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Artwork for Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping
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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
  • Apr 6, 2023 · 30 min

    Kitchen Scrap Gardening: From Avacado to Ginger to Citrus

    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. --- Grow What's in Your Kitchen! In this episode, we head to Vermont and get great ideas for what we can grow right now, in early spring, using what’s in the kitchen. We talk about kitchen-scrap gardening with Em Shipman, Executive Director at KidsGardening. Em also tells us about Kids Garden Month, with lots of fun activities and prizes for kids. We talk about: Growing small seeds from the kitchen (e.g. citrus) Growing large seeds (e.g. mango, avacado) Growing roots and tubers and rhizomes (e.g. ginger, sweet potato) Things for kids to do in the garden in early spring Kids Garden Month

  • Mar 30, 2023 · 34 min

    Figuring Out How to Bring Back a Lost Giant...the American Chestnut

    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. --- In this episode, we dig into some history, a sad story – and hope. All this from a tree that was known as the redwood of the east. A towering tree prized for its wood. A tree pivotal to the forest ecosystem. And by the 1950s, it was thought to be extinct in Ontario. But it wasn’t extinct. And it’s not extinct now. We head to southwestern Ontario to find out what the Canadian Chestnut Council is doing to bring the American chestnut back to the landscape. Whether you’re a forager, interested in food forests, or want to grow nuts, this is a fun chat. Our chestnut guide is Ron Casier, chair of the Canadian Chestnut Council. We talk about: The American chestnut, and the place it held in the ecosystem Chestnut blight, and its effect on chestnut populations The “Canadian” American chestnut Breeding disease-resistance American chestnut varieties

  • Mar 23, 2023 · 30 min

    Afraid of Late Spring Frost? Low-Tech Mini-Tunnels Are a Simple Solution

    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. --- Niki Jabbour on how to Make and Use Mini Tunnels Less frost damage. Fewer bugs. Better growing conditions. Mini tunnels have lots of advantages, and they're easy to make and use. For this episode, we head to Nova Scotia to chat with vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour about how to make and use mini tunnels. She’s the author of Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden and the creator of the online course How to Build and Use Mini Hoop Tunnels in the Vegetable Garden. We talk about: What mini tunnels are Mini tunnels and weather Mini tunnels and pests Materials to make mini tunnels Getting an early start in the spring garden Turbo-charging heat loving crops with mini tunnels

  • Mar 16, 2023 · 37 min

    How to Homestead and Live Sustainably in Your Community: Small-Scale Homesteading

    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. --- Homesteading as a State of Mind We head to Minnesota to chat with small-scale homesteaders Michelle Bruhn and Stephanie Thurow. Both are urban homesteaders, and they’ve collaborated on a book to help small-scale homesteaders, Small-Scale Homesteading. We talk about: What homesteading means to them The idea of small-scale homesteads in urban and suburban areas Tips for aspiring homesteaders How to get started homesteading

  • Mar 9, 2023 · 32 min

    Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden

    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. --- Grow a Vertical Vegetable Garden Space. For many gardeners, there’s never enough of it. So in small spaces we train crops upwards instead of outwards. The term vertical gardening is often used to talk about adding the dimension of height to a garden. Today on the podcast we head to Vancouver Island to chat with vegetable gardening expert Donna Balzer about vertical gardening. Steven and Donna are teaming up to hold a live online event on Vertical Vegetable Gardening on April 4, 2023. Bay Laurel Dave Hanson from The Grow Guide Podcast joins us to talk about growing the Mediterranean herb bay laurel. Steven and Dave are teaming up for a live online event on creating a Mediterranean Kitchen Garden in cold climates on March 14, 2023.

  • Mar 2, 2023 · 36 min

    Outstanding Oregano + What to Produce Besides Crops on a Homestead

    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. --- Oregano that Tastes Like Oregano! We find out how to grow great Oregano with Dave Hanson from The Grow Guide Podcast. (No more bland orgegano that tastes like...hay!) Why Now is a Great Time to Homestead Homesteader Steve Maxwell talks about his journey from suburban Toronto to a rural homestead on Manitoulin Island. He tells us why he think there's more opportunity than ever for homesteaders today.

