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

Today on the podcast we head to Montreal to hear about City Farm School, an urban-agriculture apprenticeship program.Jackie Martin, a co-ordinator with City Farm School, explains that this not-for-profit program uses space provided by Concordia University. In addition to greenhouse space on the 13th floor of a downtown building, the “farm” is located at the Loyola Campus, in a residential neighbourhood. She says that the market garden is roughly the size of a soccer field — and there’s a medicinal-plant garden too.Apprenticeship ProgramThe program, which is open to anyone in the community, has two streams: a market-gardener apprenticeship and a medicinal-plants apprenticeship.The program begins in the greenhouse in March, with seed-sowing for transplants the farm and for a plant sale. In May there is transplanting and seeding at the market garden.The community market opens in June. Students take part in harvesting for the market, preparing the harvest for sale, and staffing the market. Later in summer they save seeds for the following year.Before graduating students are expected to teach a free workshop that is open to the public. Martin says that past topics have included seeding, fermentation, and pest control — with some of the more memorable topics being herbal medicine for pets and edible weeds.Community OutreachThe weekly market has been an important way to connect with the community. “Our neighbours are our biggest supporters, and always have been,” says Martin. She explains that many of their neighbours now grow their own kale, after she sent them home from market with their own kale seed. It’s not a move that increases kale sales — but it’s in keeping with their mandate to encourage gardening in the city.Martin says former students have gone on to become farmers, teachers, and community organizers. Many of the organizations they now partner with were created by former students. ---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 talk about “foodscaping,” gardening that combines the ornamental with the edible, also known as edible landscaping.Foodscaper Jeremy Cooper says he likes to work with plants that have multiple functions, including ornamental, herbal, medicinal, ecological, and edible.Cooper worked in a number of jobs before focusing on foodscaping. In hindsight, he sees that he was circling this intersection of food, gardening, and the environmental before he even realized it.Part of what he does as a foodscaper is to educate clients about smarter ways to garden. For example, many times he’ll find people battling plants that are edible. “That’s food!” he tells them, as he helps them see the plants in another light.Foodscaping TipsCooper’s tips for gardeners interested in foodscaping:Don’t be afraid to dream about other ways to use a space and think about what you might like in the long term. “Don’t be afraid to dream…it doesn’t have to be a lawn,” he says.Grow foods you like to eat.Make sure the soil is healthy, and if in doubt, dig into the topsoil and then down below the topsoil to see what is there. He points out that in many new subdivisions, gardeners are left with hard-packed soil and gravel beneath a shallow layer of topsoil. ---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 explore the idea of healing through growing.We travel to Israel, to meet Nachum Lamour-Fridman. He uses plants and growing as part of the programming at the Borgani community centre he founded for PTSD sufferers and their families.Lamour-Fridman’s dream is to create a model of a sustainability centre that can be used to help PTSD sufferers everywhere.Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)Lamour-Fridman realized the power of growing when, in the depths of his own PTSD, being outdoors and amongst plants was one of the things that helped him rise up and begin to heal.He says that he was sometimes unable to sleep or eat, making it difficult to function. Yet living in a kibbutz, where there is a strong culture of work, he says that those who can’t work can be ostracized. “It affected my soul; it affected my ability to engage reality,” he says as he talks about how PTSD affected his ability to live and work in his own community.He recently spoke to the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, where his key message was for it to act now to help those with PTSD, likening untreated trauma to a terminal cancer or an auto-immune disease.BorganiLamour-Fridman explains that Borgani translates into “pit garden,” a fitting name given that the centre is located in a what was a stone quarry in Roman times.The old quarry had previously been used by the community as part of a cattle farming operation, but for the past 20 years was used as a garbage dump.Lamour-Fridman began to clean it out.At first, he wasn’t able to stay in the enclosed space for long, and might only stay 5 minutes. Now it’s become a place of comfort and healing for him. “Today when I go there it’s like a stone womb,” he explains.The Borgani sustainability centre brings together agriculture, technology, and education. It includes a greenhouse and farm, selling food baskets to the community. There is also a composting facility, and studios where participants make furniture and art.