get three)Life is short, so buy as large a tree as you can find and enjoy the fruit sooner ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Where have all the newspaper boxes gone?If you’re in western Pennsylvania, don’t be surprised if you find a dark green newspaper box with a sign in the window that says “Doug’s Free Seed Shack.“Pittsburgh garden expert Doug Oster, a newspaper industry veteran, is using old newspaper boxes to get seeds to as many people as possible. He wants more people to garden. And he wants vegetable seeds easily available in communities where access to fresh produce is limited.Having seen pictures online of seed-library boxes, he thought about doing something similar in his hometown of Pittsburgh.Oster, who jokes about not being handy, decided building boxes wasn’t his thing. Instead, he repurposed old newspaper boxes. All it took was spray paint and a trip to the print shop for signs.After the first summer of the project, Oster says he’s pleased with the results. The seeds are getting into the community. He’s getting good feedback. And people are asking if they can share seeds in the boxes, which is exactly what he wants. He wants the seed shacks to be like a library, where people can take seeds—but can also return seeds if they wish. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Old becomes new.When David Goodyear began to think about food costs, sustainability, and how he and his family ate, he sat down with older relatives to hear how people used to eat. “Everybody ate root crops because they grew it themselves,” he was told.Goodyear says there are many root crops that grow well in Newfoundland. It didn’t seem right when his grocery store had carrots from abroad. Nor did it didn’t seem sustainable. Change in Diet Turns to GrowingGoodyear and his family started by changing their diet and eating more root crops. The food bill went down. They found more locally raised choices.Then they decided to grow their own root crops.Today they grow root crops, greens, tomatoes, strawberries…even figs. The next project? A food forest.As Goodyear explains, his is a challenging climate. His town, Flatrock, is close to St. John’s, the third windiest city in the world. He has 110 frost-free days a year. “Winter starts in November; it doesn’t end till the end of May,” he says.The focus on growing their own food led to an interest in storing the harvest. “If you’re going to grow a massive amount of root crops you need somewhere to put them,” says Goodyear as he talks about his root cellar.Goodyear and his family switched up their diet; and have now switched up their life. Their homestead includes the gardens, a root cellar, a greenhouse, and a passive home. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Coconut. Almond. Green fig.These are some of the flavours people use to describe what they taste when Chef David Salt serves something flavoured with fig leaves.Salt cooked with fig leaves in London, England, where he had a ready source of fig leaves in a nearby churchyard.Upon relocating to Toronto, he didn’t know where to find them.And that’s when host Steven Biggs received an enquiry that read:“I am looking for fig leaves to make dishes with at my restaurant (fig leaf ice cream, jelly, savoury sauces, custards etc.) Is there any possibility of getting some from you, before they fall for the winter?”Salt got some fig leaves, and invited Biggs to the restaurant to taste his fig-leaf ice cream, fig-leaf cheese—and a fig leaf grappa!Cooking with Fig LeavesSalt says that the most classic method of using fig leaves is in the same way as banana leaves — as a wrap. When used as a wrap, they protect the enclosed meat or fish, keeping it moist. They also impart a unique flavour.When cooking with fig leaves, the leaf is used to wrap food, or an infusion used to pull out the fig-leaf flavour.The flavour is delicate. Salt finds it pairs well with light-flavoured meats or fish; and light-flavoured fruit such as strawberries and blueberries.But he says to be creative: He’s paired fig leaves with hot chocolate, a strong taste, and found worked well.His favourite dish made using fig leaves is ice cream.For people using fig leaves for the first time, he explains that heat can help to bring out the flavour—but to avoid boiling, which results in a stewed-vegetable flavour. When time permits, a cold infusion is best.Drifter’s SolaceSalt is gearing up to create fig-leaf flavoured foods this fall at his brand new chef’s-table style restaurant in Toronto. It’s called Drifter’s Solace. Toronto has lots of big restaurants. Drifters Solace is at the opposite end of the spectrum: It’s small and personal, for groups of 6-8 people. