Lawns into Lunch: Growing in Front Yards with City Street Farms (and top crops!)

We continue our cross-Canada tour, chatting with inspiring gardeners to hear about favourite varieties and top crops.

Today we head to Regina, Saskatchewan, to chat with Candace Benson, who runs City Street Farms. Candace tells us about how she turns grass into gardens in a city that has a lot of single-family homes—and a lot of front lawns.

She shares the story of her business, talks about her process to transform a lawn into a garden, and then talks about favourite veg and flower varieties.

You can find Candace online, at citystreetfarms.ca

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A Journal, a Garden, and a Mother’s Love

We continue our cross-Canada tour. Today we’re joined by Helen Battersby, who talks about a gardening book that began as a coping tool. Helen tells us about Margaret Bennet-Alder, who turned to gardening during a difficult family chapter. Inspired by the homemade booklets her son used to manage appointments and medication while rebuilding his life, Margaret began tracking her garden the same way—seasonal tasks, plant sources, and hard-earned gardening lessons. The book, the Toronto Gardener’s Journal, was a shared project with her son. They started with 50 copies. Margaret and her son, and, later, sisters Helen and Sarah Battersby, grew the book into a nationally loved resource, with over 20,000 journals sold across Canada. This is a story about gardens—but also about resilience, care, and the healing power of gardening.

Find out more about The Canada Gardener’s Journal.

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Top Vegetable Varieties for Home Gardens with Niki Jabbour

We continue our cross-Canada tour, chatting with inspiring gardeners to find out favourite varieties and top crops.

Today we chat with Niki Jabbour, a CBC radio gardening expert, one of the creators behind the gardening website savvygardening.com, and the award-winning author of The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, Groundbreaking Food Gardens: 73 Plans That Will Change the Way You Grow Your Garden, Veggie Garden Remix: 224 New Plants to Shake Up Your Garden and Add Variety, Flavor, and Fun, and Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden.

Niki shares some of her long-time favourite veg varieties, more recent additions to her favourites list, and some varieties with a Canadian pedigree. (Spoiler alert: including one that’s listed in the Slow Fook Ark of Taste.) 

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Lavender got Smoked by Cold? Plant Choices for the Prairies with Dave Hanson

We continue our cross-Canada tour of inspiring gardeners to find out favourite varieties and top crops.

Today we chat with Dave Hanson, co-host of The Grow Guide podcast, and owner of Sage Garden Greenhouses in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Dave shares some of his favourite veg varieties. He also talks about top herbs, one of his specialties.

Lavender get smoked in a harsh winter? Dave has a suggestion. And if you just can’t get enough cucs, hear what he does.

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A Tomato that Sets Fruit When its Cold? Vegetable Varieties for a Cool Climate, with Linda Gilkeson

Leafy greens always seem to bolt too quickly? Can’t figure out why your broccoli isn’t forming heads? Choosing vegetable varieties suited to your climate helps avoid these sorts of frustrations.

In this episode, we get variety recommendations from gardening expert and entomologist Linda Gilkeson. Having spent much of her career on programs to reduce pesticide use, Linda is also an avid organic gardener who can garden year-round in her coastal climate.

Her books include Backyard Bounty: The Complete Guide to Year-Round Organic Gardening in the Pacific Northwest and West Coast Gardening: Natural Insect, Weed and Disease Control.

Linda gardens on Salt Spring Island, one of the Gulf Islands off the coast of British Columbia. She describes her growing conditions as coastal Pacific Northwest. Her variety recommendations are for these conditions.

But even if you’re not in the Pacific Northwest, I suggest you tune in. You’ll hear about tomato varieties that produce when it’s too cold for most others to set fruit. Did you know there are three broad groups of broccoli? And get Linda’s vegetable gardening words of wisdom.

