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

Growing fruit in cold climates might seem daunting, especially if you have a small home garden. But with the right trees and a creative mindset, it’s surprisingly achievable.
In this episode, we chat with Véronique Alexandre from Hardy Fruit Tree Nursery, a Canadian nursery specializing in fruit trees adapted to harsh northern winters.
Want a hedge on your property? Forget the cedar hedge, Veronique will tell you about a flowering, fruiting hedge. She has many tips to help home gardeners succeed with fruit. We explore:
Fruit trees, bushes, and cultivars for cold zones
Growing a flowering and fruiting plum hedge
How to fit fruit trees into small gardens and suburban yards
What you need to know about ordering and planting bare-root fruit treesA tough-as-nails apple that grows in zone 2 and even colder
A new cold-hardy, tasty, and bred-in-Quebec cold-hardy apple that stores very well 

Whether you want a single apple tree, a productive backyard orchard, edible landscape, or a hedge that feeds your family, this episode will inspire you to start planting fruit—even in the coldest regions.
 
If you’re looking for more on edible hedges, check out this edible hedge guide. 

---
Join the 5,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang who stay on top of home food-growing ideas with our weekly e-mail. We’re making the world a better place one garden at a time!
Grab the free e-book: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks.
Find out more about the Canada Gardener’s Journal: It’s a gardening journal, gardening log, and garden planner—with an all-Canadian sources list.

What if some of your vegetable garden crops came back year after year — with less digging, less fuss, and a continuous harvest?
In this episode, I’m joined by gardening expert Charlie Nardozzi, author of The Continuous Vegetable Garden, to explore how to design a self-sustaining food garden that produces continuously through the seasons.
Charlie shares practical strategies for succession planting, perennial crops, fruit, gardening in shade, and no-dig gardening. We also talk about vertical gardening and how to keep tomato and pepper plants from one year to the next—so you can have an extra-early tomato and pepper harvest. 
If you’d like less maintenance and more of an ongoing harvest, this episode will inspire you to plant smarter — not harder.
If you’re looking for more on crops you can grow in the shade, check out this guide to fruits and vegetables for shade.

---
Join the 5,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang who stay on top of home food-growing ideas with our weekly e-mail. We’re making the world a better place one garden at a time!
Grab the free e-book: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks.
Find out more about the Canada Gardener’s Journal: It’s a gardening journal, gardening log, and garden planner—with an all-Canadian sources list.

Ever get to the end of the growing season and realize your tomato patch didn’t live up to the expectations you had when you planted it in the spring?
In this episode we chat with tomato expert Frank Hyman, author of the brand-new book Ripe Tomato Revolution. He shares his top tips to get lots of healthy, homegrown tomatoes—with less work. Frank has over four decades of hands-on experience, as both a farmer and a gardener. He shares a super practical way for home gardeners to prevent disease, along with his easy-to-make, easy-to-use homemade tomato cages. Whether you’re a first-time tomato grower or a seasoned gardener, get ideas to improve your tomato harvest from Frank’s down-to-earth tips and techniques.
Hear about: 
Simple DIYs: tomato cages, and Frank’s “tomato house” concept to prevent disease
Creating conditions for tomatoes to thrive 
Mulching like a pro
Ways to support tomato plants
Different types of tomato plants
Frank’s personal stories from years on an organic tomato farm 

Perfect for: urban gardeners, backyard growers, sustainable farmers, and tomato lovers of all levels.
Listen now and let’s grow the best tomatoes you’ve ever tasted!
If you’re looking for more on staking and supporting tomatoes, check out this great post. 

---
Join the 5,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang who stay on top of home food-growing ideas with our weekly e-mail. We’re making the world a better place one garden at a time!
Grab the free e-book: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks.
Find out more about the Canada Gardener’s Journal: It’s a gardening journal, gardening log, and garden planner—with an all-Canadian sources list.

Today we continue our cross-Canada tour, chatting with food gardeners, and sharing crop and variety ideas to help you as you plan your 2026 garden.
We head to Manitoba, just outside of Winnipeg, to chat with Brent Poole, an avid backyard veggie gardener who has been at it for over 45 years. Along with his own big suburban yard, Brent has a big garden across the street. He loves to experiment with new techniques and new varieties, something he attributes to his background in biology. Brent writes for and is on the board of The Prairie Garden, an annual publication that’s all about gardening on the Canadian prairies. 
If you garden in a cold climate—or want to make the most of a short growing season—this episode is packed with practical ideas.

---
Join the 5,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang who stay on top of home food-growing ideas with our weekly e-mail. We’re making the world a better place one garden at a time!
Grab the free e-book: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks.
Find out more about the Canada Gardener’s Journal: It’s a gardening journal, gardening log, and garden planner—with an all-Canadian sources list.

We continue our cross-Canada tour, chatting with inspiring gardeners to hear about favourite varieties and top crops. Today we head to Regina, Saskatchewan, to chat with Candace Benson, who runs City Street Farms. Candace tells us about how she turns grass into gardens in a city that has a lot of single-family homes—and a lot of front lawns. She shares the story of her business, talks about her process to transform a lawn into a garden, and then talks about favourite veg and flower varieties. You can find Candace online, at citystreetfarms.ca

---
Join the 5,000+ gardeners in The Food Garden Gang who stay on top of home food-growing ideas with our weekly e-mail. We’re making the world a better place one garden at a time!
Grab the free e-book: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks.
Find out more about the Canada Gardener’s Journal: It’s a gardening journal, gardening log, and garden planner—with an all-Canadian sources list.