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

We speak with Colorado gardener and backyard plant breeder Andrew Barney about his work developing a red-podded pea, cold-adapted watermelons, and new tomatoes.
Barney connects with other plant breeders through seed swaps, social media group...

Show Notes

🍋 Lemon Camp: September 17 and 24
Grow a healthy, productive lemon tree in a pot. In these two live online sessions, Steven Biggs covers watering, feeding, pruning, repotting, pests, flowers and fruit—and how to get a lemon tree through the winter.
Recordings are included, so you can watch afterwards if you can’t attend live.
Learn more and register for Lemon Camp
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We speak with Colorado gardener and backyard plant breeder Andrew Barney about his work developing a red-podded pea, cold-adapted watermelons, and new tomatoes.

Barney connects with other plant breeders through seed swaps, social media groups, and online forums. He says many people who are interested in plant breeding and preserving plant varieties are happy to share plant genetics.

While some approaches to breeding require more effort on the part of the gardener, others, such as the landrace-style breeding he's using for his watermelons, take less work to manage.

His advice to would-be backyard plant breeders is, "Just try it!"

What is Food Garden Life Show: 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.

Host Steven Biggs was recognized by Garden Making magazine as one of the “green gang” making a difference in Canadian horticulture. His home-garden experiments span driveway straw-bale gardens, a rooftop kitchen garden, fruit plantings, and an edible-themed front yard. He's a horticulturist, award-winning broadcaster and author, and former horticulture instructor with George Brown and Durham Colleges in Ontario, Canada.

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