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

By Steven Biggs & Donna Balzer: Horticulturists and edible landscaping experts.

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Category: Home & Garden

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Subscribers: 17
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Episodes: 235

Description

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. Since they collaborated to write their 2011 book No Guff Vegetable Gardening, hosts Donna Balzer and Steven Biggs have put a practical and fun spin on food gardening and edible landscaping. Donna is a horticulturist, educator, former CBC Radio host, and award-winning TV host. Her passion is growing and cooking food. Steven was recognized by Garden Making magazine as one of the “green gang” making a difference in horticulture. His home-garden experiments span driveway straw-bale gardens, a rooftop kitchen garden, fruit plantings, and an edible-themed front yard. Show co-founder Emma Biggs (Steven’s Gen Z, tomato-crazy daughter) drops in for an occasional show. Join us every Thursday. On the first Thursday of the month we bring in an innovator or expert. Other weeks we dig into a specific crop or another edible-gardening topic. Get started with one of our fan favourites. Season 6, Episode 10: Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden.

Episode Date
Saskatoon Berries: Tough as Nails (as this Zone 2 Grower Explains)
May 02, 2024
Skip the Transplants? How to Direct Sow Seeds
Apr 25, 2024
Vegetables in Pots: How to Ace Your Container Garden
Apr 18, 2024
Figs not Winter Hardy? Here are Creative Ways to Grow Figs in Cold Climates
Apr 11, 2024
People go Bananas for This Fruit! How to Grow a Pawpaw Tree
Apr 04, 2024
Is Your Soil in Overdraft? Find Out How to Amend Soil
Mar 28, 2024
Where to Grow Herbs: Herb Garden Layout and Design Ideas
Mar 21, 2024
Planting Greens for a Continuous Harvest: Crops + Tips for Growing Greens
Mar 14, 2024
Grow an Indoor Lemon Tree + MORE Exotic Potted Citrus Trees
Mar 07, 2024
Hands-Off Crop: Growing Raspberries (they do FINE without your help!)
Feb 29, 2024
Edible Flowers: Flowers You Can Eat (and how to use them)
Feb 22, 2024
Vegetables to Grow: Choose What’s Best for Your Vegetable Garden
Feb 15, 2024
How to Grow Tomatoes from Seed: When and How (+ Top Varieties!)
Feb 08, 2024
Winter harvest: Which vegetables to grow in winter and how to do it
Feb 01, 2024
Not Sure When to Start Seeds Indoors? Here’s how to Pick Seed-Starting Dates
Jan 25, 2024
Prevent Leggy Seedlings and Grow Transplants Like an Expert
Jan 18, 2024
Seed Smarts: Lingo and Tips for Seed Shopping (Is that untreated seed organic?)
Jan 11, 2024
Damson Plums: This Forgotten Fruit Combines Dry, Sweet, Spicy, and Bitter (and makes great gin!)
Jan 04, 2024
SPRING Finale: How to Grow a Climate-Change Veggie Garden
Jun 15, 2023
Harvest Rainwater for Your Garden and Landscape
Jun 08, 2023
Need Space? Harvest More from the Same Plot with Vertical Gardening
Jun 01, 2023
Small-Plot Intensive Vegetable Production (SPIN Farming)
May 25, 2023
How to Feed Soil and Plants with Worm Compost (Vermicompost)
May 18, 2023
Edible Garden Question and Answer (and what to do about Bolting Lettuce)
May 11, 2023
7-Year-Old Certified Farmer Talks About Crops, Kids, and Insects
May 04, 2023
Equipment for Healthy Soil, Less Toil, Minimal Till (and no more Rototiller!)
Apr 27, 2023
This Orchard Doesn't Look Like an Orchard (and it's full of Trios!)
Apr 20, 2023
Kitchen Scrap Gardening: From Avacado to Ginger to Citrus
Apr 06, 2023
Figuring Out How to Bring Back a Lost Giant...the American Chestnut
Mar 30, 2023
Afraid of Late Spring Frost? Low-Tech Mini-Tunnels Are a Simple Solution
Mar 23, 2023
How to Homestead and Live Sustainably in Your Community: Small-Scale Homesteading
Mar 16, 2023
Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden
Mar 09, 2023
Outstanding Oregano + What to Produce Besides Crops on a Homestead
Mar 02, 2023
5 Small Fruit Crops: Taste Sea Buckthorn (and Smell the Blue Cheese of Fruit)
Feb 23, 2023
Berry Supports Theory that the Worse it Tastes, the Healthier it is
Feb 16, 2023
Graft Apple Trees at Home: Easily Make the Cut
Feb 09, 2023
Edible Garden Artistry with Potager Gardens + School Gardens that don't Fizzle
Feb 02, 2023
Don't Feel Bitter about these Cold-Hardy Citrus
Jan 26, 2023
Rare Red Stalk Tops Rhubarb (but is Rhubarb!)
