productive fall and winter vegetable gardens, with niki jabbour

I’M A BELIEVER in succession sowings, and regularly spread the message of fall harvests and other vegetable-garden second chances. But Niki Jabbour…well, she puts me to shame, with not just multiple summer sowings and then September or October salads and kale and peas to pick, but a list of 30ish cold-season crops she can harvest after that, from November through March–even in her Nova Scotia backyard (roughly equivalent to USDA Zone 6).

I guess that’s why she titled her 2011 book, “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener: How to Grow Your Own Food 365 Days a Year No Matter Where You Live.”

Niki’s vegetable garden in Halifax just got a facelift to become even more productive. She is one of the contributors to the blog Savvy Gardening and creator of the award-winning radio program, The Weekend Gardener, that’s heard throughout Eastern Canada. And we spoke just in time for all of us us to order the seeds and learn the tactics we’ll need to grow our own offseason gardens, too.

Read along as you listen to the Aug. 8, 2016 edition of my public-radio show and podcast using the player below. Learn the top crops to stretch into winter, and the gear you’ll need (much of it simple DIY solutions, in fact).

You can subscribe to all future editions on iTunes or Stitcher (and browse my archive of podcasts here).

my 365-day vegetable-garden q&a with niki jabbour

Q. I’m feeling as if this is a really good year for talking “offseason” edible gardens, because many of us are experiencing—as the world is experiencing—unfamiliar or harsh conditions in the usual “growing season.” I’ve been extra-hot, extra-dry, and sometimes I just couldn’t coax certain second sowings to germinate and thrive. So maybe the cooler part of the year is an opportunity? Are

Winter Gardens how-to vegetables garden design radio podcasts edible plants garden prep from seed Canada