Find Linda online at lindagilkeson.ca

Linda’s Variety List

Long-time favs

• Onions: Red Tropeana Lunga, Sturon onion, Redwing F1, Ambition shallot, Ed’s Red shallot

• Leeks: Unique

• Squash: Robin’s Koginut Squash RKS, Lungo Bianco zucchini, Early golden (yellow) crooknecks

• Peas: Super Sugar Snap

• Roots: Berlicummer carrots, Detroit beets (Det Dk Red, Det Supreme—reselections)

• Greens: Fordhook Swiss chard, Bloomsdale spinach (Long Standing or Savoy), Perpetual/Leafbeet, Lucullus (hardiest)

• Winter Lettuce: Arctic King, Winter Density, Rouge d ’Hiver, Continuity, German butter lettuce

• Summer lettuce: Angry Sea, Jericho, Red sails

• Chinese cabbage: Joi choi, China Express

• Cabbage: Greyhound (sweetheart type), January King, Copenhagen or Danish Ballhead

• Tomato: Early Girl

• Pepper: Gypsy, Carmen

• Cucumbers: Straight 8, Slice More, Marketmore

• Corn: Kandy King, Peaches and Cream

• Beans: Musica Romano pole, Borlotti pole beans

• Broccoli: Green sprouting Calabria, Red Spear PSB (winter)

Recent Favourites

• Grundy Perfect Arrow peas, Dalvey peas

• Dunja F1 zucchini

• Purple Moon cauliflower

• Deadon cabbage

• Kalibos cabbage red

• Badger Flame beets (better than any other golden beets I have eaten)

• Lodi squash (OP very similar to RKS)

• Aspabroc

• Summer Dance cucumber

• Charlotte strawberries

• Suyo cucumber

• Brilliant celeriac

• Jester lettuce

• Tango celery

Sadly Missed Varieties - no longer available

• Partenon zucchini

• Ambercup squash

• Yellow Crooknecks with a long neck

• Straight Arrow Peas

• Narina bush beans

Varieties Suited to the Coastal Pacific Northwest

• Hardy leafy greens: Mizuna, Namenia, Komatsuna, Osaka purple mustard

• Summer broccoli: Green sprouting Calabria

• Winter broccoli (various PSBs)and winter cauliflower (Galleon, Purple Cape)

• Musica romano beans

• Onions on the above list (many onions don’t)

• Carrots, beets, lettuce

Varieties Linda has Only Because of Seed Saving

• Unique leeks

• Musica romano beans

• German butter lettuce

• Namenia

• Red Spear purple spr. broccoli

• Sturon onion

Long, Skinny Garden? Hear How We Tweak This Space

From Lush Ornamental Foliage to Lush Edible Leaves

Not sure what to do with a long, skinny, straight-edged garden beside a driveway, patio, or building?

In this episode, we take a long, slender ornamental garden and reimagine the space with edible plants.

The garden we’re thinking about is actually a little sliver of the Joan of Arc Garden in Quebec City. But these same ideas work well in in many home-garden situations.

We talk about:

• Crop ideas (kales, Thai basil, borage, shiso, and fern-leaf parsley)

• Groupings vs. individual plants

• Urns for adding height an interest in this skinny space

• Plants that last into the fall vs. plants that fade with fall weather

If you’re looking for more on edible flowers like borage, check out this article about edible flowers.

Picture of the Space

Want to Switch Out Your Annuals? Try These Herbs Instead

From Coleus to Culinary Herbs

Do you have a garden where you use traditional annuals, but you want to switch it up for something edible?

Herbs are one option.

In this episode, we look at a space that has a tidy, slightly formal feel.

We replace the tightly clipped shrubs with edible alternatives.

And then we change out the annuals for herbs.

If you’re looking for more on using edible plants instead of traditional bedding plants, check out this post.

Picture of the Space

Hear How We Tweak a Public Space to Keep the Aesthetic but Add Edibles

A Container Garden Makeover

Wondering about adding edible plants to an existing gardening without spoiling the aesthetic?

With the right plant choice, along with an understanding of how the space is used, you can add edible plants without spoiling the looks.

In this episode, we take a public space and reimagine it with edibles.

