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Expert Advice for Growing Produce from Your Patch

June 29, 2019

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Thinking about embracing your inner back-to-the-lander? Want to join the local food movement – in your own backyard?

Celebrity gardener Carson Arthur has a new book called Vegetables, Chickens and Bees: An Honest Guide to Growing Your Own Food Anywhere that will show you how.

Arthur grew up on an apple farm and is a landscape designer by trade, but more recently he’s become a gardening guru with roles on HGTV Canada’s Home to Win and Cityline. His shows have also appeared on networks such as ION, Global, Discovery and Hallmark.

Arthur is as down-to-earth as the dirt he tills, candidly discussing his #gardenfails as much as his #gardenwins.

You might not become ambitious enough to embrace the chickens and bees he discusses in the final chapters, but this book will turn into your bible for all things vegetable. Arthur starts with the basics such as sunlight and shade, understanding your space and its soil, tools and watering and those all-important seeds.

He’s also got great solutions for pests and weeds, and super suggestions for compost ingredients. Gorgeous photography accompanies his advice, told in his easy, breezy, humourous style.

Arthur devotes a large section to specific vegetables including his top ten spices, with tips on what to plant together for mutual success. His DIY pop-outs will have you happily building your own garden projects, such as a vertical potato planter, and his section on preserving (storing fresh, canning, dehydrating and freezing) will have you enjoying the veggies of your labour all winter. Before you dig – buy this book!