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

Think your climate is too cold to grow tender fruit?

Find out how this grower harvests peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and more…despite winter temperatures that can dip to -38°C (-36°F) and a short summer.

In this episode, Donna and Steven chat with Saskatchewan fruit grower Dean Kreutzer.  

We talk about:
  • Fruit adapted to cold climates
  • Using unheated greenhouses to grow tender fruit, grapes…and figs
  • Heat sinks and insulated tarps
  • Capturing heat from the ground—without an elaborate geothermal heating system

Kreutzer and his wife run Over the Hill Orchards in Saskatchewan.

If you’re looking for more on cold-hardy fruit, check out this post on Saskatoon Berries. 

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What is Food Garden Life: Helping You Harvest More from Your Edible Garden, Vegetable Garden, and Edible Landscaping?

Want to grow your own food but need creative ideas so you can get the most from your space and your growing zone? Our passion is the edible garden.

We help people grow food on balconies, in backyards, and beyond—whether it’s edible landscaping, a vegetable garden, container gardens, or a home orchard.

There are many ways to approach edible landscaping. Find out how to harvest enough fruit, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers. Get top tips for exotic crops. And learn how to garden in a way that suits any situation.

Since they collaborated to write their 2011 book No Guff Vegetable Gardening, hosts Donna Balzer and Steven Biggs have put a practical and fun spin on food gardening and edible landscaping. Donna is a horticulturist, educator, former CBC Radio host, and award-winning TV host. Her passion is growing and cooking food. Steven was recognized by Garden Making magazine as one of the “green gang” making a difference in horticulture. His home-garden experiments span driveway straw-bale gardens, a rooftop kitchen garden, fruit plantings, and an edible-themed front yard.

Get started with one of our fan favourites. Season 6, Episode 10: Big Harvests from a Small Space with a Vertical Vegetable Garden.