Hello friends. Happy New Year. I have good news! With the start of the new year comes the launch of Small-Space Vegetable Gardens: Growing Great Edibles in Containers, Raised Beds, and Small Plots. That’s right: a new book! Well, sort of. Let me explain. Small-Space Vegetable Gardens is designed to give you all the information–and […]
Veggies & Edibles
In anticipation of summer
There’s a rule among gardeners that no matter when someone visits your garden, it always looked better the week before. The week before, the roses were in full bloom. The week before, the mustard greens weren’t riddled with flea beetle buckshot. The week before, the weeds hadn’t yet surpassed the growth of your plants. Maybe […]
Nurturing Neighbourhoods: It’s as Simple as Sharing
Mie Ma is my new neighbour. Last summer, my family and I left our home of nearly seven years. Even though we moved only two blocks away, it was a big move. We left a tight-knit group of neighbours that had, over the years, become close friends. Although I was excited about our new home, […]
The latest from Edible Vancouver: Making Friends with Favas
The latest Edible Vancouver is out, and with it, “Making Friends with Favas,” my article on growing and enjoying fava beans. Favas (aka broad beans) are one of the few things you can actually sow in November. Plant ’em now for a spring harvest.
Harvesting and cooking with garlic scapes
Does your garlic look like this? Like it’s decided to shed its trustworthy girl-next-door image in favour of something a little more loose and blowzy? Don’t worry: it’s cool. Just means it’s garlic scape time. If you planted a hardneck variety of garlic last fall, you’ll see a looping central stalk emerging right about now. […]
It’s a Snap: Bean-growing Basics
Beans are one of summer’s simple pleasures, on par with picnics and outdoor pools, bare feet and blackberries. While a farmer’s market loot bag of tender, local string beans is an undeniable delight, fresh-picked, homegrown beans can elevate a basic weeknight supper to a thing of beauty. And growing your own? Easier than you’d think. […]
Salad Days: How to Sow, Grow, and Harvest Your Best Crop of Lettuce Yet
It can be hard to get excited about a salad. Especially in winter, when laziness prevails and a “salad” consists of a handful of mixed organic greens narrowly rescued from slow suffocation inside a plastic box. It’s okay. Even though we can grow lettuce all winter long doesn’t mean we must. After all, it was […]
How to grow leeks and make potato leek soup
Every month, Heavy Petal collaborates with Willowtree — a website for those with food sensitivities who want to find their culinary bliss — to bring you a celebration of an in-season edible. I’ll tell you how to grow it; they’ll tell you how to eat it. Yay! Although spring feels like it’s just around the […]