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

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.

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.

Afraid of Late Spring Frost? Low-Tech Mini-Tunnels are a Simple Solution

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

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.

Michelle Bruhn and Stephanie Thurow

Michelle Bruhn

Stephanie Thurow

Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden

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.

Donna Balzer

Dave Hanson

Edible Garden Artistry with Potager Gardens + School Gardens that Survive Summer

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 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

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

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

Find out how to grow your own tomato plants from seed.

Top Crops and 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

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

• The Giant Vegetable Growers of Ontario

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.

4.2-lb Tomato

Loaded up and ready to go

Too big to lift by hand!

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 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

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

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 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, 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

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 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.