Make a Potager Garden

Landscape architect and author Jennifer Bartley talks about how to make a potager garden.

Today on the podcast we head to Ohio to find out more about potager gardens. Jennifer Bartley tells us about this traditional kitchen garden style from France, and how to create the same sort of food-producing garden with seasonality and a sense of intimacy at home.

Bartley writes, “The potager is more than a kitchen garden; it is a philosophy of living that is dependent on the seasons and the immediacy of the garden.”

Bartley is a landscape architect, whose firm, American Potager, designs gardens inspired by the grand French kitchens. 

She is also the author of The Kitchen Gardener’s Handbook and Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook.

About Potagers

“Jardin potager” is French for kitchen garden. The traditional potager garden is a seasonal kitchen garden with vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers for cutting. Meals change as crops in the garden change with the seasons.

Bartley explains that there is a long tradition of this style of gardening in France. Potager gardens combine beauty and accessibility, and are often enclosed within walls in view of the residence.

The garden can be a place of restoration and refuge, says Bartley. It can be a destination—somewhere close to the kitchen that feels like it’s own spacial place.

She says that where she grew up, in Ohio, the tradition is to make gardens with rows, not unlike the surrounding agricultural fields. These gardens are often situated in a rarely seen part of a yard. “If you put it in a remote part of your landscape, you don’t go there, you don’t see it, and you don’t maintain it,” says Bartley.

Tips to Make a Potager

• Borrow part of an existing wall to help create the sense of enclosure, e.g. part of a building, the back of a garage, or even a hedge

• Think of sunlight for sun-loving crops

• The potager can be a “tasting garden” with a progression of different crops being ready as the season moves along

• Make it in a place you pass by daily

• Choose bed dimensions for ease or reaching, e.g. 4 feet wide

• Make pathways wide enough for a wheelbarrow, e.g. 3 feet wide

Bartley says that Chateau Villandry in France has gardens that inspire her.

Bartely's potager garden at her former house

Learning to be a Home Herbalist

Herbalist Bevin Cohen talks about using, growing, and foraging herbs

In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with herbalist Bevin Cohen about using, growing, and foraging herbs. He talks about culinary, medicinal, and cosmetic uses.

He also talks about his journey into the business of herbs and building his herb business.

Cohen is also an author and seed saver. His new book is The Artisan Herbalist: Making Teas, Tinctures, and Oils at Home.

He is also the author of Saving Our Seeds, and From Our Seeds & Their Keepers.

In this episode he talks about:

The Artisan Herbalist: Making Teas, Tinctures, and Oils at Home.

• Tips on how to make herbal teas

• The difference between an infusion and a decoction

• How a tincture is made

• The steps in making an infused oil

• The difference between a salve, balm, and a lotion

• Common foraged herbs

• Easy-to-grow herbs for beginners

Emma’s Tomato-Talk Segment

In Emma’s Tomato segment, she describes some of her favourite varieties that she will be growing in 2021.

Biggs-on-Figs Segment

In the Biggs-on-Figs segment we head to Philadelphia to talk with YouTuber and Millenial fig enthusiast Ross Raddi.

He tells us about the method he is using to speed up his fig harvest by a month.

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Civil Disobedience with Vegetables

Marie-Hélène Jacques from Les Urbainculteurs joins us to talk about moving the needle on growing food in Quebec City

Today on the podcast we head to Quebec City to talk about civil disobedience: Civil disobedience with vegetables.

Marie-Hélène Jacques from the not-for-profit organization Les Urbainculteurs – which translates into urban growers – joins us to talk about moving the needle on growing food in Quebec City.

The urban agriculture scene in Quebec City is hot right now. Jacques says, “It’s not like a wave of interest that’s happening now in gardening — it’s a tsunami of interest.”

Civil Disobedience with Vegetables

Jacques says that it was only in 2019 that growing vegetables in front yards became legal in Quebec City.

Back in 2013, when I was on a garden writer’s tour of Quebec City, we visited an installation of vegetables growing right in front of the National Assembly building in the centre of the city.

Jacques explains that Les Urbainculteurs was able to get around the rules and grow vegetables in front of the building because of a technicality … the official address of the building is on another street.

She says this project got a lot of notice, adding, “It was a game-changing moment for urban agriculture in Quebec City.”

A Rooftop Garden

Jacques talks about the former Lauberivière garden, which was on the roof of a soup kitchen in the city core.

This diverse garden of vegetables and small fruit consisted entirely of fabric pots. The harvest went to the soup kitchen below…about 1 metric tonne of it a year.

Jacques says that one of the magical aspects of the Lauberivière garden was the way it brought together people who might otherwise have never met or spoken: She recalls seeing teenagers learning French speaking to stroke victims and to people doing community work.

The closing of the rooftop garden in 2016 left a big hole in the organization. “It was one of our most meaningful projects,” says Jacques.

An Urban Farm in the Port

The challenge was to find a new location that was centrally located, accessible by bike, transit, and walking. Jacques says they waited for a suitable site—even turning down some possible sites.

When a space in the port area of the city became available, they felt they had the right location. There had formerly been a farmer’s market on the site, and the community sorely missed having a focal point.