Jan 19, 2023
In Pursuit of Artisan Tomatoes (Yeah, it's Addiction!)
Jan 12, 2023
On the Scent of the Overlooked Quince + Root Veg Recipes
Jan 05, 2023
Move Over Blueberries, A New Fruit for the Northern Gardener
Dec 29, 2022
Dwarf and Unusual Tomatoes
Dec 22, 2022
A Specialty Gin (and a New Orchard!) with a Fruit That's Making a Comeback
Dec 15, 2022
Top Crops and Seed Shopping
Dec 08, 2022
Meet Canada's Grape
Dec 01, 2022
Apricots in Alaska!
Nov 24, 2022
Great Herbs for Indoor Growing (Ditch the Scorched Rosemary!)
Nov 17, 2022
School Garden Kicks Off with Celebrity
Nov 10, 2022
How to Prune Fruit Trees + Apple Tasting 101
Nov 03, 2022
Electric Saws and Giant Pumpkins
Oct 27, 2022
75 Frost-Free Days and Bird Song Just After Midnight
Oct 20, 2022
Potted Lemons for Cold-Climate Gardens
Oct 13, 2022
Grow Spices + How to Store Food
Oct 06, 2022
Attractive Food Gardens, Scrappy Plants, and Outreach
Sep 29, 2022
Home-Scale Forest Garden
Sep 22, 2022
2022 Tomato Roundup
Sep 15, 2022
Garlic-Infused Vodka and a Cricket Rodeo
Sep 08, 2022
Recipes in Bloom
Sep 01, 2022
Helping Kids Understand Light...with Skittles!
Aug 25, 2022
Land Conservation, Public Access, and Figs!
Aug 18, 2022
Father and Son Brook Trout Quest
Aug 11, 2022
Seasonal Garden Tips + Wild and Specialty Foods
Aug 04, 2022
Kitchen Gardening: Grow Leftover Greens, Stalks, Seeds
Jul 28, 2022
Rooftop Veggie Garden and Figs in Pittsburgh
Jul 21, 2022
Rose Garden Rejig Creates Balance
Jul 14, 2022
Summer in the Vegetable Garden and Hardy Apples
Jul 07, 2022
Weed-Free Bale Gardens and Mushrooms
Jun 30, 2022
Four-Season Food Gardening
Jun 23, 2022
The Garden Life and Mud Pies
Jun 16, 2022
No Groceries North of 60
Jun 09, 2022
Cold-Hardy Fruit and Nuts, Gardens for Native Pollinators
Jun 02, 2022
Food, Flowers, and Fun for Urban Gardens
May 26, 2022
Raised Bed Gardening
May 19, 2022
Gardening with Chickens, Grow Fruit Trees
May 05, 2022
A Passion for Heirloom Vegetable Seeds
Apr 28, 2022
How to Raise Baby Chicks
Apr 21, 2022
Press Seed and Nut Oils at Home
Apr 14, 2022
Toronto Microfarm, Compost Tea, Honey, and Bees
Apr 07, 2022
Cricket Frass as Fertilizer and Crickets as Food
Mar 31, 2022
Finding a Home for Extra Harvest
Mar 24, 2022
Winter Vegetable Gardening with Wolfgang Palme
Mar 17, 2022
From Ornamental Landscapes to Pretty Tasty Gardens
Mar 10, 2022
Grow Food Indoors + Regenerative Gardening
Mar 03, 2022
Grow Epic Tomatoes, with Joe Lamp'l and Craig LeHoullier
Feb 24, 2022
Co-operative Growing
Feb 17, 2022
Attract Beneficial Bugs to Your Garden
Feb 10, 2022
Ornamental Edibles, Hort Therapy, Kids Gardening
Feb 03, 2022
Build Soil Health with Wood Chips
Jan 27, 2022
Gardening as Medicine for Mental Health
Jan 20, 2022
Natural Beekeeping
Jan 13, 2022
Landmarks help Blind Gardeners + Gardening for Birds
Jan 06, 2022
12 Gifts from the Heart for Gardeners
Dec 23, 2021
Passive Solar Greenhouses with Rob Avis
Dec 16, 2021
Incredible Edible: Pamela Warhurst on Making Grey Spaces Green
Dec 09, 2021
Making Change One Garden at a Time
Dec 02, 2021
Food-Focused Homestead Life
Nov 25, 2021
School Food Gardens Open Career Horizons
Nov 18, 2021
Virtual Apple Tasting
Nov 11, 2021
Grow Quince and Garden Journal
Nov 04, 2021
Compost Heater Heats a Hot Tub
Oct 28, 2021
Grow Bamboo in Cold Climates
Oct 21, 2021
Grow and Cook Bamboo
Oct 14, 2021
Urban Growers + Gardening Under Cover
Oct 07, 2021
Pawpaw in Ontario with Paul DeCampo
Sep 30, 2021
Doug Oster uses Newspaper Boxes to Share Seeds
Sep 23, 2021
A Windy Newfoundland Homestead with a Sustainable Focus
Sep 17, 2021
How to Use Fig Leaves in the Kitchen
Sep 09, 2021
How to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying
Sep 02, 2021
Are You Frightened of Landrace Gardening?
