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

A Journal, a Garden, and a Mother’s Love

February 4 · 18 min · Season 9 · Episode 4 · 17.3 MB
0:00-18:01

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The revised fig book is now on Kickstarter
The special hardcover edition of Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t and registration for the October 15 and 22 Fig Camp are available now. A lower-priced softcover will follow this fall.
See the book and Fig Camp options.
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Today we’re joined by Helen Battersby, who talks about a gardening book that began as a coping tool. Helen tells us about Margaret Bennet-Alder, who turned to gardening during a difficult family chapter. Inspired by the homemade booklets her son used to manage appointments and medication while rebuilding his life, Margaret began tracking her garden the same way—seasonal tasks, plant sources, and hard-earned gardening lessons. The book, the Toronto Gardener’s Journal, was a shared project with her son. They started with 50 copies. Margaret and her son, and, later, sisters Helen and Sarah Battersby, grew the book into a nationally loved resource, with over 20,000 journals sold across Canada. This is a story about gardens—but also about resilience, care, and the healing power of gardening.