Afraid of Late Spring Frost? Low-Tech Mini-Tunnels are a Simple Solution
Talking about mini tunnels with expert vegetable gardener Niki Jabbour
Niki Jabbour on how to Make and Use Mini Tunnels
Less frost damage. Fewer bugs. Better growing conditions.
Mini tunnels have lots of advantages, and they're easy to make and use.
For this episode, we head to Nova Scotia to chat with vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour about how to make and use mini tunnels.
She’s the author of Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden and the creator of the online course How to Build and Use Mini Hoop Tunnels in the Vegetable Garden.
We talk about:
What mini tunnels are
Mini tunnels and weather
Mini tunnels and pests
Materials to make mini tunnels
Getting an early start in the spring garden
Turbo-charging heat loving crops with mini tunnels
How to Homestead and Live Sustainably in Your Community: Small-Scale Homesteading
Talking about small-scale homesteads with Michelle Bruhn and Stephanie Thurow.
Small-Scale Homesteading
Homesteading as a State of Mind
We head to Minnesota to chat with small-scale homesteaders Michelle Bruhn and Stephanie Thurow.
Both are urban homesteaders, and they’ve collaborated on a book to help small-scale homesteaders, Small-Scale Homesteading.
We talk about:
What homesteading means to them
The idea of small-scale homesteads in urban and suburban areas
Tips for aspiring homesteaders
How to get started homesteading
Stephanie’s Rhubarb Shrub
Stephanie talked about her rhubarb shrub in this episode, and said she’d share the recipe. Here it is!
Yield: 2-3 cups finished shrub
Ingredients
1.5 cups rhubarb, chopped (fresh or frozen) – discard green leaves, as they are poisonous.
1.5 cups white granulated sugar
Days later: 1.5 cups organic apple cider vinegar (or other drinking vinegar of choice).
Directions
Scrub rhubarb clean, chop and combine with sugar in a clean pint canning jar. Shake jar to mix sugar and rhubarb well. Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean dampened towel and apply the canning jar lid and tightly screw on the ring. Store the jar at room temperature, out of direct sunlight and allow the mixture to macerate over a couple days, until a thick syrup is made. A few times per day, vigorously shake the mixture to speed up the process (or you can use a clean spoon to stir well).
After 2-3 days, once the sugar has dissolved and a syrup is made, use a fine mesh strainer to strain out the solids, reserving the syrup in a measuring cup. Use the back of a spoon to push out any excess syrup. Once strained, measure the amount of syrup that was collected and add that same amount of vinegar to the syrup (it will be 1-1.5 cups of vinegar), stir well to mix. Store in a clean airtight jar and refrigerate. Enjoy within a few months for best flavor.
To serve
Mix about a shot of the shrub mixture with water, or carbonated water. Serve over ice. Shrubs also make delicious and unique cocktail mixers.
Side notes
You can also use brown sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup or other sugar alternative in place of white granulated sugar.
This method of shrub making can be applied to any fruits and herb combinations. Strawberry shrub is my all-time favorite.
Don’t toss the strained-out fruit solids! They are delicious mixed into plain yogurt or oatmeal or blended into a smoothie.
This recipe was adapted from WECK Small-Batch Preserving (2018) with permission from Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden
How to grow a vertical vegetable garden, with Donna Balzer.
Grow a Vertical Vegetable Garden
Space. For many gardeners, there’s never enough of it.
So in small spaces we train crops upwards instead of outwards. The term vertical gardening is often used to talk about adding the dimension of height to a garden.
Today on the podcast we head to Vancouver Island to chat with vegetable gardening expert Donna Balzer about vertical gardening.
Steven and Donna are teaming up to hold a live online event on Vertical Vegetable Gardening on April 4, 2023.
Bay Laurel
Dave Hanson from The Grow Guide Podcast joins us to talk about growing the Mediterranean herb bay laurel.
Steven and Dave are teaming up for a live online event on creating a Mediterranean Kitchen Garden in cold climates on March 14, 2023.
Edible Garden Artistry with Potager Gardens + School Gardens that Survive Summer
Garden designer Linda Vater talks about how to make a potager garden. Sunday Harrison from Green Thumbs Growing Kids talks about setting up school gardens for summertime success.