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Mushroom identification can be daunting for beginners, with Latin names and spore prints used to differentiate hard-to-identify mushrooms.In his new book, How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying: An Absolute Beginners Guide to Identifying 29 Wild Edible Mushrooms, Frank Hyman focuses on edible mushrooms that are easy to identify.Easy-to-Identify Edible MushroomsHyman suggests starting with easy-to-identify mushrooms when learning to forage — mushrooms that can easily be distinguished from non-edible ones.Here are some of the mushrooms that he talks about in this episode:Chicken of the Woods. “It will look like a pizza sticking our of a tree.”Morel. Easy to distinguish from the non-edible false morel because the entire interior is hollow when sliced in half from top to bottom (the false morel has chambers within it.)Black Trumpet (a.k.a. Horn of Plenty). These mushrooms, which look like little bugles, are hollow tubes. Pick it up and look through it length-wise, as if it were a telescope.Giant Puffball. Slice in half to see that the interior is solid white. “If it’s white like a piece of tofu, you’re good to go,” says Hyman. If you see the outline of a mushroom within, or if it’s not white — don’t eat it.More than DinnerHyman points out that along with the culinary uses of foraged mushrooms, there’s another reason people might consider foraging: It’s a fun outdoor activity; it’s time outdoors, in nature. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Joseph Lofthouse had hundreds of jars of seed around his house when he began market gardening.He saved seeds from each variety…a time-consuming task.Today he has far fewer jars of seed. Today he practices landrace gardening.Lofthouse no longer focuses on keeping pure varieties, but instead uses genetically diverse lots of seed.His is the author of the book, Landrace Gardening: Food Security through Biodiversity and Promiscuous Pollination.What is Landrace GardeningLandrace gardening is not new. It’s a traditional method of growing using locally adapted, genetically variable seeds. The genetic variability makes it more likely that some plants will perform well even if there are adverse conditions.“What I’m doing was standard practice through all of human history up until about 60 years ago, until people started farming with machines instead of human effort,” explains Lofthouse.How to Start Landrace GardeningNot having pure varieties feels strange to some gardeners. But Lofthouse points out that uniformity isn’t important in small-scale operations or home gardens.Here are his tips for gardeners who want to try landrace gardening:Grow and save seeds of a favourite varietyThen grow another variety of the same crop with desirable traits next to itAim for 2 - 5 varieties of the same crop from which to start your landraceLofthouse notes that there are some crops for which he avoids certain mixes. For example, he does not mix his popcorn with his sweetcorn; or his hot peppers with his sweet peppers. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Julie Brunson didn’t garden as a child, but began to garden and grow food as an adult. When her husband was in a dark place and found solace in their garden, the garden not only fed them, it helped him to heal.That was the start of a journey into teaching kids about regenerative gardening, and also using the garden as a way to touch on a host of other topics including social justice, mental health, and nutrition. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

What is the ideal plant for a small yard?The ideal plant for someone wanting something ornamental – yet edible too?And, just to complicate things, it has to be good for a garden where there are lots of squirrels.Claus Nader found that hot peppers were that ideal plant.Nader was gardening in a small yard that was frequented by marauding squirrels. While the squirrels sampled many of the things he grew, they didn’t eat his hot peppers.So Nader made hot peppers the focus of his garden, growing them in pots on his balcony, deck, and dotted around his small yard.Along with a passion for growing peppers in containers, Nader is also interested in unusual varieties and culinary uses and traditions. (His “Tummy Torch” sauce is magic on a piece of barbecued chicken.) ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Chris Smith remembers his first okra encounter well. It was at a diner in Georgia.A native of the UK, where growing conditions are not conducive to heat-loving okra, the vegetable was foreign to him. So was the cuisine of the American south.His recollection of that first taste of okra? Slime and grease.While not enamoured by his first okra experience, a later gift of a dry okra seed pod—a pod with a story—ignited his interest in okra.He began to grow it and to experiment with it in his own kitchen, using pods, leaves, flowers, stalks—even the seeds.As that interest and his knowledge of okra grew, Smith started to teach others about it. In his quest for even more okra information, he’s spoken with food historians, researchers, farmers, and chefs.He brings it all together in his book, The Whole Okra, A Seed to Stem Celebration. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Jennifer Lauruol weaves together permaculture concepts, native plants, food plants, forest gardening, and educational elements in her regenerative-garden design work in Lancaster, England.Her passion is edible ornamental gardening—especially in front yards.Lauruol also uses many native plants in her designs. She finds that effective design helps people interpret the use of native plants as a garden.Edible Front YardsLauruol recalls a neighbour’s concern that children might steal the fruit that Lauruol was growing in her front yard. Yet that was exactly her goal: that children would enjoy the fruit and learn where it comes from.She says that a well-planned garden can have a succession of edible fruits and ornamental plants. Another way to weave edible plants into a landscape is to create an edible hedge.While edible front gardens might not appeal to everyone’s taste, Lauruol does have a tip for gardeners worried about sceptical neighbours: “I do know what to do about the diehards: give them strawberries,” she says.Native PlantsLauruol explains that having a mown strip around plantings of native plants helps people understand it as something intentional. “If you create a frame around it then people can understand it,” she says.Her own design with native plants is strongly influenced by Brazilian artist, painter, and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx, who used big blocks of colour in his work. She says planting native plants in large drifts, as opposed to mixed plantings, is an approach that is less likely to be interpreted as sloppy.Sensory GardensLauruol creates sensory gardens for people with special needs. Her focus on sensory gardens stems from her own experience with her daughter Marie, who has special needs. “She comes alive when she is in nature,” says Lauruol, adding, “For me, the base of a sensory garden really needs to be a wildlife garden.” ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Meet Neal Peterson, the Indiana Jones of pawpaws. He was so moved by the taste of pawpaw that it became his life’s work.There were improved pawpaw varieties in the early 20th century—but the fruit fell into obscurity.Peterson dug through the literature to uncover past pawpaw breeding work, and then set out to track down lost varieties for use in his own pawpaw breeding work.About PawpawPeterson says that in the wild, pawpaws are an “understorey” tree, often growing in shade of larger forest trees. When they are in shady locations they become lanky and do not produce a lot of fruit.But given more light, they produce much more fruit.Two genetically distinct trees are needed to produce fruit.Pawpaws sucker extensively, which can give rise to groves of pawpaw that are all clones from a single parent tree.Peterson says that in the wild, pawpaw fruit can be quite seedy, with up to 25% seed by weight. In his work he has bred varieties with more fruit and less seed. His best variety has 4% seed by weight. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Today on the podcast we head to Reno, Nevada to hear about Urban Roots, an organization that uses garden education to help change the way people eat. It takes gardens to classrooms…and uses the garden as a classroom at its urban teaching farm.Fayth Ross and Elsa DeJong talk about the summer farm camp, programming for home-schooling families, and collaborations with local schools.Farm CampDuring the summer and school breaks, Urban Roots runs programming for children at its urban teaching farm.DeJong explains that there is a different theme each week. Themes include:A bug’s lifeOnce upon a farmAll about beesWoven into this farm camp curriculum are literature, art, engineering, music — and cooking.Farm SchoolThis program for home-schooling families takes place twice a week during the academic year, and includes lessons, games, and farm chores. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

In this rebroadcast of the radio show that aired live on July 7th, we talk about soil and no-till practices with market gardener, farm journalist, and podcaster Jesse Frost.He’s the host of The No-Till Market Garden Podcast, and he and his wife are no-till farmers at their Rough Draft Farmstead in Kentucky.Frost’s new book is The Living Soil Handbook.Choosing a No-Till ModelFrost says that there is no one-size-fits-all model of no-till growing.It depends on the context — things such as soil, rainfall, climate, and the crops being grown.No-till is as varied as the growers using it.3 Principles to Grow ByA successful no-till system goes beyond not tilling.Frost suggests three principles growers and gardeners can use to guide their approach to tillage:Disturb the soil as little as possibleKeep the soil covered as much as possibleKeep the soil planted as much as possible ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Where is the sweet spot that gardening meets the natural world…so that gardening is ecological? Our guest today explains that ecological gardening is all about balance.Matt Rees-Warren says, “Your garden is a pocket of wild; it will never be purely wild, because