The new bio-intensive urban garden, started in 2020, consists of a series of long beds on concrete. “It’s really like a small farm,” she says.

Jacques says this new garden, Louise Basin Gardens, is an intersecting point of food security, community, education, and growing.

Making Home and Corporate Vegetable Gardens

Shawn Manning from Urban Seedling talks about helping people grow vegetable gardens and using corporate gardens to foster food security.

Today on the podcast we head to Montreal to hang out with Shawn Manning from Urban Seedling. He tells us how, 10 years ago, he channelled his love of growing vegetables into a business specialized in creating vegetable gardens.

Along with helping people create and grow vegetable gardens, another goal was to improve food security in the city. He realized that installing gardens for people who can afford a gardener probably doesn’t move the needle much on food security…but he’s tweaked the business to include corporate gardens—and use that as a way to improve food security in Montreal.

The Business of Vegetable Gardens

The business has evolved to include home vegetable-garden installation, planting, a garden centre, seedling sales, and corporate gardens.

Manning says that when he started, he created, planted, and cared for home vegetable gardens. But he found that some people are not interested in gardening—they only want fresh produce. “They didn’t really care about the vegetable garden, they just wanted the vegetables,” he explains.

He decided this wasn’t what he wanted. He tells people who are not interested in gardening that it’s best to order a produce basket from a farm of a CSA. “What I want is people that will actually appreciate their garden,” he says.

As well as focusing on clients who want to garden, he now teaches clients how to care for the garden. Initially, he cared for gardens through the season. But he grew to believe that clients would have the best results if they checked their gardens daily. As a result, he stopped offering maintenance service.

Customers also receive videos and a newsletter with guidance about how to care for the garden.

Corporate Gardens

Last year he was involved in 45 corporate gardens. Manning says that food security has always been a central tenet of the business, but corporate gardens have proven the best way to contribute to food security in the Montreal.

There are a couple of different corporate-garden models. In one model, Urban Seedling installs the garden and helps to get it going—and then employees or volunteers tend the garden and donate the harvest to food banks. “It’s definitely a really, really well received concept,” he says.

In another model, the garden is for employees. “It gives them another reason to want to go to work,” he says.

Foraging as an Outdoor Classroom

Mike Krebill, author of A Forager’s Life: Reflections on Mother Nature and my 70+ Years of Digging, Picking, Gathering, Fixing and Feasting on Wild Edible Foods.

We chat with forager and a wild-food educator Mike Krebill in Iowa.

Krebill shares foraging tips, his insights into teaching, his approach to outdoor education—and stories from the years he spent teaching a grade seven elective course on foraging.

Krebill’s new book is A Forager’s Life: Reflections on Mother Nature and my 70+ Years of Digging, Picking, Gathering, Fixing and Feasting on Wild Edible Foods.

Foraging as an Elective

Krebill’s grade seven elective course about foraging was so popular that the school held a lottery to choose which students could take it.

Not a fan of having students read out loud from textbooks, Krebill included lots of hand’s on learning in the class, along with field trips on horseback, by canoe, by bike, and hikes around the neighbourhood.

Dandelion Doughnuts

One of the activities in the foraging class was making dandelion doughnuts—dandelion flowers fried in pancake batter.

While the flower petals are mild, the flower stalk and green portion of the flower are very bitter. Krebill demonstrated to his class the right way to consume the petals while leaving behind the green, bitter portion. (Unfortunately, when the class took the dandelion doughnuts around the school to feed to other teachers, this warning about the bitter portion wasn’t shared!)

Krebill says that students still get in touch to find out how to make dandelion doughnuts, so that they can do it with their own children.

Giant Puffball

In another class, student learned how to cook slabs of giant puffball to crispy, golden perfection.

Krebill explains the importance of finding the bottom of a puffball, and then cutting down the middle from top to bottom to look for indications of a stem or cap—which can indicate that it’s not a puffball…but is a poisonous type of mushroom.

A puffball has a black root-like structure at the bottom. If this has been removed, it’s still possible to find the bottom. Set the puffball on a counter and wait until it stops rolling. Like a flat tire, the bottom of a puffball is flat.

Sumac

Hands-on learning means not all in-class activities work the first time. Krebill says many students were interested in making sumac lemonade. It took 20 years of experimenting to get the sumac lemonade recipe just right.

The sumac berries, he explains, should be picked at the stage he describes as “super sour” — sour enough to cause you to squint your eyes, but then relax. One year his class made lemonade using sumac berries that were at a more sour stage. “The aftertaste would peel paint off metal,” he says with a laugh.

A Forager’s Life

Mike Krebill’s new book is, A Forager’s Life: Reflections on Mother Nature and my 70+ Years of Digging, Picking, Gathering, Fixing and Feasting on Wild Edible Foods.

He is also the author of, The Scout's Guide to Wild Edibles.

Forest Gardens and Fruit

Mark Lord creates forest gardens and edible landscapes, and operates The Fruit Nursery in south-western Germany

We chat with forest garden designer and edible landscaper Mark Lord in south-western Germany.

“A garden should be a holistic experience, feeding all of your senses, and your mind,” says Lord. He believes food gardens can be about more than just eating—that they can also be visually appealing, bio-diverse, and appeal to other senses such as smell.

