Food Garden Life Show: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping

Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t — Revised & Expanded
My fig book is now more than three times the size of the original, with practical advice on growing in pots, pruning, overwintering, and getting figs ripe—plus ideas from cold-climate fig growers around the world.
Find out more and get your copy.
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Do you really need to turn your compost? And what happens when your compost bin freezes in winter?

Kayla Siefried, Education Director at the Compost Education Centre in Victoria, BC, joins me to talk about making compost at home. We explore how to choose a system that fits your space and routine, whether that's a backyard bin, a hot compost pile, a worm bin, or a food waste digester.

Then we dig into the everyday details: balancing kitchen scraps with fall leaves, checking moisture, deciding when to turn a pile, and planning for winter composting in a cold climate.

We talk about:
The differences between passive composting, hot composting, worm bins, and food waste digesters
Choosing a bin and a convenient location, with rodents in mind
Using fall leaves as a compost ingredient and garden mulch
When a compost pile needs water or more air
Keeping browns handy when your leaf pile is buried in snow
Allowing extra bin space for scraps that freeze instead of breaking down
Resources:
Compost Education Centre
Composting and gardening fact sheets, including backyard composting, vermicomposting, food waste digesters, hot composting, and urban leaves

Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t — Revised & Expanded
My fig book is now more than three times the size of the original, with practical advice on growing in pots, pruning, overwintering, and getting figs ripe—plus ideas from cold-climate fig growers around the world.
Find out more and get your copy.
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What if you could harvest more food from your vegetable garden without making it any bigger?
Extending the growing season is one way to get more from the garden space you already have. And you don't need an elaborate greenhouse to get started.

In this episode, Steven Biggs chats with Sonja Peters of Greenbush Greenhouses and Farm in British Columbia's North Okanagan about practical ways to keep a garden productive longer.

Sonja shares tips on everything from simple floating row covers to low tunnels, cold frames, and greenhouses. They also discuss choosing the right protection for your climate, combining layers of protection, and using microclimates to your advantage.

In this episode:
Why extending the growing season can mean more food from the same space
Floating row covers: how they work and when to use them
Making inexpensive low tunnels
The differences between low tunnels, hoop houses, and greenhouses
Layering protection to keep crops going in colder weather
Cold frames and ways to build them
How microclimates affect season extension
Monitoring temperatures and preventing overheating
The added pest-management benefits of row covers
About Sonja Peters
Sonja is a horticulturist, greenhouse grower, and consultant with more than 20 years of experience in the industry. She and her partner, Dave, operate Greenbush Greenhouses and Farm near Lumby, British Columbia.

Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t — Revised & Expanded
My fig book is now more than three times the size of the original, with practical advice on growing in pots, pruning, overwintering, and getting figs ripe—plus ideas from cold-climate fig growers around the world.
Find out more and get your copy.
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What if you could water your vegetable garden from below instead of above?
Wicking beds have a built-in water reservoir beneath the soil. Water moves upwards through capillary action, supplying moisture to plant roots.
In this episode, Steven Biggs talks with Alberta permaculture designer Rob Avis about how wicking beds work, how to build them, and where they make sense.
Rob shares lessons from building wicking beds in his own garden and for community projects. He also talks about their limitations, including the risk of keeping soil too wet and the extra attention needed to maintain soil fertility.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn into the bigger picture of water management, soil health, and soil carbon.
In this episode:
How wicking beds use capillary action to move water upwards
The advantages of watering from below
Where wicking beds make sense, including small urban gardens
Why it's important to let soil dry out between waterings
Building tips, including reservoirs, liners, fill pipes, and overflow drains
Soil mixes, compost, and maintaining fertility in raised beds
Lessons from a large community-garden wicking-bed project
How water management and soil carbon are connected
Resources
From the Bottom Up: A DIY Guide to Wicking Beds by Rob Avis, Verge Permaculture. Includes diagrams, photographs, and construction guidance.
Fifth World: Rob's landscape design and ecological restoration work.
Rob also offers a data-based Land Inspection service through 5th World, using maps and environmental data to help property owners and prospective buyers understand drainage, soils, sun exposure, and other site characteristics.
About Rob Avis
Rob Avis is a permaculture designer and co-founder of Verge Permaculture. His work focuses on designing productive landscapes, managing water, and restoring ecological systems, from urban properties to larger rural landscapes.

Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t — Revised & Expanded
My fig book is now more than three times the size of the original, with practical advice on growing in pots, pruning, overwintering, and getting figs ripe—plus ideas from cold-climate fig growers around the world.
Find out more and get your copy.
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Pawpaw season is nearly here—and this week we’re revisiting a conversation with one of the people responsible for bringing this remarkable fruit back into the spotlight.
Neal Peterson is sometimes called the Indiana Jones of pawpaws. After tasting his first pawpaw, he became fascinated by a fruit that had once attracted considerable attention from plant breeders but had largely fallen into obscurity.
Peterson dug through old horticultural records and tracked down surviving trees from early breeding programs. Those discoveries became the foundation of his own pawpaw breeding work.

In this episode, Emma and Steven talk with Neal about:
His first taste of pawpaw—and why it changed the direction of his life 
His search for nearly forgotten pawpaw varieties 
How pawpaws grow in the wild 
Why pawpaws fruit better in sun than in deep shade 
Pollination and the need for two genetically distinct trees 
Growing two pawpaw trees in a small garden 
Choosing early-ripening varieties for colder climates 
Why wild pawpaws can be very seedy 
How Peterson bred pawpaws with more flesh and fewer seeds 
Growing pawpaws from seed 
Caring for young pawpaw trees 
Managing suckers from grafted trees 
Pawpaws are understorey trees in the wild, but that doesn’t mean shade is the best place for fruit production. Neal explains why trees growing in brighter locations are usually more productive.
He also shares a wonderfully practical space-saving suggestion: if your garden is small, plant two genetically different pawpaw trees only a couple of feet apart.
A 2026 update
Neal no longer sells pawpaw trees or fruit directly. He continues his breeding work, and the Peterson Pawpaws website provides growing information and lists nurseries offering his varieties.

Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t — Revised & Expanded
My fig book is now more than three times the size of the original, with practical advice on growing in pots, pruning, overwintering, and getting figs ripe—plus ideas from cold-climate fig growers around the world.
Find out more and get your copy.
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Bob Duncan showed Canadian gardeners that the line between possible and impossible isn’t always where we think it is.
At Fruit Trees and More, the nursery and demonstration orchard he ran with his wife, Verna, on Vancouver Island, Bob grew figs, lemons, olives, yuzu, loquats, feijoas and many other fruits that gardeners might not expect to see growing in Canada.
Bob was also extraordinarily generous with his knowledge. I wrote about his work in my books about growing figs, lemons and olives—and turned to him many times with questions.
In this special tribute episode, I’ve gone back through recordings from my visits and conversations with Bob. Some were made while we walked through his garden; others come from longer interviews about citrus and unusual fruit.
You’ll hear Bob talk about:
His enormous Meyer lemon tree, which produced more than 400 lemons annually
Why keeping a citrus tree alive is different from bringing its fruit to harvest
His focus on breba figs
Growing olives on Vancouver Island
Why yuzu is especially well suited to coastal British Columbia
The danger of keeping container-grown citrus too wet
The thinking that led him to try growing these unlikely fruits in the first place
Near the end of one of our conversations, Bob summed up his approach in five words:
“So I thought to myself, ‘Let’s try it.’”
Bob died on July 20, 2026. My condolences go to Verna, Bob’s family, and the many gardeners who learned from him. 
You can read more about Bob’s remarkable life—and find details of the August 24 celebration of life—in his obituary.