Potager Gardens bring Together Elegant & Edible
Oklahoma garden designer Linda Vater loves to create elegant edible gardens. Her work is inspired by the tradition of the potager garden.
We talk about:
Potager gardens
Making ornamental and elegant edible gardens
Design elements such as enclosure, colour, and texture
How to design your own potager-style garden
Linda's new book is The Elegant & Edible Garden.
School Gardens That Thrive over Summer
In the second part of the show we catch up with Sunday Harrison from Green Thumbs Growing Kids in Toronto. We're big fans of this non-profit that brings gardening to school kids and communities in downtown neighbourhoods.
We find out more about their model, which solves a common challenge of school gardens: Summer.
We talk about:
Why working with a cluster of schools helps with summer care
Summer community involvement
A project that gets kids growing trees from seed
Sunday Harrison from Green Thumbs Growing Kids.
Want More on Landscape Design with Edibles?
Here’s an article to get you started with edible perennials, a great way to start your ornamental edible garden.
Here are a couple of interviews to give you ideas for landscape design using edible plants.
It's Rhubarb...but It's not Rhubarb
Forced rhubarb is a winter specialty that's quite different from rhubarb grown outdoors: It's milder, more tender, and brightly coloured. Brian French from Lennox Farm explains how to force rhubarb.
Forced Winter Rhubarb
Forced rhubarb is a winter specialty that's quite different from rhubarb grown outdoors: It's milder, more tender, and brightly coloured.
Brian French and his wife Jeannette run Lennox Farm in Dufferin County, in Ontario. Along with field-grown rhubarb, they force rhubarb indoors during the winter.
Brian French explains how to force rhubarb:
The French family at Lennox Farm. Brian French at right.
The difference between forced and field-grown rhubarb
Conditions needed to force rhubarb over the winter
Varieties of rhubarb for forcing
Growing rhubarb roots for forcing
Digging rhubarb roots for forcing
Tips for growing rhubarb at home
(Spoiler alert: Brian tells us whether it's really necessary to harvest by candlelight, as it's traditionally done!)
Pictures of Rhubarb Forcing
Connect
website: lennoxfarm.ca
Want More on Rhubarb?
Artisan Tomatoes and a Tomato Addiction
A fascination with unusual tomatoes grows into an addiction, and a business. We chat with Teresa Zohorsky from Solana Garden.
Heirloom and Unusual Tomato Varieties
We chat Teresa Zohorsky from Solana Garden in Ontario.
What started as a fascination with unusual tomato varieties grew into an addiction! Teresa specialized in heirloom and unusual tomato varieties, and now sells tomato transplants and fruit.
We talk about:
Top varieties
Resources for finding and researching tomato varieties
Selecting tomato varieties suited to the growing conditions
Tips for people who want to get started growing heirloom and unusual tomatoes
Connect
@solana_garden in Instagram and Twitter
Want More on Tomatoes?
Dwarf and Unusual Tomatoes
Some tomato variety ideas for your 2023 garden. (Yes, a tomato plant you can bring indoors for winter!)
Tomato expert Linda Crago talks with Emma about some dwarf and unusual tomato varieties.
A Tomato Variety to Bring Indoors for Winter
Emma chats with tomato expert Linda Crago about the 'House' tomato, a compact tomato plant that some gardeners keep over the winter in the house.
They also talk about a few other unusual tomato varieties, including one of the ugliest tomato plants you'll see: 'Stick.'
More on Tomatoes
Top Crops and Seed Shopping
Horticulturist and vegetable-garden expert Donna Balzer talks about garden planning and shares her tips for seed shopping.
Garden Planning and Seed Shopping
Horticulturist and vegetable-garden expert Donna Balzer talks about garden planning and shares her tips for seed shopping.
Horticulturist and vegetable-garden expert Donna Balzer talks about garden planning and shares her tips for seed shopping.
We talk about:
Favourite early spring greens crops
Making a vegetable garden plan
Succession crops
Storage Crops
Where to get seeds
Testing seeds for viability
Seed Lingo
Connect
Donna’s website: donnabalzer.com
Want More Planning Ideas?
