In This Issue

Grow Olives, Grow Fruit in Cold Climates, Farming for Social Change, Lebanese Mountain Tomato, Figs in New Jersey

WELCOME TO THE AUGUST EDITION, with tips to help you grow more of what you want to eat in your garden. My suggestions come from 40+ years of gardening, a decade as a horticultural educator, and a dozen years writing articles and books on how to grow fun, delicious, and exotic specialty crops. Thank you for your interest in what I do.

 

Rain. Finally!

It’s been hot and dry around here. Lettuce? Bolted. Spinach? Bolted. Arugula? Bolted. And some of the pepper plants in my straw-bale garden got pretty thirsty and lost a few leaves when I fell behind on watering.

But my figs love it. And tomatoes are looking great!

Like life, each year in the garden comes with its own challenges. I’m already making mental notes for next year:

  • Less bolting? Remember to set aside a shadier spot for summer greens.

  • Watering straw bales? Don’t put them at the back of my yard where I forget to water them!

Today’s roadblock is my lesson for next year.

The olives are coming along nicely.

I’ve had potted olive trees for a long time. They’re easy to keep because they tolerate a wide variety of conditions over the winter: I’ve stowed them in my garage, my insulated potting shed—and they’ve even spent the odd winter in my kitchen. Although they survive nicely, I haven’t’ been harvesting olives.

That’s been OK with me, because I love the way the silvery leaves shimmer.

Last fall I had my first harvest: a whole half dozen olives… This year, the trees are laden with fruit.

I COULD HAVE HAD olives years ago if I had given them suitable winter conditions: You’re more likely to induce flowering when you give your olive trees cold AND bright conditions over the winter. Now that I have a small greenhouse that I keep just above freezing in the winter, they get that cold + bright combination.
 

NEW ON THE FOOD GARDEN LIFE SHOW

THANK YOU to Brian, who messaged me on Facebook to say, “My daughters and I love your podcast and Emma’s book. The amount of people both of you inspire to take up gardening is very impressive. Keep up the good work!”
 

Practical Ways to Grow Fruit in Cold Climates

“The single-trunk system is fine for old illusions in Europe…Those things are antiquated; we don’t drive horse buggies any more—we drive cars.”

CLICK HERE to hear Dr. Ieuan Evans from Alberta share tactics to successfully grow fruit in cold climates.
 

Save on Online Learning

If you missed the early-bird pricing for the online Mother Earth News Fair, here is a special offer for you: Save 50%.

Check it out, because there are over 50 workshop videos and 8 courses.

FIND OUT HOW TO SAVE 50%
 

BIGGS ON FIGS
 
 

KIDS GARDENING
 

Lebanese Mountain Tomato: a favourite variety we save seeds from every year

By Emma Biggs

A Whopper

Lebanese Mountain is a big, meaty tomato. Actually, it’s more like huge and meaty! One year I grew one that was almost 3 pounds! I think it would have made the three-pound mark if the squirrels hadn’t taken a bite out of it!

And though I haven’t grown one that big since, it’s still the biggest tomato variety that I grow.

In the Kitchen

I grow Lebanese Mountain for more than its size. It has a pink-red flesh and thin skin, and the flavour is amazing!

Its huge size, meaty texture, and great flavour make it perfect for fresh eating, especially sliced, in a sandwich.

Growing It

This tomato is an “indeterminate” vining plant, so if you have a limited amount of growing space like me, I recommend pruning it and growing it in a cage, up twine or a trellis or stake. The main thing is that it’s a big plant.

Save Tomatoes and their Stories

When Dad worked near Montreal, he had a favourite customer, George, who always brought in traditional Lebanese foods like baklava, green almonds, and the Lebanese cucumbers that he grew in his greenhouse. One day …

 
 

COMING SOON!

From my new book, Growing Figs in Cold Climates:

“Winter gets its own chapter in this book because it’s the season that poses the biggest challenge for fig growers in cold climates. But it doesn’t have to. Let the challenge fuel your creativity. Dreaming up ways to make winter less severe on your fig plant can be fun as well as help its chances of survival.”

AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER: Growing Figs in Cold Climates: 150 of Your Questions Answered

PREORDER NOW TO FOR A SPECIAL PRICE ON SHIPPING.

This book will help you apply creative “fig thinking” in your garden and harvest fresh figs even if you have a short summer or cold winters. With some fig thinking, you can harvest figs in areas where they don’t normally survive the winter! In this book, I share many of the questions I have been asked about growing figs in temperate climates, along with my responses.

Find out more
 

StevenBiggs.ca