“It’s not a charity,” he explains, pointing out that participants take part in the full cycle of growing, tending, and selling. He notes the importance of participants seeing the value in what they do.Looking ahead, he says, “We have big plans.” These plans include yoga and therapy through movement and music.“When you start, it doesn’t matter if it’s a half-a-metre garden or 20 acres. When you start, don’t stop. Because nature doesn’t stop and life doesn’t stop.” ---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 North Carolina to chat with beekeeper Justin Maness.Backyard Honeybees Maness began working with honey bees after finishing college, when he joined a research team studying the links of neonicotinoid pesticides and honey bee mortality. After that, he worked in for-profit and non-profit ventures with bees, and eventually founded Buddha Bee Apiary.He says that at Buddha Bee Apiary his goal is to spark curiosity about bees, educate people about bees — and grow a crop of pollinator advocates.Buddha Bee Apiary places honeybee hives in urban and suburban backyards through its Host-a-Hive program. It also offers a mentorship program for those interested in one-on-one learning.Living Big in a Small SpaceWe also hear about the life that Maness and his family live in their converted school bus.Maness says that their interest in the school-bus lifestyle started after his wife, Juby, bought a small school bus to ferry merchandise for her business to events. After a couple of nights on the road, they realized that they liked the mobility — and eventually bought a larger bus to convert into a home.Maness says that having a small home means they spend more time outside, whether working in the garden, eating, or hanging out.He and Juby share their approach to life and food in their new cookbook, Tiny Home, Big Flava’. ---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 meet an avid gardener who grew up in downtown Toronto, in a family that didn’t garden. And for a long time she didn’t garden either.But then one person sparked her interest in gardening, and dropped by with a bucket of llama poo to help her make and plant her very first garden.Julia Dimakos hasn’t looked back. Her kitchen garden has grown to 7,000 square feet.Now, she is on a mission to spark the interest in gardening in other 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]

Today on the podcast we hang out here in Toronto to speak with Isaac Crosby. Isaac is the Urban Agriculture Lead at Toronto’s Evergreen Brickworks.During our chat, Isaac told us that, “Part of wisdom is not keeping it to yourself.”He shares with us wisdom that has come to him through Ojibwa teachings. Isaac is from the Ojibwa of Anderdon, a small farming community In south-western Ontario. He takes the seven grandfather teachings and explains how we can interpret them when gardening.His advice for new gardeners? “Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, because that’s where you learn.”The 7 Grandfather TeachingsThe 7 Grandfather teachings are about:HumilityHonestyRespectBravery/CourageLoveTruthWisdom ---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 Ohio to find out more about potager gardens. Jennifer Bartley tells us about this traditional kitchen garden style from France, and how to create the same sort of food-producing garden with seasonality and a sense of intimacy at home.Bartley writes, “The potager is more than a kitchen garden; it is a philosophy of living that is dependent on the seasons and the immediacy of the garden.”Bartley is a landscape architect, whose firm, American Potager, designs gardens inspired by the grand French kitchens. ---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 chat with herbalist Bevin Cohen about using, growing, and foraging herbs. He talks about culinary, medicinal, and cosmetic uses.He also talks about his journey into the business of herbs and building his herb business.Cohen is also an author and seed saver. His new book is The Artisan Herbalist: Making Teas, Tinctures, and Oils at 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]

Today on the podcast we head to Quebec City to talk about civil disobedience: Civil disobedience with vegetables.Marie-Hélène Jacques from the not-for-profit organization Les Urbainculteurs – which translates into urban growers – joins us to talk about moving the needle on growing food in Quebec City.The urban agriculture scene in Quebec City is hot right now. Jacques says, “It’s not like a wave of interest that’s happening now in gardening — it’s a tsunami of interest.” ---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 Montreal to hang out with Shawn Manning from Urban Seedling. He tells us how, 10 years ago, he channelled his love of growing vegetables into a business specialized in creating vegetable gardens.Along with helping people create and grow vegetable gardens, another goal was to improve food security in the city. He realized that installing gardens for people who can afford a gardener probably doesn’t move the needle much on food security…but he’s tweaked the business to include corporate gardens—and use that as a way to improve food security in Montreal. ---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 chat with forager and a wild-food educator Mike Krebill in Iowa.Krebill shares foraging tips, his insights into teaching, his approach to outdoor education—and stories from the years he spent teaching a grade seven elective course on foraging.Krebill’s new book is A Forager’s Life: Reflections on Mother Nature and my 70+ Years of Digging, Picking, Gathering, Fixing and Feasting on Wild Edible Foods. ---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 chat with forest garden designer and edible landscaper Mark Lord in south-western Germany.