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

Steven Biggs: Horticulturist and edible landscaping expert.

Want to grow your own food but need creative ideas so you can get the most from your space and your growing zone? Our passion is the edible garden.

We help people grow food on balconies, in backyards, and beyond—whether it’s edible landscaping, a vegetable garden, container gardens, or a home orchard.

There are many ways to approach edible landscaping. Find out how to harvest enough fruit, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. Get top tips for exotic crops. And learn how to garden in a way that suits any situation.

Host Steven Biggs was recognized by Garden Making magazine as one of the “green gang” making a difference in Canadian horticulture. His home-garden experiments span driveway straw-bale gardens, a rooftop kitchen garden, fruit plantings, and an edible-themed front yard. He's a horticulturist, award-winning broadcaster and author, and former horticulture instructor with George Brown and Durham Colleges in Ontario, Canada.

Get started with one of our fan favourites. Season 6, Episode 10: Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden.

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268 episodes
Updated Thursday

Episodes268

Newest first

Dec 10, 2020 · 35 min
Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting
We’re joined by Pittsburgh-based horticulturist and author Jessica Walliser (https://www.jessicawalliser.com/) to talk about her new book Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden. There is a lot of folklore that
Dec 9, 2020 · 37 min
From Market Farming to Italian Seeds
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 (https://growitalian.com/). Byczynski founded Growing f
Dec 3, 2020 · 1 hr 1 min
Grow Herbs in Containers
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
Dec 1, 2020 · 37 min
Using Small Edible Landscapes to Make Big Change
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 Ecosy
Nov 26, 2020 · 24 min
Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project
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 an
Nov 24, 2020 · 26 min
Canadian Garden Zones vs. US Garden Zones
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 prov
Nov 19, 2020 · 33 min
Growing Perennial Vegetables
We chat with Ben Caesar about perennial vegetables and salad greens. Caesar, who runs Fiddlehead Nursery (http://fiddleheadnursery.ca/), specializes in perennial edibles. He says that in Western cultures, annual vegetable crops are the norm. But with a sh
Nov 17, 2020 · 16 min
Creating New Tomato Varieties
Tomato expert Linda Crago joins us to talk about how to create a new tomato variety. At her Tree and Twig Heirloom Vegetable Farm (http://treeandtwig.squarespace.com/) in the Niagara Region of Ontario, she raises hundreds of varieties of tomatoes. This pa
Nov 12, 2020 · 27 min
Bring on the Red-Podded Peas
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 group...
Nov 10, 2020 · 18 min
Rooftop Garden atop a Toronto Cultural Hub
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 area
Nov 5, 2020 · 1 hr 3 min
Profitable Small-Scale Farming
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 farm
Nov 3, 2020 · 28 min
Getting Ready to Shop for Seeds
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 Vegetab
Oct 29, 2020 · 25 min
Elderberry: Forgotten Fruit Makes a Comeback
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,
Oct 28, 2020 · 23 min
From Urban Junk-Food Junkie to Farmer
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
Oct 22, 2020 · 27 min
Growing Nuts in Cooler Climates
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
Oct 20, 2020 · 32 min
Green Thumbs Growing Kids
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-schoo
Oct 15, 2020 · 21 min
Growing Citrus in Vancouver
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
Oct 13, 2020 · 29 min
Getting Scrappy over Quince
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.W
Oct 8, 2020 · 1 hr 1 min
In Search of the Elusive Colorado Orange
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”
Oct 6, 2020 · 28 min
Preserving the Apple Harvest
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 recip