It’s a big space, with lots of lawn. We talk about plant choice for this shady spot, and about plant placement that doesn’t interfere with how this space is used. We include:

• Edibles as bedding plants

• Using height to make a focal point

• Edibles for colour

• Edible perennials

• Fruit for shade

If you’re looking for more on crops for shade, check out this post.

Picture of the Space

From Geranium Glut to Playful Herb Planter Box!

A Container Garden Makeover

Thinking of veggies for your container garden? Or planter boxes with herbs?

In this episode, we look at a patio surrounded by planter boxes that are filled with red geraniums...nothing but red geraniums.

Our goal? Transform this linear container garden from a continuous line of red into something varied, colourful—playful—and edible.

Hear two different approaches to reimagining the planter boxes so that they’re a low-maintenance edible container garden.

If you’re looking for more on the sub-irrigated planters from this episode, find out more here.

Pictures of the Space

Potager Style or Grazing Garden?

The Challenge

In this episode, the challenge is coming up with a creative food-gardening concept for a zone 3 garden.

Right now, the space is bare ground. It’s hard clay soil.

The garden space is nestled between a pathway and a retaining wall. There are nearby spruce trees, so there’s only morning sun.

There’s also a “hell strip” on other side of pathway, with a skinny little band of ground between the pathway and a greenhouse.

Challenges (apart from cold winters) include deer and rabbits.

Tune in below to hear me share two completely different concepts for this space!

Pictures of the Space

The main growing space, located between a low stone retaining wall and a pathway, with spruce trees on one side.

Looking at the main space from another view. Note the “hell strip” on the right, between the pathway and the greenhouse.

Approaching the space, which is just around the corner on the pathway.

SPRING Finale: How to Grow a Climate-Change Veggie Garden

Making a Vegetable Garden More Resilient

We head to the UK to chat with homesteader Kim Stoddart about how to grow a resilient vegetable garden.

We talk about:

• Top tips for growing vegetables when conditions are not predictable

• Choosing crops for a climate-change vegetable garden

• Perennial vegetables

• Tips for veggie gardening in hot summers

Kim is an award-winning writer, journalist, and educator. Her new book is The Climate Change Garden: Down to Earth Advice for Growing a Resilient Garden. 

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Harvest Rainwater for Your Garden and Landscape

Rainwater Harvesting and Natural Air Conditioning

Brad Lancaster is a permaculture and regenerative-design consultant and educator. His specialty is sustainable landscapes. 

We chat with Brad about using the landscape to harvest rainwater. And about using the landscape as a living air conditioner. 

Brad also talks about a very inspiring project that he helped spearhead, a community food forest.

We talk about: 

• Using permaculture principles in landscaping

• How to harvest rainwater in the landscape

• The connection between landscapes and cooling

• Using the soil and "speed bumps" in the landscape to make it a living sponge

• Selecting plants to suit the landscape

• The Dunbar Springs Urban Food Forest

Brad is the author of Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond.  

Need Space? Harvest More from the Same Plot with Vertical Gardening

Grow a Vertical Garden

Vertical vegetable gardening squeezes more plants into a limited space by making use of space above the ground.

In today’s episode, Steve digs into vertical gardening.

We talk about:

• Top crops for vertical gardening

• The benefits of vertical gardening

• Support structures in a vertical garden

• Materials to make your own trellises and support structures.

Small-Plot Intensive Vegetable Production (SPIN Farming)

Worm Castings

Wally Satzewich joins us from Saskatchewan to tell us about Small-Plot Intensive Farming (SPIN Farming.)

Having studied psychology and ran a taxi franchise, Wally became interested in market gardening.

So he bought a farm.

But a conventional market garden wasn’t the right fit for him. That’s because a big operation requires hired help and capital outlay for equipment.

So Wally and his wife Gail sold the farm—and moved back to the city. To farm—to farm other people’s yards.

And in the process, Wally mapped out a system of best practices called SPIN farming (Small Plot Intensive farming.)

Today he tells us his journey, and what he’s learned along the way.

