Helping Gardeners Grow: The Podcast

Guest: John Mills, Eagle Creek Farm Big Idea: From the Farm to the Home garden: Ideas Shared Topic Today:  John Mills is well known for his organic potatoes in Canada and he sells them across the country including Prince Edward Island! Listen in to Episode 18, season 1 to hear all about John's potatoes. Today […]

Guest: Susan Betz, Author of Herbal Houseplants Big Idea: You Can Grow Herbs as Houseplants Topic Today:  “ Plant an Herb and grow a friend,” says author and expert herbalist Susan Betz in this interview about herbs and her new book Herbal Houseplants.   “… And when you look at different cultures, they might take […]

Guest: Siri van Gruen, Farm Folk, City Folk Big Idea: Participate in seed trials and help food security! Topic Today:  “The Citizen Seed Trial is a public science program that helps to engage gardeners and growers in the process of variety trials, seed saving, and seed breeding,” says Siri van Gruen as we discuss the […]

Guest: Allison and Philip Bowers, Autumn Leaves Maple Farm Big Idea: Maple Trees Listed as a “Farm Crop” Topic Today:  Using existing maples to gain farm status from a wet piece of land For more info: (250) 228-1801 Email: autumnleavesmaplefarm@gmail.com Information about classifying land for farm status in British Columbia: https://www.taxtips.ca/documents/Farm-Classification-in-BC-2016.pdf Equipment supplier: Dominion and […]

Guest: Dana Trueman Big Idea: Gardening for a Crowd using French Intensive Methods Topic Today:  Big Scale Food Production at Hollyhock Retreat Centre on Cortes Island From an invitation to “start work tomorrow”, Dana Trueman became a gardener at the Hollyhock Retreat Centre on Cortes Island over twenty years ago. His job is to beautify […]

Guest: Jim Capellini – owner/manager, Rasa Creek Farm Big Idea: Grow Garlic for yourself or for market Topic Today:  Like all home-grown food, the flavour of fresh garlic is so much better than store bought. “There's education that’s needed and mostly it’s palate education,” says farmer Jim Cappelini. “Once people experience the [taste] difference, they […]

Guest: Linda Gilkeson Big Idea: Mid-summer Garden Tips: Don't let your pollinators starve to death, mulch, shade and start new seed. Topic Today:  “The proportion of insect species that are pests is minute. It’s like less than a 10th of 1% of species in the world. And, you know, the birds that eat insects in […]

Guest: Cameron Ezzy, Slugsnbugs Canada Big Idea: Ducks Eat Slugs Topic Today:  In part 1 of livestock in the Home Garden we looked at renting chickens. Believe me, there is a huge benefit to having livestock in your home garden, but what if you can't maintain it full-time or if your city or town doesn't […]

Guest: Carolyn Sweet + daughters Bronwyn & Marion Big Idea: When Your City Doesn't allow chickens, Borrow Them Topic Today:  There is a huge benefit to having livestock in your home garden, but what if you can't maintain it full-time or if your city or town doesn't allow it? Home Garden Livestock part one looks […]

Guest: Jessica Walliser, Savvy Gardening Big Idea: Combining Plants to boost success in your vegetable garden Topic Today:  “The biggest target goal that anybody can do [to boost garden success] is to increase the biodiversity in your vegetable garden. I want everybody to stop planting everything in straight long rows, which are basically runways for […]

Guest: Chelsie Anderson, Chelsie's Garden SOIL-utions Big Idea: Maintain Your Garden Naturally Topic Today:  helsie Anderson has been gardening for clients and for herself for almost twenty years and during that time she has spent a lot of time in nature and considers herself a natural gardener. Before she tackles something in the garden she […]

Guest: Kyle Exner, BC Greenhouse Builders Big Idea: Build the best greenhouse for you, forever. Topic Today:  Kyle Exner is the General Manager at BC Greenhouse Builders in British Columbia, Canada. Kyle has ideas to build a forever greenhouse and he shares his 23 years of experience with us on this podcast. Wondering what to […]