Find out about vegetable-crop spacing in this article.
Interested in Heirloom Seed?
Hear Jere Gettle from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds talk about his journey into seeds.
Electric Saws and Giant Pumpkins
Norman Kyle joins us to talk about growing giant veggies — and about his 1,659-pound pumpkin.
It Takes an Electric Saw...to Get Seeds from this 1659-Pound Pumpkin
Norman Kyle with his 1,659-pound pumkin, which will be on display at the 2022 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto
We chat with giant vegetable grower Norman Kyle from Ennismore, Ontario.
Kyle will have a number of his giant vegetables on display at the 2022 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, November 4-13.
We talk about:
His 1,659-pound pumpkin — a personal best
Tips on growing giant vegetables
How to grow giant pumpkins
Getting seed
Want to See a Great Display of Giant Veg?
Go to the 2022 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto, November 4-13.
If you’ve never been to the Royal – go. There are veg displays, a honey competition, agricultural competitions, and ideas and products from people who are passionate about food.
Want More on Giant Vegetables?
Hear Phil Hunt talk about a giant pumpkin that looked like a Volkswagen Beetle as it grew in his garden.
75 Frost-Free Days and Bird Song Just After Midnight
Gardening north of 60° with Arlin McFarlane. She’s an artist, filmmaker, and gardener in Whitehorse, Yukon, and the producer of the gardening show The Curious Gardener.
Gardening in Whitehorse, Yukon
Arlin McFarlane from Whitehorse, Yukon, talks about gardening in the north and her show, The Curious Gardener.
We chat with artist, filmmaker, and gardener Arlin McFarlane in Whitehorse, Yukon about gardening in cold climates.
McFarlane produced the gardening show The Curious Gardener, about Yukon farmers and gardeners.
We talk about:
Gardening when there are only about 75 frost-free days in the growing season
Gardening on poorly developed soils
How to grow tomatoes in the far north (spoiler alert: Arlin grows tomatoes!)
The importance of microclimates
The show The Curious Gardener
Connect
The Curious Gardener: thecuriousgardener.ca
Want More on Far-North Gardening?
Hear Suzanne Crocker talk about growing and eating only local food for a year, in Dawson City, Yukon.
2022 Tomato Roundup
Tomato Roundup. Steven and Emma talk about the 2022 tomato crop and top varieties.
2022 tomato roundup with Steven and Emma
2022 Tomato Roundup
Steven and Emma take a look at the 2022 tomato crop.
We chat about:
What’s new in the tomato patch
Growing methods
Top varieties
Tomato seed saving
Favourite tomato recipes
Summer in the Vegetable Garden and Hardy Apples
In this episode: Summer vegetable garden succession crops, growing in pots, and tomato support with Niki Jabbour; and hardy apples and growing apples in cold climates with Bob Osborne.
Talking about summer in the vegetable garden with Niki Jabbour.
Summer Vegetable Garden
In the first part of the show, we chat with vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour.
She shares tips about:
Summer vegetable garden succession crops
Growing vegetables in pots
Supporting tomato plants
Managing slugs
Jabbour is an award-winning author of four books: The Year Round Vegetable Gardener, Groundbreaking Food Gardens, Veggie Garden Remix, and Growing Under Cover. As well as hosting and producing The Weekend Gardener radio show, she is a CBC radio columnist. Her award-winning website is savvygardening.com.
Hardy Apples
In the second part of the show we talk about hardy apples with Bob Osborne.
He tells us about:
Choosing a location for apple trees
Apple rootstock
Tips for growing apples in cold climates
Apple varieties
Cider apple varieties
Osborne has over 40 years experience propagating and selling apples. He runs Corn Hill Nursery in New Brunswick, is a CBC radio columnist, and the author of the book Hardy Apples: Growing Apples in Cold Climates.
Weed-Free Bale Gardens and Mushrooms
Joel Karsten talks about straw-bale gardening and growing mushrooms on straw bales.
Joel Karsten joins us to talk about straw-bale gardens and growing mushrooms.