We also digress into his experiments making liqueur including linden, serviceberry, cherry…and nettle!

Lord operates The Fruit Nursery, which specializes in unusual and rare plants that produce edible fruit.

Forest Garden Design

Lord talks about the 7 layers that he builds into his forest garden designs.

1. Upper Tree Layer. This includes taller tree species such as apple, mulberry, and quince.

2. Lower Tree Layer. This includes shorter trees such as serviceberry.

3. Vertical Layer. This is a climbing layer with vines such as kiwi, grape—or even vining peas.

4. Shrub Layer. This includes smaller shrubs such as barberry and currant.

5. Herb Layer. This layer includes herbaceous plants.

6. Ground-Cover Layer. This layer can include plants such as creeping bramble.

7. Underground Layer. This layer includes plants with edible roots, e.g. horseradish.

Lesser Known Fruit

Lord’s passion is unusual and rare plants that produce edible fruit. Here are some of the plants we discuss in the podcast:

• Elderberry. In addition to Canada elderberry, he grows blue elderberry (Sambucus caerulea), which he loves for the visual impact of the bright blue fruit.

• Serviceberry. He explains that in addition to fruit, serviceberry offers showy white flowers in spring, attractive grey bark in winter—and colourful leaves in the fall.

• Haskap. Called “blue honeysuckle” in Europe, he feels this plant deserves space in more gardens for both the fruit and the fall leaf colour.

• Clove Currant. This common hedging shrub belongs in edible landscapes too! It has flowers, fragrance, and fruit. “It’s kind of like a black-currant-not-lovers currant,” says Lord.

• Cherry Plum. “Cherry plums are fantastic!”

• Hardy Kiwi. The vining hardy kiwi is an excellent way to incorporate a vertical layer into a forest garden. He notes that 2 plants are necessary, both a male and female.

• Cornelian Cherry. This is Lords favourite. Along with early flowers, this shrub has delicious fruit.

Step-by-Step Vegetable Gardening

Garden expert Joseph Tychonievich talks about vegetable gardening, and about his new book,

In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with author, horticulturist, and plant breeder Joseph Tychonievich.

Tychonievich shares his top tips for new vegetable gardeners.

As an avid food gardener, he grows many different food crops. But every so often he focuses on a particular crop and grows as many varieties as he can. He recently emerged from a cucumber phase…and as a teenager, he went through a pineapple phase.

He gardens in his own yard, a neighbour’s yard, and even inside in a closet.

Tychonievich’s new book is The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food: Step by Step Vegetable Gardening for Everyone.

The Comic Book Guide to Growing Food, by Joseph Tychonievich.

Vegetable Gardening Tips

What to Grow

• Tychonievich points out that a common recommendation for new gardeners is to grow radishes, because they are easy to grow. He hasn’t met a lot of people who love radishes, so he takes a different approach: Start with what you like to eat.

Garden Size

• Start small. If you can handle it, do more next year; and if you don’t, do less.

Making Garden Beds

• He suggests new gardeners start with raised beds because by starting with new, weed-free soil, there are fewer weeds.

Buying Plants

• Tychonievich is a fan of independent garden centres with knowledgeable staff who can help new gardeners.

Backyard Urban Farming in Toronto

Arlene Hazzan Green and Marc Green from the Backyard Urban Farm Company talk about installing food gardens and the urban food-growing scene in Toronto.

We chat with Arlene Hazzan Green and Marc Green, co-owners of The Backyard Urban Farm Company (BUFCO) in Toronto about their mission to help people grow food at home.

They are edible landscapers who help people plan, plant, and maintain food gardens. They have even ventured into wheelchair-accessible beds.

From Film to Farming

Hazzan Green explains why, after over 30 years in the film industry, they decided to venture into the business of edible landscaping, saying, “It was the lifestyle it was offering us that had such an appeal.”

In hindsight, she realized that a lot of the film scripts she had been pitching had a farming theme. “I realized that what I was trying to do in my writing was create the life that I want to live,” she says.

Process

When helping develop edible landscape plans with new gardeners, they look at:

• Where they want to grow

• The growing conditions

• What they like to eat

• How many people they want to feed

• How much time and effort they can put into it

Tips for New Gardeners

For new gardeners, Green and Hazzan Green offer the following suggestions:

• Start small. Hazzan Green suggests two or three pots—so that it’s not overwhelming in the beginning. For example, one pot with tomato and basil, another with lettuce, and a third with beans and peas.

• Make a plan. It could be elaborate or simple—but have something planned before shopping…or you might end up buying more than you need.

• Do your research. Don’t go with your first idea. Green says he has seen many people make beds using railway ties or treated wood…only to find out afterwards these are not suited to food gardens.

Coalescing in the Toronto Urban Farm Scene

Hazzan Green says that when they started it was difficult to find agricultural advice tailored to the urban setting. That’s changed a lot in the 12 years they have been in business. “What’s happening now is there’s a coalescing of all these groups—there’s a real network., she says.

“As a group of individual businesses and gardeners and growers we’ve now found a way to unite and become a real force for change in the way we view urban agriculture.”