Guest: Rodney Bradshaw, BECK Farms Big Idea: Grow better varieties in better soil to get better carrots. Topic Today:  Rod was a classmate of mine at the University of Alberta and when he graduated he went back to his family farm. Always looking for new challenges and pursuing new ideas, he leased his father’s land […]

Guest: Karen Olivier, Independant Tomato Breeder Big Idea: Are you a tomato enthusiast? Imagine breeding and selecting your own varieties! Topic Today:  Karen Olivier is a nurse by day and a tomato breeder in every other moment. She was told she couldn’t grow a good tasting tomato in her northern garden near Edmonton, Alberta so […]

Guest: Sal Dominelli, Sweet Rock Farms Big Idea: Saving Your own seeds makes you part of the solution for worldwide food security. Topic Today:  “It took a pandemic for us to realize that things are not going to continue on the way they were and that we need to be more self-reliant. So, as a […]

Guest: Dan Rollingson, Earthly Matters Big Idea: Raise your own worm fertilizer: 15 years of experience. Topic Today:  “Keeping it simple is kind of the key and worm castings is one of the best ways to grow simply.” Dan purchased a simple “system” for raising worms but when most of the worms died he knew […]

Guest: Rose Naomi O’Brey Big Idea: From a work injury to a magazine article about garden therapy, Rose Naomi has been healed by, trains in and actively practices garden therapy. Believing it is good for everyone, Rose Naomi shares ideas and positive themes, music and stories. Everyone benefits from a little bit of therapy – […]

Guest: Cindy Lou Oulton of Annapolis Valley Luffa Big Idea: From the Alberta oil patch to growing environmental washcloths, Cindy is an entrepreneur and Luffa grower. Topic Today:  True confessions. I failed to grow Luffa in my garden on the west coast so when I heard Cindy is growing luffa, a natural sponge plant that […]

Guest: Dustin Morten Big Idea: From Seed Sales to Farmer. More than one way to grow a small farm. Topic Today:  “Weeds, again, are an issue in onions and garlic, and if you don’t get ahead of them, you get way behind, very fast.” Dustin’s grandparents moved into his great grandparent’s home on the family […]

Guest: Steven Biggs Big Idea: Grow lemons in Canada with or without a greenhouse Topic Today:  Steven Biggs is my co-author for the Canadian bestselling book “No Guff Vegetable Gardening.” He is also an award-winning garden writer, father, husband and keen gardener. This is Steven’s second visit to my podcast and in this episode he […]

Guest: Ron Berezan, The Urban Farmer Big Idea: How Cuba’s drastic food reform system will help us grow. Topic Today:  In today’s podcast Ron says “The more the pandemic endures, the more I keep thinking back to Cuba, because, here we are. Many of us have begun to see some of the fragilities in our […]

Guest: John Mills, Eagle Creek Farms Big Idea: “Get your kids growing with you….” says Alberta’s John Mills, a 4th generation farmer but the first in his family to grow potatoes organically. “I didn’t start off pursuing organic vegetable production or transitioning the farm to organic production. It was just a slow evolution of realizing […]

Guest: Dr. Christopher Trobacher Big Idea: Big Idea: “Fertilizer is food. So you expect that that’s going to be the main thing, driving plant growth, but you add a little bit of kelp and it seems like the plant’s able to use it’s food and combat the stresses in its environment a lot better than […]

Guest: Dr. Ken Fry Big Idea: Big Idea: “I guess the word of the day would be biodiversity and that is having an abundance of different kinds of plants: different colours, different times of flowering, different sizes and statures, different fragrances. And that way you have all the different kinds of resources that are necessary […]

Guest: Steve Solomon Big Idea: Big Idea: Our Human Health depends on the health of the soil we grow our food in. Mineralize soil and grow the best possible food for health and happiness.   “I have often thought that our farming system is basically a system of mining. And what we have removed from […]

Guest: Ben Patarin Big Idea: Forage the best wild food while respecting nature “I could easily survive with just what I get from the forest, you know, if I had too” says Ben, who has collected or foraged since he was 2 because in France, “that’s the hobby you have with your family!” “So one […]

Guest: Rob Lavoie Big Idea: Biochar Builds Better Soils and Improves Food Security I boosted the quality of my garden soil with Soil Matrix biochar. Why is my soil better now than before? My garden grows on sandy soil so there is no way for minerals to be held in place. Before biochar, plants started […]

