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

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Pawpaw season is nearly here—and this week we’re revisiting a conversation with one of the people responsible for bringing this remarkable fruit back into the spotlight. Neal Peterson is sometimes called the Indiana Jones of pawpaws. After tasting his first pawpaw, he became fascinated by a fruit that had once attracted considerable attention from plant breeders but had largely fallen into obscurity. Peterson dug through old horticultural records and tracked down surviving trees from early breeding programs. Those discoveries became the foundation of his own pawpaw breeding work. In this episode, Emma and Steven talk with Neal about: His first taste of pawpaw—and why it changed the direction of his life His search for nearly forgotten pawpaw varieties How pawpaws grow in the wild Why pawpaws fruit better in sun than in deep shade Pollination and the need for two genetically distinct trees Growing two pawpaw trees in a small garden Choosing early-ripening varieties for colder climates Why wild pawpaws can be very seedy How Peterson bred pawpaws with more flesh and fewer seeds Growing pawpaws from seed Caring for young pawpaw trees Managing suckers from grafted trees Pawpaws are understorey trees in the wild, but that doesn’t mean shade is the best place for fruit production. Neal explains why trees growing in brighter locations are usually more productive. He also shares a wonderfully practical space-saving suggestion: if your garden is small, plant two genetically different pawpaw trees only a couple of feet apart. A 2026 update Neal no longer sells pawpaw trees or fruit directly. He continues his breeding work, and the Peterson Pawpaws website provides growing information and lists nurseries offering his varieties.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Bob Duncan showed Canadian gardeners that the line between possible and impossible isn’t always where we think it is. At Fruit Trees and More, the nursery and demonstration orchard he ran with his wife, Verna, on Vancouver Island, Bob grew figs, lemons, olives, yuzu, loquats, feijoas and many other fruits that gardeners might not expect to see growing in Canada. Bob was also extraordinarily generous with his knowledge. I wrote about his work in my books about growing figs, lemons and olives—and turned to him many times with questions. In this special tribute episode, I’ve gone back through recordings from my visits and conversations with Bob. Some were made while we walked through his garden; others come from longer interviews about citrus and unusual fruit. You’ll hear Bob talk about: His enormous Meyer lemon tree, which produced more than 400 lemons annuallyWhy keeping a citrus tree alive is different from bringing its fruit to harvestHis focus on breba figsGrowing olives on Vancouver IslandWhy yuzu is especially well suited to coastal British ColumbiaThe danger of keeping container-grown citrus too wetThe thinking that led him to try growing these unlikely fruits in the first placeNear the end of one of our conversations, Bob summed up his approach in five words: “So I thought to myself, ‘Let’s try it.’” Bob died on July 20, 2026. My condolences go to Verna, Bob’s family, and the many gardeners who learned from him.  You can read more about Bob’s remarkable life—and find details of the August 24 celebration of life—in his obituary.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Wild food doesn’t have to mean subsistence food. Robin Henderson, author of The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide for the Wild Food Gourmet, joins Steve and his daughter Emma to talk about what he calls gastronomic foraging: gathering wild plants for the interesting flavours and foods they bring to the table. Robin grew up hearing family stories about earlier generations who foraged. Later, as urban growth engulfed the area where he lived, he began noticing the abundance of edible plants still growing around him. In this conversation, we explore neighbourhood foraging, gathering food through the seasons—even in winter—and turning familiar wild plants into memorable food and drink. Robin shares ideas for: Elderflower champagne Sumac lemonade Sorrel paste and sorrel soup Spruce beer Dandelion salad and dandelion-root coffee Lambs quarters Winter foraging This interview was originally recorded in 2020 and is co-hosted by Steve’s daughter, Emma Biggs. Book mentioned:  The Neighborhood Forager: A Guide for the Wild Food Gourmet by Robert K. Henderson