Hunger Relief through Growing

Mim Michelove and Nan Sterman started the Grab & Grow Gardens Program to help people in their community affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Food Deserts are also nursery deserts.”

We head to San Diego, California to chat with Mim Michelove and Nan Sterman, who share a love of growing food and involvement in food activism.

As unemployment in their community grew during the COVID-19 pandemic, and as the local food supply became shaky, they decided to use their connections with commercial growers, in the community, and with social service agencies to help people feed themselves. The result was the Grab & Grow Gardens program.

Grab & Grow Gardens

The Grab & Grow Gardens kits contain two transplant-size vegetable seedlings in a carry bag, along with growing instructions in English and Spanish. “We do this in Mim’s backyard,” explains Sterman, as she talks about assembling the kits with a small army of volunteers.

Kits are distributed to those in need through hunger relief agencies, school districts, and affordable housing organizations.

At the time of the interview in February, 2021, they had distributed over 8,500 kits.

Initially, everything for the kits was donated. Securing donations of vegetable transplants was possible because they are located in an area with a large vegetable-transplant industry.

As demand for the kits grew, and as they were able to access grants and donations, they began to purchase seed, allowing them to choose the most suitable crops and varieties.

Tips for Launching Community Initiatives

Sterman and Michelove share their tips for successfully launching community initiatives. These include:

• Work with agencies that are already distributing something to the people you want to reach.

• Spread the word about what you want to do in your community; there will be others who want to help, but are not sure what to do.

• Think about what you can do that will help the end user succeed.

• Brainstorm resources in the community, including companies, individuals, and organizations—and then reach out.

“That’s where the power comes in, where you pull people in from all different levels.” Nan Sterman

Crater Garden, Regenerative Farm and Family

Tim Southwell of ABC Acres in Montanna talks about a regenerative approach to farming, family, community—and about his crater garden.

“Our chickens know no boundaries.”

We head to Montana to chat with Tim Southwell of ABC Acres, the permaculture homestead he and his his wife Sarah created.

Southwell, who grew up in suburban Houston, explains that it was while living in Kansas City and growing a front-yard vegetable garden that he was introduced to permaculture and many of the concepts that he uses today on the farm.

In addition to livestock, they have a crater garden, a food hedge, chinampas, and a sunken greenhouse with citrus, bananas, figs, and papaya.

The unique microclimate created by the crater garden permits them to grow apples, peaches, plums, nectarines, and apricots in their harsh climate. He explains, “Every fruit tree we have, we build with it a microclimate.”

Crater Garden

Southwell says that the microclimate in the crater garden—a below-grade garden—is created by a number of things that work together:

1. The winter sun warms the south-facing slope of the garden.

2. Runoff from rain collects at the bottom of the garden, creating a pond—and the water in the pond collects heat that is then radiated at night.

3. The water reflects light onto plants in the surrounding crater garden.

4. Because the garden is below grade, cold winds pass over top of it.

5. While frost normally settles into low areas, it does not settle into the crater garden because the thermal mass of the water creates convection, so the air keeps moving.

6. Large rocks are partially submerged in the pond to act as “battery chargers” in the pond, adding to the thermal mass.

Food Hedge

The food hedge, which Southwell calls the “fedge,” provides privacy, blocks wind, attracts birds, and keeps livestock where they are supposed to be. Food plants in the fedge include:

• brambles

• sand cherry

• serviceberry

• goji

• aronia

• josta

• honeyberry

“My children will be outside grazing the food hedge.”

Chinampas

Southwell explains that he was inspired by systems used by Aztec famers to create “chinampas” on a boggy section of flood plain.

He placed cottonwood logs on the low-lying ground, and then capped them with old hay and leaves, which decompose to create a rich soil. Over time, the decaying, spongy cottonwood logs help to wick moisture upwards.

He says that in this sort of situation it’s important to grow plants that don’t mind moisture. Raspberries grow well for them.

Agritourism

Agritourism become an income generator on the farm in 2017. Southwell noticed a big appetite for opportunities to connect with farms, food production, and nature.

But he felt that farms, and the stories behind them, were poorly represented online. He and Sarah created the online platform yonder.com as a way for to connect people with nature.

No-Dig Gardening

Garden expert Charlie Nardozzi talks about no-dig gardening

In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with Vermont garden educator and radio host Charlie Nardozzi.

Nardozzi discusses his journey into no-dig gardening—and why it’s good for gardeners, the soil, and the environment.

He also tells us about his new book, The Complete Guide to No-Dig Gardening.

Nardozzi hasn’t always been a no-dig gardener. He used to garden with a gas-guzzling tiller. He shares ideas for gardeners who want to create a new no-till garden, as well as ideas about how gardeners with existing beds can transition them into a no-till system.

No-Dig Gardening by Charlie Nardozzi

Benefits of No-Dig Gardening

Nardozzi says that a key benefit of no-dig gardening is getting more from the same amount of space. Then there’s the work: Once a no-dig bed is established, it requires less heavy digging by the gardener.