“A garden should be a holistic experience, feeding all of your senses, and your mind,” says Lord. He believes food gardens can be about more than just eating—that they can also be visually appealing, bio-diverse, and appeal to other senses such as smell.We also digress into his experiments making liqueur including linden, serviceberry, cherry…and nettle! ---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 chat with author, horticulturist, and plant breeder Joseph Tychonievich.Tychonievich shares his top tips for new vegetable gardeners.As an avid food gardener, he grows many different food crops. But every so often he focuses on a particular crop and grows as many varieties as he can. He recently emerged from a cucumber phase…and as a teenager, he went through a pineapple phase.He gardens in his own yard, a neighbour’s yard, and even inside in a closet.Tychonievich’s new book is The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food: Step by Step Vegetable Gardening for Everyone. ---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 chat with Arlene Hazzan Green and Marc Green, co-owners of The Backyard Urban Farm Company (BUFCO) in Toronto about their mission to help people grow food at home.They are edible landscapers who help people plan, plant, and maintain food gardens. They have even ventured into wheelchair-accessible beds.From Film to FarmingHazzan Green explains why, after over 30 years in the film industry, they decided to venture into the business of edible landscaping, saying, “It was the lifestyle it was offering us that had such an appeal.”In hindsight, she realized that a lot of the film scripts she had been pitching had a farming theme. “I realized that what I was trying to do in my writing was create the life that I want to live,” she says. ---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 head to San Diego, California to chat with Mim Michelove and Nan Sterman, who share a love of growing food and involvement in food activism.As unemployment in their community grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as the local food supply became shaky, they decided to use their connections with commercial growers, in the community, and with social service agencies to help people feed themselves. The result was the Grab & Grow Gardens program.Grab & Grow GardensThe Grab & Grow Gardens kits contain two transplant-size vegetable seedlings in a carry bag, along with growing instructions in English and Spanish. “We do this in Mim’s backyard,” explains Sterman, as she talks about assembling the kits with a small army of volunteers.Kits are distributed to those in need through hunger relief agencies, school districts, and affordable housing organizations.At the time of the interview in February, 2021, they had distributed over 8,500 kits.Initially, everything for the kits was donated. Securing donations of vegetable transplants was possible because they are located in an area with a large vegetable-transplant industry.As demand for the kits grew, and as they were able to access grants and donations, they began to purchase seed, allowing them to choose the most suitable crops and 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]

We head to Montana to chat with Tim Southwell of ABC Acres, the permaculture homestead he and his his wife Sarah created.Southwell, who grew up in suburban Houston, explains that it was while living in Kansas City and growing a front-yard vegetable garden that he was introduced to permaculture and many of the concepts that he uses today on the farm.In addition to livestock, they have a crater garden, a food hedge, chinampas, and a sunken greenhouse with citrus, bananas, figs, and papaya.The unique microclimate created by the crater garden permits them to grow apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, apricots in their harsh climate. He explains, “Every fruit tree we have, we build with it a microclimate.” ---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 chat with Vermont garden educator and radio host Charlie Nardozzi, who discusses his journey into no-dig gardening—and why it’s good for gardeners, the soil, and the environment.He also tells us about his new book, The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening.Nardozzi hasn’t always been a no-dig gardener. He used to garden with a gas-guzzling tiller. He shares ideas for gardeners who want to create a new no-till garden, as well as ideas about how gardeners with existing beds can transition them into a no-till system.In the fig segment, we chat with a New York fig grower who has "stepover" figs. In the tomato segment, we explore the idea of "keeper" tomatoes. ---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 inspires youth and children to garden? In today's show we speak with a 15-year-old on a mission to inspire other teens to garden, and find out about an organization helping people garden with children.We speak with 15-year-old gardener Vivien Wong in New York State, who fills her small suburban yard with fruit and vegetables. She has been documenting her gardening journey with the goal of inspiring other teens to grow their own food. Along the way, she won a prize at the fair!In the second half of the show we chat with Em Shipman, Executive Director of Kids Gardening, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to get kids gardening.