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Food plants are usually assigned to the vegetable patch, while ornamental borders are expected to sit there and look respectable. Garden designer Harry Holding sees no good reason for such strict garden zoning. Harry is the author of Eat Your Garden: Edimentals as a Beautiful, Low-Effort Way to Grow Food. Edimentals are plants that are both edible and ornamental, allowing us to grow food throughout a garden without giving up colour, texture, structure, or beauty. Harry is the founder of Harry Holding Studio, and his School Food Matters Garden at the 2023 RHS Chelsea Flower Show received a Silver-Gilt medal and the People’s Choice Award.  In this conversation, Harry explains how edible plants can create a foraging or grazing experience right outside the door. We talk about designing in layers, using constraints to make plant choices easier, and creating ecologically rich plant communities that cover the soil and leave less room for weeds. Harry also shares ideas for small gardens, courtyards, balconies, and containers. His approach is to imagine the space planted first, then carve out the paths, seating areas, morning-coffee spots, and evening gin-and-tonic headquarters. We talk about: What an edimental plant is Why food can be a gateway to connecting with nature Combining edible plants with ornamental garden design Structural plants, seasonal highlights, and ground-cover layers Using colour, texture, height, and growing conditions as useful constraints Designing abundant edible gardens in small spaces Why annual vegetables sometimes struggle in established perennial plantings Questioning gardening rules and learning through experiments How to begin adding edimentals to an existing garden Harry also talks about some fascinating edible ornamentals, including Saskatoon berries, sea kale, sochan, king’s spear, Korean aster, citron daylily, lamb’s ear, hostas, chives, and bladder campion. His parting advice is simple: make a little room, try unfamiliar plants, and grow what brings you joy. A garden should not become another stern supervisor. It should be a place that makes your heart sing.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - In this episode, Steven revisits a 2020 conversation with farmer, author, photographer, and urban agriculture pioneer Michael Ableman. Ableman is the co-founder of Vancouver’s Sole Food Street Farms, an urban farming project that turns city land into productive growing space while creating meaningful work and community connection. His book Farm the City: A Toolkit for Setting Up a Successful Urban Farm shares practical lessons from that work, including how to find land, choose crops, build markets, navigate regulations, raise funds, and engage the community. This is not just a conversation about growing vegetables in unlikely places. It’s about what happens when food growing becomes a way to rethink land, work, dignity, neighbourhoods, and the purpose of a farm. For home gardeners, there’s a useful reminder here: gardens are never only about yield. They can feed people, yes. But they can also create beauty, connection, routine, and purpose.   In this episode: Why urban farming is more than putting raised beds on pavement How Sole Food Street Farms uses farming to create jobs and community What urban farmers need to think about beyond growing crops Lessons from Farm the CityWhy food gardens can be practical, social, and quietly radical What home gardeners can learn from urban farms, even on a much smaller scale

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Once garlic comes out of the garden, you’re left with a useful patch of open soil and one big question: what goes there next? In this episode, we talk through summer succession planting using garlic harvest as the seasonal peg. He explains how timing, climate, heat, dry soil, and first frost dates all affect what you can plant after garlic or after any early crop that frees up garden space. You’ll learn which crops are easiest to direct seed in summer, when transplants are a better bet, and how to use shade, boards, mulch, and row cover to improve germination and protect young plants. Topics include: Why garlic harvest timing varies by regionDirect seeding vs. starting transplantsHow to deal with dry soil, heat, strong sun, and crustingEasy summer succession crops such as bush beans, basil, dill, rapini, and greensCrops for fall harvest, including spinach, beets, carrots, turnips, winter radishes, kale, and Asian greensWhy bush snap beans are a better follow crop than pole or dry beansHow to decide whether cucumbers and summer squash are worth planting after garlicTips for short-season and cold-climate gardenersA simple “succession seed bin” system to make replanting easierSuccession planting doesn’t have to mean filling every inch perfectly. It’s about using open space in a way that fits your garden, your season, and your available energy.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - I once flew home with an olive tree in a suitcase. Maybe not what the average traveller would do, but I was visiting a nursery that had a variety I wanted…which says something about my priorities. Even where olive trees aren’t winter hardy, they make superb potted plants. Their silvery foliage shimmers in a breeze, they look beautiful on a patio, and they make a cold-climate garden feel just a little more civilized. Olive trees are tough, forgiving, and well suited to pots. The trick is remembering that a pot changes everything, especially in winter. And while getting olives isn’t guaranteed, there are practical ways to improve your odds. In this episode, I talk about growing olive trees in pots where they’re not normally hardy: why to grow them, where to put them, how to overwinter them, and what helps them fruit. Want more? My 2026 Olive Camp recordings are available here. Or check out my book Grow Olives Where You Think You Can't, available at FoodGardenLife.com or on Amazon.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Common quince is beautiful, fragrant, useful in the kitchen—and still surprisingly uncommon in Canadian gardens. In this episode, I talk with Matt Soltys, The Urban Orchardist, about why this old fruit deserves another look. Matt shares what he’s seeing as he visits urban fruit trees across southern Ontario: backyard quince trees, older pawpaws, locally adapted genetics, and overlooked trees that could become the foundation of future breeding work. We talk about common quince as a small garden tree, how it differs from Japanese quince, why one tree can be plenty, how the fruit is used, its role as pear rootstock, and simple pruning ideas for healthier fruit trees. In this episode, we cover: Growing common quince in cold-climate gardens Why quince is such a good fit for home gardeners The difference between common quince and Japanese quince Quince preserves, cider, and other kitchen uses Fruit-tree breeding and locally adapted genetics Pawpaws, pears, and other unexpected urban fruit trees Pruning quince and other backyard fruit trees