There are also other reasons to consider a no-dig approach:

• Weed seeds remain buried where they cannot germinate

• Carbon remains locked up in the soil

• Healthy soil microbe communities feed plants by breaking down organic matter and releasing nutrients

Emma’s Tomato-Talk Segment

In Emma’s Tomato segment, we explore the topic of “keeper” tomatoes. We got quite a reaction on social media a short while back when we posted pictures of bruschetta made from tomatoes we harvested in October. We still have some of those tomatoes in our storage room—and it’s February. They’re not canned, not frozen…they’re keeper tomatoes that store very well.

Biggs-on-Figs Segment

In the Biggs-on-Figs segment, we head to New York State to chat with permaculture teacher and grower Jonathan Bates at Food Forest Farm. He grows figs in a in an old sheep barn that he calls his “figgery”—and uses a “figloo” within it.

Fig plants are trained as “stepover” figs, horizontal cordons low to the ground. After harvest, Bates prunes vertical branches back to the main horizontal trunk, then he makes a figloo over top for winter.

Bates also discusses varieties suited to his climate and growing method. Florea and St. Rita do very well for him.

Youth and Gardening

Vivien Wong, 15-year-old gardener and garden blogger

The theme of the today’s show is youth and gardening.

We speak with 15-year-old gardener Vivien Wong in New York State, who fills her small suburban yard with fruit and vegetables. She has been documenting her gardening journey with the goal of inspiring other teens to grow their own food.

Along the way, she won a prize at the fair!

“Anyone can grow their own food if they get some tips from other gardeners.” Vivien Wong

The Seed

Wong’s interest in gardening started in a fourth grade classroom. After the class grew plants from seed, every student was able to take home a plant. She chose a beefsteak tomato—and hasn’t looked back.

She has found inspiration on Instagram. “As soon as I joined Instagram, I discovered a whole new community of gardeners,” she says.

Kids Gardening

In the second half of the show we chat with Em Shipman, Executive Director of Kids Gardening, a not-for-profit organization with a mission to get kids gardening.

“It’s our job and our passion to support those people that we know are working really hard to provide important, meaningful education opportunities for kids,” says Shipman.

The Kids Gardening website has lesson plans, ideas for activities, and information about grants for community and school gardens.

Her top tips for people new to gardening with children and youth:

• Start small. If you haven’t gardened before, a few plants in pots might be a suitable start.

• Keep expectations low because learning happens even when it’s not visible.

• Things might not go as planned…but that’s an opportunity to learn and to ask questions.

Breeding Tomatoes for the "Holy Grail"

Brad Gates of Wild Boar Farms on breeding tomatoes.

“I was looking for the holy grail that would have my customers come crawling back on their hands and knees.”

With a reputation for unusual and wildly popular tomato varieties, tomato breeder Brad Gates focuses above all else on flavour.

He didn’t start out working in tomato breeding. While working in the landscape industry, he was asked by a friend to help sell heirloom tomatoes at a farmers market. Gates loved the energy at the market—and he was fascinated with the unusual heirloom tomatoes.

So he started growing, and, eventually, breeding tomatoes.

Tomato Breeding

Gates says that flavour is always his top goal. Other important traits include:

• pest and disease resistance

• yield

• shelf life

Tomato Flavour

Gates says, “Tomatoes have the potential of so many flavour aspects.” These include:

• umami

• richness

• tartness

• sweetness

He says that in general, he finds store-bought tomatoes are “one-dimensional.”

Looking Ahead

Heat and cool tolerance are traits that he has found in some of his varieties. For example,

• Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye does well in cooler climates such as San Francisco, which is cool and foggy.

• Lucid Gem has proven to be very tolerant of hot weather. In heat waves, when other varieties do poorly, Lucid Gem stands up well.

Gates says that he is currently working on small, two-foot-high tomato varieties that produce gourmet tomatoes.

Why small? Gates says, “Why grow one or two varieties when you can grow 10 or 15?”

More on Tomatoes

Grow your own tomato seedlings.

Home and Community Cold Cellars

Transition Guelph is building local food-storage capacity through cold cellars.

What’s old is new: Cold cellars are back.

Transition Guelph launches an initiative to build local food-storage capacity through cold cellar education and installations.

We find out what they’re doing—and get tips to help you make a home cold cellars.

We are joined by Steve Tedesco and Ian Findlay from Transition Guelph. Tedesco is a Guelph-area farmer, and Findlay is a contractor specializing in cold cellars.

Why Cold Cellars are Back

Findlay says to think of a cold cellar as a passively-chilled walk-in cooler. He says people with the added food-storage capacity of a cold cellar can store more homegrown produce, and can also stock up on locally grown produce when it is in season.

Tedesco points out that having a cold cellar can change the way meals are planned. “It becomes an active participation sport to manage your cold room and plan your meals around what you have so that nothing goes to waste,” he says.

The Transition Movement

Tedesco explains that the Transition Movement is a global movement focused on building local resilience. Transition Guelph formed in 2009.

Transition chapters undertake projects that strengthen community resilience in six areas:

1. Food and water

2. Energy

3. Environmental stewardship

4. Economic vitality

5. Equity in a community

6. Community engagement

Home Cold Cellars

Findlay suggests spending time to understand 3 key elements to a successful home cold storage.