“It’s our job and our passion to support those people that we know are working really hard to provide important, meaningful education opportunities for kids,” says Shipman.The Kids Gardening website has lesson plans, ideas for activities, and information about grants for community and school 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]

With a reputation for unusual and wildly popular tomato varieties, tomato breeder Brad Gates focuses above all else on flavour.He didn’t start out working in tomato breeding. While working in the landscape industry, he was asked by a friend to help sell heirloom tomatoes at a farmers market. Gates loved the energy at the market—and he was fascinated with the unusual heirloom tomatoes.So he started growing, and, eventually, breeding tomatoes.“I was looking for the holy grail that would have my customers come crawling back on their hands and knees.” ---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’s old is new: Cold cellars are back. Transition Guelph launches an initiative to build local food-storage capacity through cold cellar education and installations. We find out what they’re doing—and get tips to help you make a home cold cellars.We are joined by Steve Tedesco and Ian Findlay from Transition Guelph. Tedesco is a Guelph-area farmer, and Findlay is a contractor specializing in cold cellars.Why Cold Cellars are BackFindlay says to think of a cold cellar as a passively-chilled walk-in cooler. He says people with the added food-storage capacity of a cold cellar can store more homegrown produce, and can also stock up on locally grown produce when it is in season.Tedesco points out that having a cold cellar can change the way meals are planned. “It becomes an active participation sport to manage your cold room and plan your meals around what you have so that nothing goes to waste,” he says.Tedesco explains that the Transition Movement is a global movement focused on building local resilience. Transition Guelph formed in 2009. ---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 chat with vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour about using garden bed covers. She is the author of the new book, Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden. Jabbour is a Halifax-based, award-winning author, host of The Weekend Gardener radio show, and one of the experts behind the gardening website Savvygardening.com. She discusses the benefits of using garden bed covers, choosing covers suited to your situation, how to boost insulation of cold frames, tips for people thinking of a greenhouse, and greenhouse covering materials. Why use Garden Bed Covers Jabbour says that there are many reasons to use garden bed covers. “It’s about gardening smarter, not harder,” she says. Reasons to use garden bed covers include: Larger harvests Better ability to control the growing environment Year-round harvests Including more “hyper-local” food on the menu Reduced pest pressure Creating conditions suited to exotic crops Types of Garden Bed Covers Jabbour points out that not everyone has the space or money for a glass greenhouse. But there are many other options to provide cover for crops. These include: Row covers Cloches Cold frames Plastic-covered greenhouses Mini hoop tunnels Complete show notes at foodgardenlife.com/show/garden-bed-covers

It’s an astringent. And it might already be growing in your yard or nearby. Today we take you beyond eating raspberry fruit to explore the herbal and medicinal properties of the plant itself—along with its relatives in the genus Rubus. Ever heard of raspberry-leaf tea? Tune in, and find out about the many uses of this plant. Raspberry Family The 2020 Herb of the Year is Rubus. The genus Rubus includes raspberries and blackberries. Conrad Richter from Richters Herbs joins us to delve into the history, herbal, and medicinal properties of the approximately 700 species of the genus Rubus. Science meets History Richter, who trained in botany, also has a keen interest in history. “I do straddle those two worlds very well,” he says. He says that the earliest recorded use of Rubus dates back 10,000 years. And 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks recorded its use for treating diarrhoea. As an “astringent,” a class of herbs that shrinks tissue, it’s medicinal properties were well documented. Fast forward to the present day, and Richter says that there is interest in using Rubus leaves in creams to “tonify” the skin, and in the health benefits of the anthocyanins in the fruit.