  • Feb 23, 2023 · 38 min

    5 Small Fruit Crops: Taste Sea Buckthorn (and Smell the Blue Cheese of Fruit)

    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. --- Specialty Fruit Crops We continue our chat with agronomist Laurie Brown from Cultur'Innov. She talks about 5 more minor fruit crops, how to grow them, and the opportunities they present for growers. We talk about: Sea buckthorn Highbush cranberry Hardy kiwi Bush cherries Chokecherry Agroforesty Tips for growers who want to grow specialty fruit crops "It's the blue cheese of fruit: Tastes like a cranberry and smells like an old boot!"

  • Feb 16, 2023 · 33 min

    Berry Supports Theory that the Worse it Tastes, the Healthier it is

    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. --- One is quite healthy but tastes awful. One is very juicy and suited to processing. And one is suited to eating fresh. In this episode we look at 3 fruit crops: aronia (a.k.a. chokeberry), elderberry, and haskap (a.k.a. honeyberry). Agronomist Laurie Brown from Cultur'Innov explains how to grow these minor fruit crops, talks about the opportunities for growers, and tells us where they’re at in terms of commercialization. Cultur'Innov is a co-op focused on lesser-known fruit, nuts, and forest crops such as ginseng and mushrooms. This Quebec multi-stakeholder co-operative has both farmers and employees as members. The co-op helps its farmer members with different aspects of production: Understanding crop opportunities Setting up for a crop Growing the crop Processing opportunities

  • Feb 9, 2023 · 52 min

    Graft Apple Trees at Home: Easily Make the Cut

    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. --- Steven Edholm is a California homesteader who teaches a wide variety of self-reliance skills. He is passionate about grafting fruit trees. He's created trees that have over 100 varieties. In this episode, he explains how to graft apple trees at home. We talk about: Reasons to graft apple trees Apple trees with lots of grafts (Frankentrees!) Cutting and storing apple scion wood Apple rootstock Supplies for apple tree grafting (spoiler alert: what you DON’T need to buy) Best grafts for beginners Solving common apple-grafting problems Steven has a grafting video series on his YouTube channel.

  • Feb 2, 2023 · 1 hr

    Edible Garden Artistry with Potager Gardens + School Gardens that don't Fizzle

    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. --- Oklahoma garden designer Linda Vater loves to create elegant edible gardens. Her work is inspired by the tradition of the potager garden. We talk about: Potager gardens Making ornamental and elegant edible gardens Design elements such as enclosure How to design your own potager-style garden Linda's new book is The Elegant & Edible Garden. In the second part of the show we catch up with Sunday Harrison from Green Thumbs Growing Kids in Toronto. We're big fans of this non-profit that brings gardening to school kids and communities in downtown neighbourhoods. We find out more about their model, which solves a common challenge of school gardens: Summer. We talk about: Why working with a cluster of schools helps with summer care Summer community involvement A project that gets kids growing trees from seed

  • Jan 19, 2023 · 20 min

    Rare Red Stalk Tops Rhubarb (but is Rhubarb!)

    Forced rhubarb is a winter specialty that's quite different from rhubarb grown outdoors: It's milder, more tender, and brightly coloured. Brian French from Lennox Farm explains how to force rhubarb.

  • Dec 22, 2022 · 11 min

    Dwarf and Unusual Tomatoes

    Some tomato variety ideas for your 2023 garden. (Yes, a tomato plant you can bring indoors for winter!)

  • Dec 8, 2022 · 1 hr 2 min

    Top Crops and Seed Shopping

    Garden Planning and Seed ShoppingHorticulturist and vegetable-garden expert Donna Balzer (https://donnabalzer.com) talks about garden planning and shares her tips for seed shopping.We talk about:* Favourite early spring greens crops* Making a vegetable g

  • Dec 1, 2022 · 50 min

    Meet Canada's Grape

    Daniel Speck from Henry of Pelham (https://henryofpelham.com)winery talks about growing grapes, wine, and different types of wine grapes.We talk about:* What makes Niagara an excellent grape-growing region* Grape vine care* Vinifera grapes, labrusca grap

  • Nov 24, 2022 · 41 min

    Apricots in Alaska!

    Mark Wolbers, president of the Alaska Pioneer Fruit Growers Association (https://www.apfga.org), talks about growing fruit north of 60.We talk about:* The range of fruit that grows in Alaska* The growing conditions in different parts of Alaska* Using gree