1. Ventilation to supply fresh air and exhaust warmer, moist air

2. Temperature control (the ideal temperature range is 2-5°C)

3. Humidity (many root vegetables store best in high humidity)

Tedesco and Findlay are finding that many of the newer homes in the Guelph area have a small space under the front porch that is well suited to making into a cold cellar.

Besides making a cold storage under a porch, other approaches include:

• Partitioning off an area in the basement

• Creating a stand-along cold cellar in a hillside (Findlay talks about concrete bunkers)

• A trench storage in garden

Findlay says, “With enough ingenuity and sweat equity you can make any space work.”

Harvest More With Garden Bed Covers

Niki Jabbour, author of Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden, talks about using garden bed covers.

In a broadcast that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we chat with vegetable gardening expert Niki Jabbour about using garden bed covers. She is the author of the new book, Growing Under Cover: Techniques for a More Productive, Weather-Resistant, Pest-Free Vegetable Garden.

Jabbour is a Halifax-based, award-winning author, host of The Weekend Gardener radio show, and one of the experts behind the gardening website Savvygardening.com.

She discusses the benefits of using garden bed covers, choosing covers suited to your situation, how to boost insulation of cold frames, tips for people thinking of a greenhouse, and greenhouse covering materials.

Why use Garden Bed Covers

Jabbour says that there are many reasons to use garden bed covers. “It’s about gardening smarter, not harder,” she says.

Reasons to use garden bed covers include:

• Larger harvests

• Better ability to control the growing environment

• Year-round harvests

• Including more “hyper-local” food on the menu

• Reduced pest pressure

• Creating conditions suited to exotic crops

Growing Under Cover, by Niki Jabbour

6 Ways to Boost Insulation of Cold Frames

In Growing Under Cover, she talks about six ways to boost the insulation of cold frames.

1. Line with foam

2. Add thermal collectors such as water-filled bottles

3. Surround with straw or boughs

4. Bury the cold frame in soil or mulch

5. Seal the cold frame with weatherstripping

6. Cover it on cold nights with carpet, old blankets, or some sort of insulating material

Types of Garden Bed Covers

Jabbour points out that not everyone has the space or money for a glass greenhouse. But there are many other options to provide cover for crops. These include:

• Row covers

• Cloches

• Cold frames

• Plastic-covered greenhouses

• Mini hoop tunnels

Emma’s Tomato-Talk Segment

DO YOU EVER FEEL overwhelmed when trying to choose tomato varieties for your garden? In Emma’s tomato segment, she talks about choosing tomato varieties suited to your garden. She talks about:

• Thinking about your own preferences

• Days to maturity

• Plant size

• Disease resistance

• Shipping costs

Biggs-on-Figs Segment

Melinda Myers talks about growing figs and artichokes in Wisconsin.

In the Biggs-on-Figs segment, we head to Wisconsin to chat with gardening expert Melinda Myers, who grows figs and artichokes in her USDA zone 4b garden.

A fig grower for over a decade, Myers says she also likes to include figs in her presentations because it gets people’s attention. “It always gets a second glace from anybody in the North or Midwest,” she says.

Find Myers online at melindamyers.com, where she is currently offering a number of free webinars.

Raspberry-Leaf Tea and other uses of the Genus Rubus

Conrad Richter from Richters Herbs talks about the genus Rubus and its medicinal and herbal uses, such as raspberry-leaf tea.

It’s an astringent. And it might already be growing in your yard or nearby. Today we take you beyond eating raspberry fruit to explore the herbal and medicinal properties of the plant itself—along with its relatives in the genus Rubus.

Ever heard of raspberry-leaf tea? Tune in, and find out about the many uses of this plant.

Raspberry Family

Conrad Richter from Richters Herbs joins us to delve into the history, herbal, and medicinal properties of the approximately 700 species of the genus Rubus.

Science meets History

Richter, who trained in botany, also has a keen interest in history. “I do straddle those two worlds very well,” he says.

He says that the earliest recorded use of Rubus dates back 10,000 years. And 2,000 years ago, the ancient Greeks recorded its use for treating diarrhoea. As an “astringent,” a class of herbs that shrinks tissue, it’s medicinal properties were well documented.

Fast forward to the present day, and Richter says that there is interest in using Rubus leaves in creams to “tonify” the skin, and in the health benefits of the anthocyanins in the fruit.

Cultivate a Taste for Bitter Foods...and Cardoon Plants

Toronto chef and author Jennifer McLagan talks about how to cook bitter foods such as cardoon plants. Photo by Shane Reid.

Chef and author Jennifer McLagan joins us to talk about bitter foods, explaining what bitterness is, and how to effectively use bitter in the kitchen.

McLagan is the author of the book, Bitter: A Taste of the World’s most Dangerous Flavor, with Recipes.

The Loss of Bitter

McLagan recalls the grapefruit that her mother served her as a child. They had a slight bitterness—an “edge.” Her mother balanced that bitterness with a sprinkle of sugar on top.

McLagan says bitterness has been bred out of modern grapefruit. Now they’re sweet and pink…with no bitterness.

That loss inspired her book. “They don’t taste like grapefruit any more,” she says.

What is Bitter?

McLagan says that many people confuse bitter with sour. It is different from sour—one of the four basic tastes, along with sour, sweet, and salty.