Straw-Bale Gardening
In this episode we speak with Joel Karsten about straw-bale gardening.
He is the author of Straw Bale Gardens Complete.
We chat about:
Straw bale gardens as a way to grow in very wet conditions
Making non-straw bales out of other available organic materials
Trellising for straw-bale gardens
Making raised straw-bale gardens
Growing mushrooms on straw bales (spoiler alert: then you can grow veggies afterwards!)
Four-Season Food Gardening
Misilla dela Llana joins us to talk about four-season food gardening.
Misilla dela Llana, author of Four-Season Food Gardening, joins us to talk about growing vegetables year-round.
Year-Round Food Gardening
In this episode we visit Misilla dela Llana in Washington State to talk about growing food year-round.
She is the host of the YouTube channel Learn to Grow, where she shares her passion for growing food.
In this episode we chat about:
Extending the growing season
Crops for season extension
Perennial food crops
Some of her top crops
Her new book is Four-Season Food Gardening: How to grow vegetables, fruits, and herbs year-round.
Food, Flowers, and Fun for Urban Gardens
Growing food and beauty in the city with Kathy Jentz and Teri Speight.
Urban gardeners Teri Speight and Kathy Jentz talk about creating gardens that are functional, productive, and beautiful.
Today we hang out with 2 urban gardeners who brainstormed 101 ways we can grow food and beauty in urban gardens.
Teri Speight and Kathy Jentz talk about creative ways that city dwellers can make productive, functional, and beautiful gardens.
Jentz is a journalist, editor, and frequent radio and TV guest. She is also the editor and publisher of Washington Gardener magazine.
Speight is a speaker, writer, and podcaster. She’s the former head gardener of the City of Fredericksburg, founding farmer of a CSA, and an estate gardener.
Grow in Containers
Deeper window boxes
Planting pockets
Succulents in a frame
Grow bags
Berries in containers
Make Gardens Fun and Beautiful
Fragrance freeway
Patchwork pavers
Make small spaces feel big through design
New Book: The Urban Garden
Jentz and Speight are authors of the new book, The Urban Garden: 101 Ways to Grow Food and Beauty in the City.
Raised Bed Gardening
CaliKim shares tips about growing vegetables in raised beds.
CaliKim joins us to talk about growing vegetables in raised beds.
Gardener and author CaliKim joins us from southern California to talk about growing vegetables in raised beds.
Grow Vegetables in Raised Beds
Raised beds can have a number of advantages:
Soil warms more quickly in spring
Less back and knee strain
A solution for locations with less-than-ideal soil
How to Make Raised Bed Gardens
CaliKim says that raised bed gardens don’t have to be a box or a square. “Think outside the box,” she advises.
A raised bed garden can be tailored to the yard and to the gardener. That could mean:
A shape suited to the location
Choosing materials that tie in to the style of the garden
A mobile unit to be place wherever there is available sunlight
“You have to make it fit your situation.”
Top Tip
CaliKim says would-be gardeners sometimes feel overwhelmed at the thought of making a garden.
Her top tip? Start small, but get started. “Just get started,” she says.
New Book
Her new book is Raised Bed Gardening: All the Know-How you Need to Build and Grow a Raised Bed Garden.
A Passion for Heirloom Vegetable Seeds
Jere Gettle from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds talks about heirloom vegetable seeds.
Jere Gettle from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds talks about heirloom vegetable seeds.
Heirloom Vegetable Seeds
Jere Gettle from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds joins us to talk seeds, seed saving, and seed collecting.
He loves meeting gardeners, chefs, and farmers who share old seed varieties and the stories behind them.
Lifelong Passion for Heirloom Seeds
Gettle started his seed business as a teenager, with a 12-page photocopied price list.
Today, the seed company tests over 4,000 heirloom seed varieties each year.
Gettle says that for a variety to make the cut for the catalogue, he’s looking for 3 things:
It’s beautiful
It tastes great
It grows well
Connect
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed: rareseeds.com
If this episode piqued your interest in seeds, tune in to the November 2020 episode entitled Creating New Tomato Varieties. Emma chats with heirloom seed saver and tomato expert Linda Crago about breeding tomato varieties.