it’s an interaction between ourselves and nature. But it can be much more regenerative.”Rees-Warren is a professional gardener and garden designer who’s passionate about the difference that individual gardeners can make to strengthen biodiversity and lessen environmental degradation.He says gardening is one way individuals can make a tangible difference to the environment. Don’t wait for governments to act, he says. Start making changes now, in your own garden.Rees-Warren is the author of The Ecological Gardener: How to Create Beauty and Biodiversity From the Soil Up.Ecological Gardening“If we design our gardens to be regenerative, the result will be functional, beautiful spaces full of life and vigour, robust enough to face the challenges of the future and elegant enough to beguile all those who walk among them,” says Rees-Warren.But ecological gardening is more than a philosophy. There are many practical things we can do in the garden.Here are some of the ideas discussed:Coppicing. Talking about renewable materials for the garden, Rees-Warren explains the process of coppicing, where trees are repeatedly cut back to the ground to give a harvest of sticks that can be used in the garden.Scythe. He describes this as “the most immersive” of tools. “It’s the only tool for wildflower meadows,” he says.Hedgrows. Rees-Warren says hedgerows can also be food reservoirs, using plants such as blackberry, sloe berry, hops, raspberry, and hazelnuts. On the mention of sloe gin, he adds that sometimes these are called, “alcoholic hedges.”Pleachers. “Laying a hedgerow” and the technique of using “pleachers” is one way to create attractive hedgerows that are like a living fence. Young trees are cut leaving just a thread of bark connecting them to the stem, and then folded down horizontally. “It looks fabulous,” says Rees-Warren. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Our guest today, Chef Alan Bergo, looks at vegetables through the eyes of a forager. He’s passionate about using parts of the plant that are often overlooked.Chefs using a whole animals might use the term nose-to-tail cooking. Bergo takes this approach with his vegetables, using a root-to-flower approach.Bergo is the author of the new book, The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora: Recipes and Techniques for Edible Plants from Garden, Field, and Forest.Often-Forgotten Plant PartsBergo talks about using squash tips in the kitchen. “The squash is a perfect example of how foraging and looking for different ingredients changed how I consider vegetables that I thought I knew,” he says.His advice for cooking squash shoot tips? Cook gently and delicately. Steam them, or blanche for one minute…or barely wilt them in a pan.Other often-forgotten plant parts include:Fennel fronds. Bergo likes to combine these with parmesan cheese and bread crumbs to make into cakes.Carrot leaves. He suggests simmering them in salted water. They keep their shape and texture when gently cooked, and can then be used like salad.Unripe sunflower heads. They have the texture of an artichoke along with a strong sunflower flavour.Foraged IngredientsSochan. Bergo explains that leaves from this rudbeckia family member can be harvest three to four times over a year. The leaves formed after the flower stalk dies back are different—and are his favourite. Older leaves have a stronger flavour.Nettles. He finds that common nettle has more of a “saline” or “oceanic” taste to it than Canada nettleMilkweed flower can be used to make drinks with an intensely fruity flavour.Meadowsweet flowers have an almond-like taste. Bergo says that a good way to catch floral aromas is by using cream.Black walnut. Young nuts can be used to make a jam and catsup.Pine pollen. It’s used in China and the Middle East to make sweets.Thoughts on FlavourBergo talks about flavours that are shared amongst plants in the same families, recounting the time he served dolmas made using galinsoga leaves, only to have people ask him if they contained artichoke.Another example of a shared flavour is the hint of almond that shines through in plum kernal oil or saskatoon berries.Bergo’s Top TipsSteaming greens keeps more flavour than blanching.Try something new! ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