“It adds a complexity and depth to the food,” says McLagan, explaining that using bitterness—like salt—makes food more interesting and less flat.

Cardoon plants are one of the bitter foods in Jennifer McLagan’s book, Bitter

She gives the example of crème brulée: The caramel topping has a bitter edge, which plays well with the sweet, rich pudding below.

Cooking with Bitter Foods

McLagan says that bitter is not as popular in North American cuisine as it is in other parts of the world. “The American palate is very geared towards sweet,” she explains.

Bitter pairs well with fat and with sweetness. “Bitter and fat are the two perfect things; one rounds out the other,” she says.

Here are ideas for using bitter in the kitchen:

• McLagan talks about making turnip ice cream. She also suggests caramelizing turnips, which go well with baked apple or apple pie.

• McLagan suggests cooking Belgian endive in butter (because fat and bitterness work well together) and then using that juice to make béchamel sauce, with added emmenthal cheese, to serve over top of the Belgian endives.

• She has surprises in her book! There is a pannacotta with tobacco. McLagan says that small pieces of cigar give it a complex taste. A pannacotta is rich and creamy, and the bitterness from the tobacco comes through very gently at the back of the throat, making it a much more complex dish.

How to Cook Cardoon

For those who have never seen cardoon, McLagan describes it as “celery on steroids.” It has big, wide ribs. And it’s in the cover photo of her book.

The part of the plant that is eaten is the leaf rib. The rest of the leaf is discarded.

She describes it as having an artichoke-and-mushroom flavour—one that will seduce you once you appreciate the bitterness.

Here are McLagan’s tips for preparing and cooking cardoon:

• Cut the cardoon stalks from the base.

• Remove the spikes along the edge of the rib using a knife.

• Next, remove the strings from the stalk (it’s like pulling the strings from a celery stalk).

• McLagan finds a sharp knife works better than a vegetable peeler because there are a lot of strings and a peeler plugs up.

• Once the stalks are prepared and you begin to chop them, you might find additional strings. If so, remove them.

• Once chopped, place them immediately into water with lemon juice to prevent them from browning.

• Cook in salted water until tender (the salt is important because salt helps pull out bitterness).

• Drain.

• Remove any remaining strings.

She says a great way to serve cardoon is with a cheese sauce. “When you put cheese on something, people love it,” she says.

MgLagan notes that the inner stalks are milder, with a better texture. They are less stringy, with a delicate silver-green colour and feathery leaves. She advises using stringy outside stalks for soup; and the more tender inside ones for a gratin or salad.

Here are the cardoon recipes she includes in the book:

• Cardoon gratin

• Cardoon soup

• Warm cardoon and potato salad

• Cardoon beef tagine

• Cardoon cheese

• Cardoon and bitter-leaf salad

• Cardoon with braised bitter greens,

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My daughter Emma with a cardoon flower. The plants have great ornamental value too.

Bitter in the Garden

One of the challenges—and delights—of growing new food crops in the garden is figuring out how to use them in the kitchen. Looking to add bitter to your garden? Here are ideas:

• Arugula

• Belgian endive

• Cardoon

• Citrus rind

• Olives

• Radicchio

• Turnip

Tasty Tomatoes for Small Spaces: The Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project

Craig LeHoullier, author of the book Epic Tomatoes and one of the founders of the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project

We’re joined by tomato expert Craig LeHoullier to talk about the Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project, preserving seed varieties, and to find out what’s new in his garden.

LeHoullier, an avid seed saver with a passion for saving and sharing heirloom tomato varieties, says that his seed collection contains somewhere between 50,000 and 70,000 seed packets.

Dwarf Tomato Breeding Project

The project began in 2004. LeHoullier was getting a lot of questions about compact varieties at his annual tomato-plant sale.

He explains that dwarf tomato varieties, which grow vertically at approximately half the rate of other indeterminate tomato varieties, already existed at the time. But these dwarf varieties were obscure and hard to find.

He teamed up with a friend in Australia to start breeding new dwarf tomato varieties. That initiative soon grew into an open source, volunteer-run, worldwide breeding project. The goal was to breed stable, open-pollinated, dwarf tomato varieties from which gardeners could save their own seed.

The project began releasing dwarf tomato varieties to seed companies in 2010.

By 2020, 135 varieties had been released. And the project continues!

More on Tomatoes

How to grow tomato plants from seed.

Farming Cold-Hardy Citrus in South Carolina

Cold-hardy citrus expert Stan McKenzie talks about how to grow citrus in cold climates.

The Johnny Appleseed of cold-hardy citrus, Stan McKenzie, joins us to talk about how to grow citrus in cold climates.

McKenzie talks about how he became a "citraholic" and started down the path of growing citrus on his USDA Zone 8 farm and nursery in South Carolina.

McKenzie Farms specializes in citrus suited for cold climates.

McKenzie says that he coined the term “citraholic” to describe people with a citrus-growing obsession. “It’s not really expensive, and the hangover isn’t nearly as bad,” he says with a laugh.

Getting Started in Cold-Hardy Citrus

He recalls his parents taking him to visit his grandmother when he was a child. Near her house was a scraggly tree that died back to the ground every winter. When he learned it was an orange tree, he was fascinated, and asked his dad to order citrus trees from Florida for their farm.