Aug 26, 2021
Helping Other People Eat through Gardening
Aug 19, 2021
Container Gardening with Hot Peppers – REWIND
Aug 12, 2021
What's to Hate? A Look at the Whole Okra
Aug 05, 2021
Edible Front Yards and Sensory Gardens
Jul 29, 2021
Meet the Indiana Jones of Pawpaw
Jul 22, 2021
Urban Farm Camp for City Kids
Jul 15, 2021
Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Approach to No Till
Jul 08, 2021
Coppices, Alcoholic Hedges, and Thoughts on Ecological Gardening
Jul 01, 2021
Sochan, Galinsoga, Squash Tips: Root-to-Flower Cuisine
Jun 24, 2021
Garden in Your 90s
Jun 17, 2021
Black Creek Community Farm
Jun 10, 2021
Grow Fruit in a Small Garden
Jun 03, 2021
City Farm School
May 27, 2021
Foodscaping
May 20, 2021
Gardening and PTSD
May 13, 2021
Backyard Honeybees
May 06, 2021
It Takes One Person
Apr 29, 2021
Teachings to Guide Gardeners
Apr 22, 2021
Make a Potager Garden
Apr 15, 2021
Learning to be a Home Herbalist
Apr 08, 2021
Civil Disobedience with Vegetables
Apr 01, 2021
Making Home and Corporate Vegetable Gardens
Mar 25, 2021
Foraging as an Outdoor Classroom
Mar 18, 2021
Forest Gardens and Fruit
Mar 11, 2021
Step-by-Step Vegetable Gardening
Mar 04, 2021
Backyard Urban Farming in Toronto
Feb 25, 2021
Hunger Relief through Growing
Feb 18, 2021
Crater Garden, Regenerative Farm and Family
Feb 11, 2021
Harvest More with No-Dig Gardening
Feb 04, 2021
Youth and Gardening
Jan 28, 2021
Breeding Tomatoes for the "Holy Grail"
Jan 21, 2021
Home and Community Cold Cellars
Jan 14, 2021
Harvest More With Garden Bed Covers
Jan 07, 2021
Raspberry-Leaf Tea and other uses of the Genus Rubus
Dec 29, 2020
Cultivate a Taste for Bitter Foods...and Cardoon Plants
Dec 23, 2020
Tasty Tomatoes for Small Spaces
Dec 17, 2020
Farming Cold-Hardy Citrus in South Carolina
Dec 15, 2020
Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting
Dec 10, 2020
From Market Farming to Italian Seeds
Dec 09, 2020
Grow Herbs in Containers
Dec 03, 2020
Using Small Edible Landscapes to Make Big Change
Dec 01, 2020
Beautifully Promiscuous and Tasty Tomato Project
Nov 26, 2020
Canadian Garden Zones vs. US Garden Zones
Nov 24, 2020
Growing Perennial Vegetables
Nov 19, 2020
Creating New Tomato Varieties
Nov 17, 2020
Bring on the Red-Podded Peas
Nov 12, 2020
Rooftop Garden atop a Toronto Cultural Hub
Nov 10, 2020
Profitable Small-Scale Farming
Nov 05, 2020
Getting Ready to Shop for Seeds
Nov 03, 2020
Elderberry: Forgotten Fruit Makes a Comeback
Oct 29, 2020
From Urban Junk-Food Junkie to Farmer
Oct 28, 2020
Growing Nuts in Cooler Climates
Oct 22, 2020
Green Thumbs Growing Kids
Oct 20, 2020
Growing Citrus in Vancouver
Oct 15, 2020
Getting Scrappy over Quince
Oct 13, 2020
In Search of the Elusive Colorado Orange
Oct 08, 2020
Preserving the Apple Harvest
Oct 06, 2020
Figs: A Taste of Home in a Country of Immigrants
Oct 01, 2020
A Zone-4 Garden in St. Paul, Minnesota
Sep 29, 2020
Grow Exotic Edibles in Cold Climates
Sep 24, 2020
Get 5 Harvests by Growing Your Own Garlic
Sep 22, 2020
Create a Lifestyle: Starting a Regenerative Farm and Homestead
Sep 17, 2020
Grow a Food Forest
Sep 15, 2020
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Sep 10, 2020
Growing and Sharing Figs in a Community Fig Orchard
