We get to meet a gardening pioneer when Greg talks to Colin Austin who is known world-wide as the man who engineered a simple but highly popular garden bed called a wicking bed. Greg learns why Colin was motivated to create the beds and how the wicking process works. Then they go further to talk about why healthy food is so important to him and his family.
Acquiring a love of gardening transformed Megan into a fully focused farmer and she tells Greg how she went from being an naïve urbanite with no plant growing experience to a gardening educator and resource to kids and adults alike.
Canning food is a favorite topic of Greg’s so of course he was excited to talk to Master Food Preserver Allison about her experiences and get some tips from her as well. As a bonus, they also chatted about her ‘too big’ garden and how this homestead is so rewarding for her family.
My “farm” consists of 170 square feet of raised beds. We designed the space to have beds arranged in a U-shape with a center raised bed and walkways that make it easy to access all corners of the garden without stepping inside a bed. I affectionately call our garden Honey Hill Farm because my husband and I live at the top of a hill and Honey our beloved dog oversees all activity in and out of the garden.
Greg chats with Nancy, an urban farmer from Southern California who explains how she is maximizing the potential of her very small garden. She has faced off critters of various sizes with some ingenious tricks and she is using soil amendments to make her soil healthy and her plants happy and productive.
Greg gets a chance to talk to Perrine, a delightful French organic farmer and permaculture enthusiast and hear how she transformed her life by ditching her career as a lawyer to start a self-sufficient, organic farm without any gasoline driven engines at all. Now, she and her husband are examples to others on how to successfully farm the old-fashioned way.
By Anne-Marie Miller. I love having chickens and raising rabbits. In the beautiful weather of spring and fall we turn off the TV and tune into the chicken channel. There is something so relaxing about sitting, sipping a glass of wine with chickens scratching and pecking around you making their little chicken noises.
Greg is impressed when he gets a chance to talk with Grace who tells about being part of the early organic food movement and her part in writing the first standards for organic food regulation. Her story is important for anyone who is interested in being active in writing food policy for our legislators.
By Anne-Marie Miller. About twice a year I make a trip to my favorite horse barn to pick up a load of well-composted horse manure for my garden. When I say “pick up” that makes it sound so easy.
Greg talks to a former lawyer Robin Kelson who now runs The Good Seed Company. She shares her story about the unexpected transition in her life leading her to her work around seeds. One of the big events in her new life is an epic community event focused on seed saving and sharing. She also explains why the company is using seeds from backyard growers.