“Every one of them was killed the very first winter,” he says, explaining that he and his father didn’t know how to overwinter citrus.

Fast forward many years, while visiting Charleston, South Carolina, McKenzie saw a grapefruit tree loaded with golden grapefruit. “It lit the match again,” he says.

As he researched cold-hardy citrus he learned that satsuma trees are grown commercially in colder parts of Japan. It wasn’t long before he started growing satsuma. As his satsuma tree grew and prospered, everybody who saw the tree wanted one.

“That put me in the citrus business,” he says.

Cold-Hardy Citrus Tips

Overwintering Citrus Outdoors

McKenzie says that when overwintering in-ground citrus plants in borderline areas such as his, some citrus enthusiasts wrap the tree in a string of incandescent lights and then cover it with and insulating material. The lights give off enough heat to get the citrus plant through especially cold weather.

Another technique is “micromisting,” where a fine mist of water is sprayed over the trees. As the water freezes, it gives off heat—enough heat for the citrus plants to survive cold weather.

Overwintering Citrus Indoors

Where winter temperatures are more severe, people often bring potted citrus plants into the house over the winter. McKenzie says that the biggest challenge with this technique is that the air in most homes is too dry, causing the plants to drop leaves. The well-known Meyer lemon is especially finicky, he says. However, leaves will grow back in spring.

To maintain a higher humidity that is better suited to citrus plants, he recommends filling a tray (such as the foil trays sold for roasting turkeys) with pebbles and water. He says that spritzing with water regularly helps too.

Find Out How to Grow Your Own Lemons

Grow Lemons in Cold Climates Masterclass shows you how to grow a lemon tree in a pot or outside with protection. And get lemons!

Top Questions

• Thorny growth at the base of the plant. McKenzie explains that many citrus are grafted onto a rootstock of trifoliate orange—a very thorny plant. Sometimes that root will send up a shoot, which, if left to grow, it will overtake the desired variety grafted onto it.

• Wrinkled leaves and squiggly lines. He says that this is caused by an insect pest called the citrus leaf miner, which tunnels inside the leaf. While unsightly, they do no harm to the plant and do not affect the fruit.

Common Cold-Hardy Citrus

• Prague Satsuma. This hardy satsuma survived the 8°F (-13°C) weater that killed many of the other satsuma varieties in his orchard.

• Thomasville Citrangequat. McKenzie says that this cold-hardy citrus is a good lime substitute.

• Crosses with trifoliate orange. He says there are many crosses with trifoliate orange that have excellent cold hardiness, but the fruit is usually bitter.

• Yuzu, aka Japanese lemon, is very cold-hardy. He knows of people growing this citrus in colder areas such as Raleigh, North Carolina.

Poncirus Trifoliata (a.k.a. Trifoliate Orange)

The trifoliate orange, also known as trifoliate lemon and Poncirus, is extremely hardy, surviving in areas colder than USDA Zone 7. It is a common rootstock. McKenzie says that the small fruit are very seedy and bitter.

Connect with Stan McKenzie

• Website: mckenzie-farms.com

• Facebook: McKenzie-Farms-Nursery-174405135904728

Find Out How to Grow Your Own Lemons

Grow Lemons in Cold Climates Masterclass shows you how to grow a lemon tree in a pot or outside with protection. And get lemons!

Looking for More Citrus Information?

Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting

Jessica Walliser, author of Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden

We’re joined by Pittsburgh-based horticulturist and author Jessica Walliser to talk about her new book Plant Partners: Science-Based Companion Planting Strategies for the Vegetable Garden.

There is a lot of folklore that finds its way into discussions about companion planting. Walliser explains that her hope is to reboot the term “companion planting” by looking at it through a scientific lens.

What is Companion Planting?

Walliser says that companion planting is purposely planting two or more plants close together to get some sort of benefit.

Companion planting does not have to mean putting two plants together at the same time, however; it can also mean growing plants in succession.

Common terms used in science that overlap with the idea of companion planting are:

• Intercropping

• Plant partners

• Interplanting

• Polyculture

Benefits of Plant Partners

In her book, Walliser has chapters on seven different benefits of using plant partners in the vegetable garden.

• Soil preparation and conditioning

• Weed management

• Support and structure

• Pest management

• Disease management

• Biological Control

• Pollination

An example of pest management is using “trap crops” to lure pests away from other crops. Squash bugs prefer blue hubbard squash to other squash varieties—meaning it can be used as a “trap crop.”

A plant partnership that helps to control aphid problems on lettuce is to grow sweet alyssum as a partner. The alyssum flowers are a favourite of both predatory and parasitic insects that help to control aphids.

For weed management, there are cover crops that suppress growth of weed seeds the following season. Those same cover crops also build soil structure as they decompose.

Living trellises are functional and can be aesthetically pleasing. A good example is using corn with beans.

Ever Heard of “Biodrilling”

An example of a plant partnership to help prepare the soil is the use of deep-rooted forage radishes as “biodrills” on heavy clay soil.

These plants have long tap roots that penetrate heavy soil. The roots are left in the soil to decompose instead of harvesting them. Walliser explains that it’s like using a living drill instead of tilling the soil!