Fig Growers and Interviews
There isn't one way to grow figs in a challenging climate. This collection brings together growers, collectors, researchers, and cooks who have solved different pieces of the fig puzzle in their own climates and spaces.
Use their experience to borrow ideas, not recipes carved in stone. Principles travel better than exact planting dates, temperatures, and techniques.
Find an interview by the problem you're solving
| What you want to explore | Start with this conversation |
|---|---|
| Choosing fig varieties for cold climates | Pierre Baud on cold-hardy fig varieties |
| Growing figs in pots and managing a collection | Nina Jay on pots, varieties, and “fig Tetris” |
| Growing figs in a cool-summer climate | Bobby Ghaheri on varieties, breba crops, and Pacific Northwest growing |
| Training figs as low cordons | Craig Boyer on cordons and passive winter protection |
| Growing figs commercially in a cold climate | Anne-Marie Proulx on greenhouse fig production in Quebec |
| Using more than just the fruit | Penelope Beaudrow on fig leaves, sap, and herbal uses |
| Growing unusual fruit by experimenting | Remembering Bob Duncan and his “let’s try it” approach |
Ready to go deeper?
Fig Camp & Fig Masterclass
Learn how to grow figs in pots or in the ground, ripen more fruit, and get your plants through winter.
Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t
My complete guide to growing figs in cold climates and pots, from choosing varieties to conquering winter.
REVISED SOFTCOVER EDITION COMING FALL 2026
The completely revised edition of Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t has grown from fewer than 100 pages to 320 full-colour pages. It draws on years of growing figs in Toronto and on ideas shared by inventive cold-climate and container fig growers around the world.
If you think figs are only for Mediterranean hillsides and sun-drenched patios, think again.
In Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t, horticulturist Steven Biggs shows how home gardeners are harvesting bowls of ripe, honey-sweet figs in places where winter routinely reaches freezing temperatures and colder.
This is a practical guide to growing figs in cold climates and small spaces. Whether you’re gardening in Ontario, Idaho, Pennsylvania, or anywhere with real winters, you’ll learn how to make figs work where they shouldn’t.
Along with the key concepts, you’ll get real-world strategies from growers who are doing this successfully.
The original edition of Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t won a Silver Award of Achievement from the Garden Writers Association, now GardenComm.