Guest: Steven Biggs Big Idea: Want to find out how to take cuttings, grow, prune, fertilize and overwinter figs? Tune in now. “I just like to say to people, [Figs are] such a fun plant to grow, so do give it a try and do just keep in mind that you want to find a […]

Guest: Khaled Majouji, Ingenius Farms Big Idea: “Give access to quality food at an accessible price to everyone” says Khaled, better known as The Plant Charmer among his 86,000 fans on Instagram and YouTube. Posting interesting tidbits about how to grow food in rain gutters on his urban farm in LaVal, Quebec is an ongoing […]

Guest: Donna Balzer, www.donnabalzer.com Big Idea: “It’s so clear everyone has become re-engaged in growing food during this pandemic, hence the run on seeds at the stores,” said Dinah via email. She went on to ask her many questions and suggest that Donna tape a special podcast on this subject. Well here it is! Donna […]

Guest: Dean Kreutzer, Over the Hill Orchards Big Idea: Dean trained as a computer programmer so he was pretty desk-bound before he turned 33 and started his active new career as an organic farmer. Now he is a plant breeder and zone denier on his cold-climate farm near Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada. He grows fruit […]

Guest: Donna Balzer Big Idea: Donna has two greenhouses so in this episode Robyn interviews her about her greenhouses, how she uses them to grow more food and disasters she has experienced while growing. Start the process of getting your own garden growing under cover by listening in to this greenhouse growing primer. We cover […]

Guest: Craig LeHoullier Big Idea: Craig trained as a chemist so when he was laid off it made sense to keep using his scientific mind. And because this is not an episode of Breaking Bad, Craig turned to tomatoes. He has been actively involved in the Dwarf Tomato project for 15 years, is devoted to […]

Guests: Al Grant & Gayle Berry Big Idea: Gayle and Al retired three times between them and were newlyweds in 2015 when they saw a farm with a greenhouse for sale near Qualicum Beach, B.C. They wanted to do something worthwhile with their time together so they bought the farm. Because they have already retired […]

In this episode of Helping Gardeners Grow our producer Robyn Buchanan interviews Donna Balzer so we can learn more about our host and find out why she gardens and how she does it. Donna has a degree in Agriculture plus over thirty years of gardening and media experience including years of radio and television. Donna […]

Cliff started raising food in his largely gravel and cobble garden loosely framed in by boards and sawdust. The first thing he did was remove the boards and haul out all the pill-bug infested sawdust. Then, inspired by Eliot Coleman, he started improving his soil and creating rows in the garden. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/145101.The_New_Organic_Grower . Cliff believes […]

Citrus Growing. As a Horticulturist and grower for 40 years in Alberta and British Columbia, Jane knows how to grow “Living Lettuce” and “Living Basil” perfectly. But as she approaches 60 she realizes she wants to retire from the hourly demands of hydroponics so she sells off her equipment, rebuilds the soil and plants citrus […]

As a renter, every time Dan moves, he leaves behind the vegetable garden and all the infrastructure he has built. This time Dan does things differently. He installs a very mobile, vertical, hydroponic system for growing greens in his garage. And bonus! The lights and “farm” relieve his winter angst and brighten his moods. Gardening […]

The most expensive spice in the world is saffron. Melinda and Simon decide to grow it because they are just starting to farm and are already in their 50’s. They need something simple, seasonal and high value. And then there are the fires, the gophers and the discovery that the blooms have to be picked before the sun comes up. With over 200,000 plants and 18-20 blooms per plant that is a lot of midnight picking over a six-week season. Hear Melinda’s story and learn how to grow, harvest, store and cook the world’s most valuable spice this year. Guest: Melinda Price https://peaceplentyfarm.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peaceandplentyfarmer/ Note: Melinda Price sells saffron, crocus bulbs (called corms) and ideas. But she suggests if you are listening in Canada you buy corms from her friend Micheline Sylvestre, a Saffron Grower in Quebec. Micheline sells bulbs to Canadians: http://www.emporium-safran.com/en/