Chef and author Jennifer McLagan joins us to talk about bitter foods, explaining what bitterness is, and how to effectively use bitter in the kitchen. McLagan is the author of the book, Bitter: A Taste of the World’s most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes. The Loss of Bitter McLagan recalls the grapefruit that her mother served her as a child. They had a slight bitterness—an “edge.” Her mother balanced that bitterness with a sprinkle of sugar on top. McLagan says bitterness has been bred out of modern grapefruit. Now they’re sweet and pink…with no bitterness. That loss inspired her book. “They don’t taste like grapefruit any more,” she says. What is Bitter? McLagan says that many people confuse bitter with sour. It is different from sour—one of the four basic tastes, along with sour, sweet, and salty. “It adds a complexity and depth to the food,” says McLagan, explaining that using bitterness—like salt—makes food more interesting and less flat. She gives the example of crème brulée: The caramel topping has a bitter edge, which plays well with the sweet, rich pudding below. Cooking with Bitter Foods McLagan says that bitter is not as popular in North American cuisine as it is in other parts of the world. “The American palate is very geared towards sweet,” she explains. Bitter pairs well with fat and with sweetness. “Bitter and fat are the 2 perfect things; one rounds out the other,” she says. ---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’re joined by tomato expert Craig LeHoullier to talk about the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, preserving seed varieties, and to find out what’s new in his garden. LeHoullier, an avid seed saver with a passion for saving and sharing heirloom tomato varieties, says that his seed collection contains somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 seed packets. Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project The project began in 2004. LeHoullier was getting a lot of questions about compact varieties at his annual tomato-plant sale. He explains that dwarf tomato varieties, which grow vertically at approximately half the rate of other indeterminate tomato varieties, already existed at the time. But these dwarf varieties were obscure and hard to find. He teamed up with a friend in Australia to start breeding new dwarf tomato varieties. That initiative soon grew into an open source, volunteer-run, worldwide breeding project. The goal was to breed stable, open-pollinated, dwarf tomato varieties from which gardeners could save their own seed. The project began releasing dwarf tomato varieties to seed companies in 2010. By 2020, 135 varieties had been released. ---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 Johnny Appleseed of cold-hardy citrus, Stan McKenzie, joins us to talk about how to grow citrus in cold climates. McKenzie talks about how he became a "citraholic" and started down the path of growing citrus on his USDA Zone 8 farm and nursery in South Carolina. McKenzie Farms specializes in citrus suited for cold climates. ---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’re joined by Pittsburgh-based horticulturist and author Jessica Walliser to talk about her new book Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden. There is a lot of folklore that finds its way into discussions about companion planting. Walliser explains that her hope is to reboot the term “companion planting” by looking at it through a scientific lens. What is Companion Planting? Walliser says that companion planting is purposely planting two or more plants close together to get some sort of benefit. Companion planting does not have to mean putting two plants together at the same time, however; it can also mean growing plants in succession. Common terms used in science that overlap with the idea of companion planting are: Intercropping Plant partners Interplanting Polyculture Benefits of Plant Partners In her book, Walliser has chapters on seven different benefits of using plant partners in the vegetable garden. Soil preparation and conditioning Weed management Support and structure Pest management Disease management Biological Control Pollination ---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 head to Kansas to speak with Lynn Byczynski and Will Nagengast about market farming, cut flowers, farm journalism, Italian culinary traditions, and seeds. Their family business is Seeds from Italy. Byczynski founded Growing for Market, a magazine for market farmers. She is the author of Market Farming Success, The Flower Farmer: An Organic Grower’s Guide to Raising and Selling Cut Flowers, The Hoophouse Handbook. The Journey into the Seed Business Byczynski says that when the farm wasn’t enough to support the family, she branched out into producing Growing for Market using her background in journalism and newspaper reporting. She found that the writing and farming fed off of each other: While interviewing people for articles, she heard ideas that they could try on their farm; and things they were doing on their own farm could be shared with other farmers in Growing for Market. Seeds from Italy She says the hair on the back of her neck stood up when an advertiser for her Growing for Market newsletter told her that the sale of his Italian seed distribution business had fallen through. “I could just feel this was the