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Growing tomatoes in a cool or maritime climate can feel like an uphill battle. It doesn’t have to be. In this episode, I’m joined by tomato expert Holly Farrell, author of The Tomato Grower’s Handbook, to talk about how to get reliable, flavourful harvests even when summers are mild, damp, or unpredictable. We dig into practical strategies for gardeners in places like coastal Canada, the UK, and the U.S. Pacific Northwest—where heat is limited and blight is always lurking. In this episode, you’ll learn: Why variety choice matters more than anything else The difference between bush (determinate) and cordon (indeterminate) tomatoes How to use microclimates (walls, courtyards, sunny corners) to your advantage Simple ways to add protection—from cloches to greenhouses How to reduce risk from blight in damp conditions Tips for growing tomatoes in: Balconies Containers Garden beds Tunnels & greenhouses How to deal with wind exposure (especially coastal winds) Holly’s favourite tomato varieties for different uses If you’ve ever struggled to ripen tomatoes or deal with disease pressure, this episode will give you a clearer path forward. If you would like to see what Holly is up to in the garden, here is her Instagram handle.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Pears deserve more respect in cold-climate gardens. While apples dominate the conversation, there are pear varieties that are just as hardy. The problem is, most growers don’t know about them. Varieties like Krazulya, Vekovaya, and Ure aren’t widely planted, but they probably should be. In this episode, I chat with Elisabeth Racine from Hardy Fruit Tree Nursery, where they’re testing about 200 pear varieties. We talk about what it takes to grow pears successfully in colder zones, including variety selection, pollination, feeding, and training. We also talk about some top cold-hardy pear varieties and the most common mistakes home growers make when planting pears. If you’ve ever wondered whether pears are worth the space in a northern garden—or which variety to choose if you only have room for one tree—this conversation will help you decide. Topics covered include: Why pears are a worthwhile cold-climate fruit crop How far north pears can realistically be grown The importance of variety selection Top cold-hardy pear varieties for home growers Pollination requirements What most people get wrong when planting pears How long it takes for pear trees to produce And if you’re looking for more on cold-hardy fruit, tune in to this episode about growing fruit in cold climates with Veronique from Hardy Fruit Tree Nursery!

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Designing a vegetable garden can feel simple—until you try to make everything fit. Rows or raised beds? What goes where? And how do you plan it so it still makes sense in July? In this episode, I sit down with Natalie Bogwalker and Chloe Lieberman, authors of The New Natural Food Garden, to talk through practical, thoughtful ways to design a productive vegetable garden. We cover the decisions that matter most—layout, crop choice, and how to make a plan that you’ll actually follow through on. In this episode: Rows vs. beds: what works, and why Choosing crops for your space, climate, and habits How to place crops so they grow well (and don’t get in each other’s way) Making a garden plan you’ll stick with A look at no-till methods and how they fit into garden design This is a conversation about making your garden simpler, more productive, and more doable—not more complicated. Find out more about the book and about their online gardening programs on their website.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - In this episode, I chat with Michalina Hunter, founder of Cicada Seeds, about edible perennial crops. We explore: Ways to use perennial vegetables in a home-garden settingWhy perennial vegetables are a game-changer for sustainable gardening Top crops for home gardenersMichalina’s top recommendations for home gardenersAnd we also take a tangent to discuss an interesting tomato that Michalina introduced, the ‘Venus of Willendorf’ tomatoWhether you’re curious about food forests, edible perennials, or just want to try something new, tune in for practical advice from a seasoned grower.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - Rising food costs have you looking at your food bill? This is a good year to grow more food at home. And in this episode, I have tips to help you hit the ground running this year. Find out about simple ways to add edible plants to the landscape, top crops for home gardens, how to grow more food in a small space, and edible hedges. In this episode, I share some of the ideas from my upcoming series of free online Earth Month gardening talks. These talks have been on my mind for a while—and this year feels like the right time. The earth month gardening talks are free. Please join me for one or all of them. Find out more about the free Earth Month series.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - In this episode, I continue my cross-Canada tour to hear about top veggie varieties. I’m joined by my former co-host, horticulturist, author, and longtime gardening educator Donna Balzer to talk all about her favourite vegetable varieties.  Donna shares her long-time favourite varieties—the ones she grows year after year—as well as varieties that have recently impressed her.  Donna and I wrote No Guff Vegetable Gardening together in 2011, and I’m a big fan of her approach to gardening. (If you’re looking for a copy of this Canadian classic, drop by Donna’s website.) Whether you're planning your garden or interested in hearing about interesting varieties, this conversation will give you ideas for your 2026 garden.

Get practical food-gardening ideas in your inbox with Food Garden Life News. It’s free, and you’ll hear about new articles, classes, and events too.- - This is a preview of a new show from Food Garden Life Media. Hosted by Steven Biggs, Fig Culture explores the world of growing figs in places where they’re not supposed to thrive. You’ll hear from fig experts in cold climates about the best varieties, learn how growers protect their trees through winter, meet passionate fig enthusiasts, and discover creative ways to use figs in the kitchen. In this first episode, we visit Vancouver Island—where figs are fully hardy, but a cool coastal climate makes ripening a challenge. Master fig grower Bob Duncan has trialled hundreds of varieties to find the ones that perform best in his conditions—and he’s found some outstanding picks. To hear more, search “Fig Culture” in your podcast app and follow the show. Episode 2 is waiting for you.