We talk about:

• Running the 20-acre market garden

• Downsizing and setting up in the city

• The SPIN model and variations on it

• Comparing SPIN farming to commodity farming

• Using the SPIN model in small towns

• Top tips for new urban and SPIN farmers

How to Feed Soil and Plants with Worm Compost (Vermicompost)

Worm Castings

Andrew Huxsel joins us from St Placide, Quebec to tell us about worm composting. Also known as vermicomposting.

Andrew runs Vermicbec, a company that sells worms and worm compost.

We talk about:

• How vermicomposting works

• Using vermicompost (a.k.a. worm castings or worm wompost)

• Large scale vs. home-scale vermicomposting

• Top tips for home gardeners wanting to try worm composting (If you’ve tried it and had bug problems, Andrew tells you how to solve the problem)

Edible Garden Question and Answer (and what to do about Bolting Lettuce)

Bolting Lettuce, Artichoke, Squirrels, and More!

It’s planting season here..and the gardening questions are pouring in. 

Here’s the Q + A from our latest live show.

We talk about:

• Favourite tomato varieties

• Support for tomato plants

• Mulch

• Asparagus

• Microgreens

• Lemons

• Artichoke

• Squirrels

• What to do about bolting lettuce

Here’s an article about artichokes: Find out How to Grow Artichoke in Northern Climates

7-Year-Old Certified Farmer Talks About Crops, Kids, and Insects

Youngest Certified Farmer in Georgia

We head to Georgia to chat with 7-year-old Kendall Rae Johnson and her mom, Ursula.

Kendall is the youngest certified farmer in the state of Georgia.

At her aGROWKulture Farm she grows her favourite crops and teaches other kids about gardening.

Kendall has been on Good Morning America, The Ellen Show, and Sesame Street.

Our own connection with Kendall is that we’re fans of the organization KidsGardening.. Emma and Kendall were both involved in an event that KidsGardening hosted last year.

Kendall’s new book is I’m Growing Places.

Equipment for Healthy Soil, Less Toil, Minimal Till (and no more Rototiller!)

2-Wheel Tractor

We chat with Zach Loeks, an educator and grower who specializes in edible ecosystem design.

He talks about the two-wheel tractor, a versatile piece of equipment that he says can be used by backyard gardeners, homesteaders, edible landscapers, and in community gardens.

(If you’re about to skip this episode because you don’t want more equipment…stay a while. Zach has insights into soil and tillage too.)

In this episode we talk about:

• A look at the 2-wheel tractor

• How it’s different from a rototiller

• How home gardeners, landscapers, and homesteaders can use 2-wheel tractors

• What can a 2-wheel tractor do beyond tilling (spoiler alert: they can blow snow and bale hay too!)

• Earthworks for swales, berms, and beds on contour

• Tillage: minimum till vs. no-till

Zach’s books are:

• The Permaculture Market Garden

• The Edible Ecosystem Solution

• The Two-wheel Tractor Handbook.

This Orchard Doesn't Look Like an Orchard (and it's full of Trios!)

Permaculture Orchard

We chat with orchardist Stefan Sobkowiak who replaced an organic apple orchard with a permaculture orchard at Miracle Farms.

“Imagine an orchard that doesn’t look like an orchard.”

Stefan Sobkowiak at Miracle Farms, a permaculture orchard. (Photo by Myriam Baril Tessier)

We talk about:

• Why he prefers a permculture planting to a monoculture organic apple orchard

• How can an orchard be a permaculture?

• The system of “trios” he uses as a basic design unit

• Minimizing external inputs

• Using sheep in an orchard

• Timelines for establishing a permaculture orchard

• Using fruiting shrubs under trees

• Planting perennial flowers, herbs, and vegetables underneath fruiting shrubs

When it comes to the idea of permaculture, Sobkowiak says, “It’s just applied common sense.”

Kitchen Scrap Gardening: From Avacado to Ginger to Citrus

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.

Em Shipman, Executive Director of Kids Gardening.

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

More Kids Gardening Ideas

We have lots of fun kids gardening ideas for you.

Check out our kids gardening section, with plans for a bug vacuum, and Emma’s videos about how to grow crops for kids.