Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping - Details, episodes & analysis

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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.

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Frequency: 1 episode/10d. Total Eps: 272

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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https://foodgardenlife.ck.page/e777ffe7e5
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https://www.foodgardenlife.com/
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https://learn.foodgardenlife.com/
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stevenbiggs/grow-figs-where-you-think-you-cant
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Score global : 73%

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Grow More Food Without a Bigger Garden: Season Extension Made Simple

Season 9 · Episode 25

Thursday, October 29, 2026 • Duration 31:35

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What if you could harvest more food from your vegetable garden without making it any bigger?

Extending the growing season is one way to get more from the garden space you already have. And you don't need an elaborate greenhouse to get started.

In this episode, Steven Biggs chats with Sonja Peters of Greenbush Greenhouses and Farm in British Columbia's North Okanagan about practical ways to keep a garden productive longer.

Sonja shares tips on everything from simple floating row covers to low tunnels, cold frames, and greenhouses. They also discuss choosing the right protection for your climate, combining layers of protection, and using microclimates to your advantage.

In this episode:

Why extending the growing season can mean more food from the same space
Floating row covers: how they work and when to use them
Making inexpensive low tunnels
The differences between low tunnels, hoop houses, and greenhouses
Layering protection to keep crops going in colder weather
Cold frames and ways to build them
How microclimates affect season extension
Monitoring temperatures and preventing overheating
The added pest-management benefits of row covers

About Sonja Peters

Sonja is a horticulturist, greenhouse grower, and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. She and her partner, Dave, operate Greenbush Greenhouses and Farm near Lumby, British Columbia.

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Wicking Beds: Watering from the Bottom Up

Season 9 · Episode 24

Thursday, October 15, 2026 • Duration 37:28

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What if you could water your vegetable garden from below instead of above?

Wicking beds have a built-in water reservoir beneath the soil. Water moves upwards through capillary action, supplying moisture to plant roots.

In this episode, Steven Biggs talks with Alberta permaculture designer Rob Avis about how wicking beds work, how to build them, and where they make sense.

Rob shares lessons from building wicking beds in his own garden and for community projects. He also talks about their limitations, including the risk of keeping soil too wet and the extra attention needed to maintain soil fertility.

The conversation takes a fascinating turn into the bigger picture of water management, soil health, and soil carbon.

In this episode:

How wicking beds use capillary action to move water upwards
The advantages of watering from below
Where wicking beds make sense, including small urban gardens
Why it's important to let soil dry out between waterings
Building tips, including reservoirs, liners, fill pipes, and overflow drains
Soil mixes, compost, and maintaining fertility in raised beds
Lessons from a large community-garden wicking-bed project
How water management and soil carbon are connected

Resources

From the Bottom Up: A DIY Guide to Wicking Beds by Rob Avis, Verge Permaculture. Includes diagrams, photographs, and construction guidance.
Fifth World: Rob's landscape design and ecological restoration work.

The Indiana Jones of Pawpaws: Neal Peterson’s Remarkable Search

Season 9 · Episode 23

Thursday, August 13, 2026 • Duration 39:48

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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 provides growing information and lists nurseries offering his varieties.

Bonus: Remembering Bob Duncan—“Let’s Try It”

Season 9

Thursday, August 6, 2026 • Duration 23:17

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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 annually
Why keeping a citrus tree alive is different from bringing its fruit to harvest
His focus on breba figs
Growing olives on Vancouver Island
Why yuzu is especially well suited to coastal British Columbia
The danger of keeping container-grown citrus too wet
The thinking that led him to try growing these unlikely fruits in the first place

Near 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.

Neighbourhood Foraging: Wild Food for the Gourmet

Season 9 · Episode 22

Thursday, July 30, 2026 • Duration 34:40

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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

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Grow Food Outside the Veggie Patch: Edimentals with Harry Holding

Season 9 · Episode 21

Thursday, July 16, 2026 • Duration 36:14

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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

Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope with Michael Ableman

Season 9 · Episode 20

Thursday, July 2, 2026 • Duration 29:06

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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 City
Why food gardens can be practical, social, and quietly radical
What home gardeners can learn from urban farms, even on a much smaller scale

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What to Plant After Garlic and Peas: Succession Crops for Summer and Fall

Season 9 · Episode 19

Thursday, June 18, 2026 • Duration 19:10

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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 region
Direct seeding vs. starting transplants
How to deal with dry soil, heat, strong sun, and crusting
Easy summer succession crops such as bush beans, basil, dill, rapini, and greens
Crops for fall harvest, including spinach, beets, carrots, turnips, winter radishes, kale, and Asian greens
Why bush snap beans are a better follow crop than pole or dry beans
How to decide whether cucumbers and summer squash are worth planting after garlic
Tips for short-season and cold-climate gardeners
A simple “succession seed bin” system to make replanting easier

Succession 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.

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An Olive Tree in a Suitcase

Season 9 · Episode 18

Thursday, June 4, 2026 • Duration 16:31

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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.

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Common Quince: The Fragrant Fruit Too Few Gardeners Grow

Season 9 · Episode 17

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 • Duration 33:02

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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

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Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping - Details, episodes & analysis

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Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping - Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

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