Growing Figs in Cold Climates: 150 of Your Questions Answered

$22.95

This book will help you apply creative “fig thinking” in your garden and harvest fresh figs even if you have a short summer or cold winters. With some fig thinking, you can harvest figs in areas where they don’t normally survive the winter! In this book, I share many of the questions I have been asked about growing figs in temperate climates, along with my responses.

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Foreword by Niki Jabbour

Cold-climate and food gardening expert Niki Jabbour

Growing food is my passion and I’ve spent the past thirty years growing a wide assortment of global and unusual edibles in my Nova Scotia garden. Yet for most of those years, it never occurred to me to try and grow figs. In fact, I didn’t know anyone who was growing figs in cold climates. And then I met Steven Biggs. At this time I was working on a book that featured edible garden designs and he was kind enough to create a ‘fig pig patio’ garden for the book. That was the moment when I realized that if Steven, living in Toronto, was able to grow figs maybe I could too?

Soon, his wonderful book, Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t was released and that was the motivation I needed. Within a few days I bought my first two little fig trees. I’ll admit to being intimidated at the thought of caring for unfamiliar fig trees. (Could I keep them alive? Would I ever harvest fruits?) But Steven’s easy-going encouragement and detailed growing information inspired me and I soon learned that growing figs was similar to growing houseplants.

While the gardener in me was curious to see whether I could succeed with figs in Canada, I had another reason to grow these plants. My husband was born in Lebanon, a country where fig trees are planted in every yard. His family was especially excited about our trees and they became - and still are! - a topic of daily conversation. “How are the fig trees today? Are you watering them enough? Have you fertilized them? Should we get a few more?” I realized that for my in-laws, our little fig trees weren’t just plants on our patio, but were a connection to their homeland.

And when the first harvest came in, it was a family affair with everyone gathering around the table to sample our homegrown figs. The following spring my fourteen year old niece asked me for a fig tree for her birthday and the next generation of fig lovers was born!

Over the years, I’ve pestered Steven many times about my fig trees, as well as those now growing on the decks of my extended family. He’s always so patient and welcomes each question as an opportunity to both teach and learn. With this latest fig book, I now realize that the questions I’ve asked Steven have also been asked by many other fig lovers across Canada and beyond.

The arrival of Growing Figs in Cold Climates couldn’t be more timely as I have finally built a new polytunnel and am weighing whether or not to try and overwinter our figs in that structure. Maybe I can even plant directly in the earth and insulate them for the winter? I have so many questions and I know I’ll find plenty of answers, suggestions, and inspiration in the following pages.

Confessions of a Hungry Fig Pig…

I’ve had lots of fun and lots of success growing figs in cold climates. And in the process, lots of people have asked me how to grow figs in cold climates. This book includes my answers to all of these questions.

One day when I was at a gardening event to give a talk, I brought along a fig tree for a draw. In my presentation that day, I mentioned figs … and a disproportionate number of the questions afterwards were about figs. To my surprise, people were fascinated by the tree. The winner of the tree had people offering to buy it. So I decided to make a talk all about growing figs in temperate climates. That talk grew into a book … and here we are almost 9 years later.

To date I’ve given a couple dozen talks about growing figs. One was called “Confessions of a Hungry Fig Pig.”

Then the unthinkable happened: My indie book on a quirky subject won an award. Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t, my little book that could, won a Silver Award from the Garden Writers Association.

So why another book on figs?

Ever since I wrote Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t, I’ve received a constant stream of e-mails from fellow fig lovers telling me how they grow figs, sharing photos, asking questions, or saying how my book helped them.

I’ve heard from aspiring fig growers in other cold-climate fig areas including Pennsylvania, Alberta, Denmark, Norway, Lithuania, Quebec City, Vermont, and Germany. Even Malaysia!

I answered a few in French, and even replied to one in Portuguese using Google Translate!

I’ve made a bunch of fig friends, too. Danne grows figs in Sweden. Bernie grows figs in Edmonton. Maurice grows figs on a condo balcony in Quebec City. Daniel grows figs in South Carolina. It’s my fig tribe.

“Love your books and all of the practical advice that goes against “what we were told.” From your books, my two Fig trees (in their third season now) bore 70 figs this year and I’m still picking them as they continue to ripen. Thank you!”

— Grant, growing figs in Ontario

“So I am now blaming my fig obsession on you as I now have 7 fig trees with 8 more on the way!”

— Edy, growing figs in Ontario

Here’s How This Book Started

When I was cleaning out my e-mail one day, I thought, I really should tidy up my fig folder. I had 8 years’ worth of fig questions, and I hadn’t deleted a single one. I started scrolling through them, but in the end couldn’t bear to delete any of them.

Looking back at all of the questions, I remembered my childhood teachers urging me to ask questions, explaining that there were no “dumb questions.” That if I had questions, lots of other kids in the class likely did, too. As I looked at all of the fig-related e-mails, it occurred to me that the questions, along with my replies, could be a useful tool for fig gardeners.

In this book I share those questions and my responses.

I’m honoured and delighted to share all of these great questions and some of my pointers to aspiring cold-climate fig growers.