next thing we were going to do,” she says. The first thing that the family did after taking over Seeds from Italy was to take a trip to Italy to meet the owners of Franchi Seeds, the company whose seed they would be distributing in the United States. Nagengast and Byczynski say that once home, they immersed themselves in the varieties they were selling by having weekly Italian-themed meals cooked with the Italian varieties they distribute. ---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 chat with herb expert Sue Goetz about growing herbs in containers. Goetz is an award-winning garden designer, writer, and speaker. Her motto is “Inspiring gardeners to create.” She gives us creative ideas for growing herbs in containers and for using herbs. Goetz also shares ideas from her new book, Container Herb Garden Complete: Design and Grow Beautiful, Bountiful Herb-Filled Pots. Emma’s Tomato-Talk Segment In Emma’s tomato segment, we talk about some of Emma’s top tomato-variety recommendations for 2021. Biggs-on-Figs Segment In the Biggs-on-Figs segment, we head to the Toronto suburb of Vaughan to get the scoop on the fig tree at Angelo’s Garden Centre. Over the years Steven has had lots of people ask whether he knows of the tree. He sure does—he’s long admired it. He finds out about the history of the 19-foot-high fig tree from Carlo Amendolia, owner of Angelo’s Garden Centre. ---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 speak with author, educator, and edible-ecosystem designer Zach Loeks from Eastern Ontario. A former market gardener, Loeks has converted his farm into the production of berries, fruit, and edible perennials. He is also the director of the Ecosystem Solution Institute, which is involved in education projects such as an edible-biodiversity conservation area near Ottawa, Ontario. The site includes herbs, fruit trees, berry bushes, and ground covers, all labelled with interpretive signs. He believes that many small actions can add up to big change. In his new book, The Edible Ecosystem Solution, he talks about ways to grow edibles, even in small spaces. ---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 speak with farmer and plant breeder Joseph Lofthouse in northern Utah about breeding tomatoes, and his work with The Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project. Lofthouse focuses on breeding landrace crop varieties that are are locally adapted and genetically diverse. Living in a mountain valley with cold nights and only gets 100 frost-free days, his work breeding tomatoes started out with the simple goal of breeding varieties suited to his growing conditions. “If I wanted to grow tomatoes, I basically had to breed my own tomatoes,” he explains. He has found much more than cold tolerance. ---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 are joined by Helen Battersby, a Toronto garden blogger, garden coach, and publisher of the Toronto & Golden Horseshoe Gardener’s Journal. Battersby talks about the difference between the Canadian and American garden zone systems—both of which provide gardeners with a zone number to use when selecting hardy plant material. The lower the number, the colder the garden zone. She points out that while her garden is a zone 6 using the Canadian system, it’s a zone 5 using the American system. The Canadian system uses a number of variables including lowest mean temperature of the coldest month, highest mean temperature of the hottest month, precipitation, and the number of frost-free days. The American (U.S. Department of Agriculture, or USDA) zones are based solely on average annual minimum temperatures. She likens the Canadian system to a Betamax; and the US systmem to the VHS. ---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 chat with Ben Caesar about perennial vegetables and salad greens. Caesar, who runs Fiddlehead Nursery, specializes in perennial edibles. He says that in Western cultures, annual vegetable crops are the norm. But with a shift in thinking, it’s easy to incorporate perennial vegetables into the diet. That shift to perennial vegetables is good because not only can they be easier for gardeners to manage—they require less soil tilling, which means less release of carbon that’s locked up in the 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]

Tomato expert Linda Crago joins us to talk about how to create a new tomato variety. At her Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm in the Niagara Region of Ontario, she raises hundreds of varieties of tomatoes. This past summer, Emma grew a couple of tomato varieties that Crago released. She tells us what she did to get them—and shares tips on creating new tomato 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]

We speak with Colorado gardener and backyard plant breeder Andrew Barney about his work developing a red-podded pea, cold-adapted watermelons, and new tomatoes. Barney connects with other plant breeders through seed swaps, social media groups, and online forums. He says many people who are interested in plant breeding and preserving plant varieties are happy to share plant genetics. While some approaches to breeding require more effort on the part of the gardener, others, such as the landrace-style breeding he's using for his watermelons, take less work to manage. His advice to would-be backyard plant breeders is, "Just try it!"