“I can’t hold them back sometimes,” says physiotherapist Nancy Durrant as she tells us about the garden at the long-term care home where she works.The residents she’s talking about are mainly in their 90s. And the vegetables and herbs they grow and harvest become part of the menu at this Toronto long-term care home.An avid gardener herself, Durant says the home had nice grounds previously…but she saw the space and imagined a garden. The management agreed with her idea of a garden, and two years ago, Durrant, with the help of staff members who built raised beds, set out with a core group of residents to garden.She points out that gardens are an excellent fit for what she does as a physiotherapist because gardening is exercise. It’s good for the body, and good for the mind.Growing InterestThere is a core group of residents who, along with staff, run the garden. Durrant says other residents take part, especially with harvest.Along with vegetables, they grow a number of herbs. “We have a few herbs which I think is really good because it hits more senses,” says Durrant.There are a number of ways they grow interest in the garden:Grow plants from seed. They grow all all of their plants themselves, from seed. Some are started indoors; some are sown directly in the garden.Weigh the harvest. Last year they harvest 178 pounds of food. Durrant points out that while this might not sound like a lot, they grow a lot of herbs, which weigh very little.Grow unusual plants with a story. They focus on heirloom varieties, and put up posters with the story behind the heirloom varieties.Document progress. Time-lapse photo displays document the progress of the garden.Save seeds. Residents save seeds from heirloom varieties for the following year, and to share with the community.Eat what you grow. Produce from the garden is used in meals at the home, with home-grown ingredients highlighted to residents.Giving back to the community. Donating harvest to a food bank is a way residents can contribute to the community.Age-Appropriate Garden TipsDurant says that the gardens are a combination of in-ground plots, raised beds, and containers. The desk-height raised beds make it possible for gardeners with differing physical abilities to take part.Break up the work into small windows, 1 hour maximum.For gardeners with arthritic hands, modify tools by adding large grips.Select long-handled tools to minimize the need to bend.Select shovels with a small blade to reduce the weight lifted.Find a WayDurrant says that there are ways to help those with disabilities continue to garden.She gives the example of a resident who recently had a heart attack, but who can still cut herbs in the raised beds, and can drops bean seeds into a pre-dug trench. ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

Today on the podcast we visit the Black Creek Community Farm in Toronto.The farm is located along the northern boundary of the City of Toronto, in a densely populated neighbourhood where Toronto meets one of its northern suburbs, within walking distance of the Jane and Finch neighbourhood.If you’re from Toronto, you’ll know Jane and Finch — at least by name — from the media attention it gets.The good things going on in the area — and that there is a vibrant community here — don’t get a lot of media attention, so it might be a surprise for some people to connect Jane and Finch with urban farming, with growing food, and with growing community through food.“When you do something from the heart, when you’re passionate about what you do, I think you can do big things.” Mildred AgsaoayUnique PropertyFounded in 2012, the Black Creek Community Farm is on an eight-acre property that includes three acres of farmland, a heritage farmhouse and barn, and forest that extends into the Black Creek ravine.The property has a market garden, a food forest, greenhouses, an outdoor classroom, an outdoor brick pizza oven, a medicine-wheel garden, a mushroom garden, a chicken coop, and beehives.At the FarmThere are a number of programs at the Black Creek Community Farm.The Urban Harvest program, a partnership with the City of Toronto, facilitates sharing of surplus harvest by community members with food banks.There are workshops about growing, cooking, and food preservation.Programs for seniors help prevent social isolation. Participants tend the gardens, cook together, and even have exercise programs together.Programs for school-age children build awareness of plants and growing—but also social justice and food justice. Adjowa Karikari, who facilitates student programming, also includes other topics that might grab the attention of students, including worms and worm composting, edible weeds, bugs, and weird plants and animals.Sunshine Community GardenBeyond the farm site, the Black Creek Community Farm has been involved in the creation of the Sunshine Community Garden on the property of a nearby high-rise apartment building. Agsaoay explains that the garden is more than just growing food: It’s a way to build community.“Growing food is a great connecctor for people. It builds relationships and trust.” Mildred Agsaoay ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]

In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we head to California to talk with Christy Wilhelmi, a self-described garden nerd with a passion for growing fruit and vegetables, and an expert at small-space edible-garden design.In the podcast she shares tips about:Incorporating fruit plants in small-space gardensGrowing fruit in containersPruningTips to succeed for gardeners who are new to growing fruit ---Join 6,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang and get practical weekly tips to grow more food at home—free. It’s the best way to get started. [Join the newsletter]