Winter Vegetable Gardening with Wolfgang Palme
Wolfgang Palme talks about growing vegetables year-round and ways to grow vegetables through the winter.
Wolfgang Palme talks about winter-hardy vegetables and year-round growing. Photo Johannes Hloch.
Winter-Hardy Vegetables
Wolfgang Palme joins us to talk about winter-hardy vegetables and year-round growing. He is an agronomist, and head of the Research Institute of Horticulture in Austria.
Accidental Discovery
Palme’s journey into winter vegetable growing started by accident one year when autumn weather was unusually cold. Some of the test plots that he had not yet harvested survived, much to his surprise.
So he started to investigate cold-hardy crops.
He was surprised to find that that published frost hardiness recommendations are often incorrect.
Not New
Palme points out that growing cold-tolerant crops and using simple protective measures is nothing new. This knowledge has simply faded with the advent of large-scale, high-tech growing.
Low-tech, low-input approaches are often well suited to small farms and home gardeners. As well as costing less, there is a smaller environmental footprint.
“Keep it as simple as possible.”
Surviving Winter
Palme explains that frost is not the main challenge for overwintering greens: It’s moisture and disease.
A covering such as a hoop house, tunnel, or cold frame can keep leaves dry and reduce susceptibility to disease. In combination with a covering, good ventilation is important, to let humid air escape.
“We always think about the frost when we think about the winter season. But that’s not the main challenge for the plants.”
Book
Connect
Vienna City Farm: www.cityfarm.wien
Grow Food Indoors + Regenerative Gardening
In this episode: Growing food indoors with Kim Roman, author of How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round; and regenerative gardening with Stephanie Rose, author of The Regenerative Garden.
Stephanie Rose talks about regenerative gardening and Kim Roman talks about growing food indoors.
Grow Food Indoors
In the first part of this episode we chat about growing food indoors with Kim Roman, a garden educator and square-foot-gardening instructor.
Her new book is How to Garden Indoors & Grow Your Own Food Year Round.
Regenerative Gardening
In the second part of this episode we find out about regenerative gardening from Stephanie Rose. She is a permaculture designer and herbalist.
Her new book is The Regenerative Garden.
Grow Epic Tomatoes, with Joe Lamp'l and Craig LeHoullier
Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier talk about different ways to grow tomatoes, and share tips for a better harvest,
Joe Lamp’l and Craig LeHoullier talk about how to grow tomatoes, and their new course, Growing Epic Tomatoes.
The Best Way to Grow Tomatoes
There’s more than one way to slice a tomato; there’s more than one way to grow a tomato.
Growing tomatoes is like many things in life…there are lots of ways you can tackle it.
Do you have a favourite way? Or a tomato-growing tip handed down in your family?
Different Strokes, Different Folks
In this episode, we take a deep-dive into growing tomatoes with two experts who have very different approaches to growing tomatoes.
Garden expert, author, and broadcaster Joe Lamp’l loves growing tomatoes. He’s met lots of gardeners using a wide range of tomato-growing techniques through his work as the host and producer of the Growing a Greener World television series, and through his podcast, The joe gardener Show.
World-renowned tomato grower Craig LeHoullier co-leads the Dwarf Tomato Breeding project, has named and popularized many well-known tomato varieties such as ‘Cherokee Purple,’ and is an expert on straw-bale gardening. He’s the author of the book Epic Tomatoes.
Tomato Talk
Lamp’l and LeHoullier talk about:
The tomato-growing methods they use in their own gardens
How their gardens differ
Tomato-growing ideas they’ve learned from each other
Favourite tomato varieties
Tomato-growing techniques they’ve seen in other gardens
They also share tips for new gardeners. “Don’t get hung up on the destination, but learn to love the journey,” says LeHoullier.
“Don’t get hung up on the destination, but learn to love the journey.”
More on Tomatoes
If this episode piqued your interest in tomatoes, tune in to the December 2020 episode entitled Tasty Tomatoes for Small Spaces: The Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project. In the episode, LeHoullier tells us about this citizen-science initiative to breed dwarf tomato varieties.
Hi, We’re Steve and Emma!
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.