We’re joined by Saskia Vegter, the Urban Agricultural Co-ordinator at 401 Richmond, a former industrial building that has been transformed into a cultural hub in a dense downtown Toronto neighbourhood. The rooftop at 401 Richmond has three garden areas: A deck-patio area, which includes trees and shrubs in containers; an extensive sedum green roof; the “mini farm,” which has fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers for cutting growing in containers. ---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]

Small-scale farming expert joins us to talk about his road to profitable small-scale farming. He’s an innovator who is out to remake agriculture.He talks about his own farm, Les Jardins de la Grelinetteas well as his work in training a new crop of farmers at Ferme des Quatre-Temps.Fortier is quick to point out that a profitable small farm is not an oxymoron.His book, The Market Gardener, has sold more than 200,000 copies and been translated into 7 languages. ---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 grower and tomato expert Linda Crago joins us to talk about seed lingo, saving seeds—and sharing seeds. An avid seed-saver, she concedes that she has a whole freezer dedicated to seeds alone.Crago operates Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm in the Niagara Region of Ontario. She also organizes an annual Seedy Saturday seed swap and event in her community. ---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 our second chat with Kentucky farmer and author John Moody, we talk about elderberry.Moody is the author of The Elderberry Book, in which he explores not only the cultivation and use of elderberry, but also it’s rich history.Moody talks about how, on a small farm such as theirs, 30 bottles of specialty elderberry syrup brings in roughly the same amount as what a conventional farmer might get from an acre of corn. ---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 chat with Kentucky farm educator and homesteader John Moody to learn how a junk-food-eating city kid ended up as a farmer and farm educator. Moody, who had been heading towards a career in academia so that he could teach, says that in hindsight, “I got a farm so I can teach.”After a health scare, Moody and his wife began to change their eating habits, buy more whole foods and locally grown foods. With the change in food buying habits, he noticed that his food bill went way up. “The farmers aren’t getting any of this money I’m spending,” he thought.His interest in growing food evolved out of his interest in healthy food—especially after meeting farmers who were sceptical about cutting their use of external inputs. So he set out to do it himself. ---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 interview that first broadcast live on the Food Garden Life Radio Show in 2018, we chat with nut-growing expert Ernie Grimo from Grimo Nut Nursery in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.When Grimo set out to grow nuts in his yard, he couldn’t find local nurseries selling plants. That was the beginning of his foray into collecting, breeding, and selling nut trees.At his farm and nursery in Niagara, Grimo grows a wide variety of cold-adapted nuts including heartnut, butternut, Persian walnut, black walnut, pine nut, hazelnut, chestnut, beech, hickory, and pecan. He also has crosses such as the “hican,” a hickory-pecan cross. ---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 chat with Sunday Harrison, the founder and executive director of Green Thumbs Growing Kids, a non-profit organization that provides hands-on garden and food education to urban school children.Harrison says that she started the program as an after-school program in a local Toronto park, but after hearing students say, “I really want a garden at my school,” she partnered with local schools.Now in its twenty-first year of operation, the program has grown to include placements for post-secondary students. Her top tip for those thinking of starting a program: “Start small and do it well.” She says that this attracts other 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]

Greg Neal from North Vancouver tells us how he got the bug for growing citrus. At last count he had 19 varieties around his suburban yard, some in the ground, some in pots, and some in his greenhouse. He takes delight in seeing the look of surprise on the face of delivery people who notice lemons, tangerines, and limes growing in his front yard. Neal says that memories of lemons growing around his aunt’s California yard inspired him to look into growing lemons at home. He learned that Meyer lemons are quite cold hardy, and, seeing Meyer lemon plants for sale in 2006, came home with three plants.He kept one plant in the house; it died. But the two that he stored in his cold garage for the winter lived. He now grows Meyer lemon directly in the ground, covering it with a string of incandescent lights and fabric for winter protection. The lights emit just enough heat to get the plant through the coldest days.He explains that the fruit takes about one year to mature—so it’s important to protect it from freezing over the winter. ---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]

