Food Garden Life: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping Steven Biggs & Donna Balzer: Horticulturists and edible landscaping experts.

Do you have more seeds and plants than you can fit into your garden?
It’s a common problem for the enthusiastic food gardener!
In this episode, Donna and Steven talk about finding more growing space so that you can fit more crops into the same space.
Get ideas for:
Growing in ungardenable spaces…like the root-infested space next to hedgesReducing space used by pathwaysTiering crops in a gardenUsing paved areas, decks—and stairs!
If you’re looking for more on garden planning, check out these 7 vegetable garden layout ideas.  
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-->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-books: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks and Growing Figs in Cold Climates.
-->And say hi—we love to hear what you think!

Want to grow great tomatoes?

With the right transplanting and care, your tomatoes will be off to a great start.

In this episode, Donna and Steven talk about:
Transplanting tomato seedlingsProtecting transplants from cold spring weatherHow to stake, train, and support tomato plantsPruning tomato suckersWatering and feedingTomato challenges, including pests, diseases, and blossom end rot.If you’re looking for more on how to support tomato plants, check out this article. 
-->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-books: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks and Growing Figs in Cold Climates.
-->And say hi—we love to hear what you think!

Wondering when to plant vegetables? Not sure what to plant first?
You don’t need to plant everything at once.
In this episode, Donna and Steven talk about when to plant vegetables, and the Canadian tradition of planting the garden over the Victoria Day (May 24) weekend.
(Sometimes it makes sense…though not for all crops in all zones.)
If you’re looking for more on planting vegetables, check out this article on direct seeding. 
***
-->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-books: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks and Growing Figs in Cold Climates.
 -->And say hi—we love to hear what you think!

Your vegetable seedlings can look great indoors. Then fall like dominoes in the garden.
If they’re not hardened off.
But if you harden off seedlings, they stand a much better chance once you plant them in the garden.
In this episode, Donna and Steven talk about:
What hardening off meansWhy harden off seedlingsHow to harden off seedlingsWhen to harden off seedlingsHarden off seedlings in a greenhouseIf you’re looking for more on growing vegetables from seed, check out post on how to direct seed vegetables. 
-->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-books: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks and Growing Figs in Cold Climates.
-->And say hi—we love to hear what you think!

Wondering about fruit to grow in a cold climate?
Today we head to Alberta, to find out how to grow saskatoon bushes. Arden Delidais grows in Zone 2—and doesn’t get any winter dieback on her saskatoon berries.
Delidais’ orchard and winery, DNA Gardens, has a number of cold hardy crops including saskatoon berries, apples, plums, rhubarb, currants, and haskaps.
Saskatoon bushes (Amelanchier alnifolia) are native to North America. (South of the border you might hear them referred to as juneberry or shadbush.)
Delidais tells Steve and Donna about:
How to prune saskatoon bushesSaskatoon varietiesSaskatoon pests and diseasesHow to propagate saskatoon berriesHow to use saskatoon fruitIf you’re looking for more on saskatoons, here’s a guide to growing them. 

-->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-books: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks and Growing Figs in Cold Climates.
-->And say hi—we love to hear what you think!

Have you tried direct sowing but didn’t get good results? Wondering how to direct sow seeds?
Direct sowing—a.k.a. direct seeding or direct planting—is when we sow seeds straight into the garden. We skip starting transplants indoors.
It gives better results for some crops—because there’s no transplanting shock. And that’s great, because it saves you the hassle of growing transplants.
But some crops need extra growing time…and that’s where transplants make sense. Or sometimes, hot summer weather causes spotty germination outdoors, meaning transplants are a better option.
To ace your direct seeding, you need to know which crops it works with—and how to do it.
In this episode, Donna and Steven talk about:
Why and when to direct sowWhen it makes sense to grow transplants instead of direct sowingHow to direct sow seedsWhat crops are best for direct sowingIf you’re looking for more ideas for planting your vegetable garden, here’s an article with 7 Vegetable Garden Layout 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-books: Small-Space Food-Gardening Hacks and Growing Figs in Cold Climates.
-->And say hi—we love to hear what you think!