Sep 08, 2020
Grow Heirloom Melons, Grow Heirloom Tomatoes
Sep 03, 2020
Garden-Based Experiential Learning...with Compost
Sep 01, 2020
REWIND: Growing Giant Pumpkins and Giant Tomatoes
Aug 27, 2020
A Community Pulls Together to Save a Garden
Aug 25, 2020
A Garden Space Built for Sharing
Aug 20, 2020
Tantalizing Tomato Harvest Recipes
Aug 18, 2020
A Passion for Growing Food in Philadelphia
Aug 13, 2020
Luay's Urban Farm and Kitchen
Aug 11, 2020
Growing Food and Urban Gardening with Kevin Espiritu
Aug 06, 2020
REWIND: Grow Fruit in Cold Climates, PART 2
Aug 04, 2020
Urban Farming to Grow Social Change
Jul 30, 2020
Summer Vegetable-Garden Check-in with Niki Jabbour
Jul 28, 2020
REWIND: Practical Ways to Grow Fruit in Cold Climates, PART 1
Jul 23, 2020
A Passion for Slow Food Grows into a Rooftop Garden
Jul 21, 2020
What's New in the Garden, Q+A, Figs
Jul 16, 2020
Teaching Life Skills in a Garden Classroom
Jul 14, 2020
REWIND: An Engineer Grows Figs in NJ
Jul 09, 2020
Building Community with a Brewery Rooftop Garden and CSA
Jul 07, 2020
Ornamental Fruit Trees and Bushes
Jul 02, 2020
Creating Change with Fruit Trees
Jun 30, 2020
Blending Art and Garden Activism...and Jersey Tomatoes
Jun 25, 2020
Tomato and Food-Garden Q+A with Ontario Backyard Plant Growers
Jun 23, 2020
Suburban Farm and Sunken Greenhouse Build Community
Jun 18, 2020
Ways Gardeners Share
Jun 16, 2020
Start a Summer Vegetable Garden
Jun 12, 2020
Weave Habitat Restoration into Food Gardens
Jun 09, 2020
Nourish Community and People with Gardens—and Soup!
Jun 04, 2020
Francesco’s Fig Tree
Jun 04, 2020
Growing People, Networks, and Food
Jun 02, 2020
Neighbourhood Foraging for the Wild Food Gourmet
May 28, 2020
Fruit in the Urban Foodscape
May 26, 2020
Grow Meyer Lemon in Containers
May 21, 2020
Grow a Food Garden You Love
May 19, 2020
Connecting Food with Eaters
May 14, 2020
An Urban Hot Pepper Container Garden
May 12, 2020
Off the Beaten Path with…Figs
May 07, 2020
Gardening Your Front Yard
May 07, 2020
Urban Farming, Liberating Lawns, Building Community
May 05, 2020
Create a “Food Street” with Food Up Front
Apr 30, 2020
Growing a Chinese-Style Kitchen Garden
Apr 28, 2020
New and Favourite Food-Garden Crops with Niki Jabbour
Apr 23, 2020
Gardens and Healing
Apr 21, 2020
Raising 70% on a Half Acre
Apr 16, 2020
Saving Seeds and the Stories Behind Them
Apr 13, 2020
A Mission to Turn Lawns into Food Gardens
Apr 09, 2020
No-Dig, No-Weed, No-Bend Gardening
Apr 03, 2020
Farm the City, Garden with Grains
Apr 01, 2020
Hens, Hay, and How to Cook Cardoon
Mar 31, 2020
Choose The Right Tomato Varieties
Mar 24, 2020
Sandy Soil and a Greenhouse on Vancouver Island
Mar 22, 2020
Artistic Front-Yard Garden, Anti-Inflammatory Food, Grow Luffa
Mar 06, 2020
Heat Column to Protect Figs in Cold Climates
Mar 05, 2020
Garden Financial Literacy, Rooftop Edible Gardens, Tomatoes with Stories
Feb 07, 2020
Urban Farming to Build Community
Jan 09, 2020
Growing Figs in the Mountains
Nov 07, 2019
Grow Figs in Seattle
Oct 03, 2019
Ocracoke Fig Festival
Jul 04, 2019
Greenhouse Figs in Pennsylvania
Jun 06, 2019
Springtime Fig Shuffle
May 02, 2019
Greenhouse Figs in Massachusetts
Apr 04, 2019