Toronto master preserver and pastry chef Camilla Wynne joins us to talk about preserves—and about her Quince Scrap Jelly.Wynne hates to waste a scrap of quince because it’s full of flavour and pectin—and it’s hard to find locally grown quince in Toronto.Wynne, the author of Preservation Society Home Preserves: 100 Modern Recipes, writes about preserving and teaches preserving classes. ---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 on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with Jude Schuenemeyer from Colorado about the history of apple cultivation in Colorado, his work finding and preserving heritage apple varieties—and the recent “rediscovery” an a variety that he and his wife Addie have been working to track down and identify for 20 years: the Colorado Orange. Schuenemeyer, a Sherlock Holmes of the apple world, scours historical horticultural records and talks to old timers, as well as using technology such as genetic fingerprinting. ---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 dig into the art and science of preserving—and talk about preserving apples— with Sarah Page, a contributor to the latest version of the Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 Delicious and Creative Recipes for Today.Page, who works as a recipe developer and tester, is a trained consumer chef and home economist. She loves creating new recipes with local and seasonal harvests. Page’s top tips for successful preserving are to use a tested and approved recipe; and use fresh produce.Page, who grew up in a household where her mother served applesauce regularly, loves to work with apples and shares a few of her favourite ideas:Apple-cranberry butter, preserving apples for pie filling later in the year, apple sauce with a savoury flavour (e.g. chipotle), and leaving the skin on pink apples when making apple sauce to give the sauce a pink colour. ---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 chat with Montreal fig enthusiast—and fig tourist—Michal Hacio. Hacio says that his passion for growing figs and meeting other fig growers started when he spent time living in Vancouver, where an Italian neighbour introduced him to fig growing.Hacio says that in a country of immigrants such as Canada, people often bring something to connect them with their home country. For many people, that something is a fig plant.He finds that a shared interest in figs is a good way to connect with other people. Hacio has overwintered figs many different ways in Montreal. His key message for would-be growers is that there is more than one solution to overwintering figs in a cold climate. “Be creative,” he advises. ---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 head to Minnesota to chat with Mary Schier, the editor of Minnesota State Horticultural Society’s magazine, Northern Gardener—a magazine dedicated to gardening in USDA Zones 3 and 4.Schier is a Minnesota gardener and the author of 'The Northern Gardener, From Apples to Zinnias, 150 Years of Garden Wisdom.'She gardens in St. Paul, where she crams as many plants as possible into her urban lot. Schier says that St. Paul is an urban heat island, so creative gardeners often try to push zone 4 limits.Schier says that when it comes to growing fruit, it’s very important to take the time to research varieties well suited to cold zones. For example, the Evans Cherry does very well in Minnesota. Sweet cherries do not. Another important tip in cold zones is not to start seeds indoors too early. Schier only plants out her tomato transplants on June 1—so she works back from that date and starts her transplants later than gardeners in warmer zones. ---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 chat with Winnipeg-based garden educator Dave Hanson, co-host of The Grow Guide Podcast, and founder of Sage Garden Greenhouses.Hanson, who spent time in his youth in a tropical climate, has been growing herbs and spices since his childhood, eventually working at a herb nursery as a teenager. He loves growing exotic edible plants. His Winnipeg climate means that frost-sensitive plants can come out June 1, and be back under cover in time for the first fall frost in late September. That doesn’t stop him.Hanson gives his tips for growing guava, yacon, starfruit, cinnamon, curry leaf, and black pepper. ---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]

Ever thought you could get five garlic harvests from your garden?Today on the podcast, garden expert Doug Oster joins us from Pittsburgh, PA to talk about growing and cooking with garlic.Oster, who loves growing and cooking with garlic, shares his love of garlic by taking seed garlic to friends…earning him the nickname “Dougy Garlic Seed.” Oster recently gave two presentations about garlic at the Virtual Tomato and Garlic Days hosted by Phipps Conservatory: How to Get Five Harvests from Growing Your Own Garlic, and Garlic is Love.Oster explains that there are 5 possible harvests when growing garlic: greens in the spring, scapes, bulbils, fresh garlic, and the main harvest. ---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 chat with Ryan Cullen, co-owner of City of Greens in Bowmanville, Ontario, about starting a regenerative farm and homestead. Cullen, who joined us for the last episode to talk about the food-forest garden at Durham College, is in the process of turning a 10-acre property into a regenerative farm and homestead, and is creating a market-garden business as part of that plan. ---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]