A charming crown of flowers featuring the golden blooms of Jerusalem artichokes, a staple for Indigenous peoples and a resilient survival food, weaves beautifully with the fiery scarlet hues of Virginia creeper as it turns red. Accented by prolific ground cherries, known for their abundant growth and sweet-tart taste, this crown is both visually striking and a tribute to the richness of the earth's harvest.
Backyard heroes: Inspiring home gardeners to grow their own food
Meet Garth Wunsch! The happy, healthy gardener at age 80.
Garth’s favourite gardening tool — the broadfork. Perfect for a low/no-till gardening approach, it loosens the soil without disturbing its natural layers. Here, he sits down with Monika Rekola to discuss some of his favourite subjects:
Monika: Hi Garth, thanks for chatting about your gardening journey. How long have you been gardening, and how big is your vegetable garden? Do you try new things each season?
Garth: I began gardening at the age of 10, and I’ve been hooked ever since — that was seventy years ago! My Dad gave me a little patch to tend, and it became my playground for learning and discovery.
My garden is about 1200 square feet, including a 10 foot by 16 foot season extension greenhouse (I have another greenhouse which is heated and I can grow all winter), which I built using a salvaged ShelterLogic portable garage frame. I call it my Tomato House. I fastened concrete reinforcing mesh to the inside of the frame roof and I tie strings from the mesh down to the base of the young tomato plants.
As they grow, I simply twist the plants around the strings for support. This small greenhouse produces all the tomatoes, peppers, and celery we need for the year.
I’m not a great experimenter in plant varieties as that takes a lot of space. I’m a food gardener first and any “experimenting” I do is mostly with soil re-mineralization amendments and processes, like compost teas and extracts to build healthy soil that will grow nutrient dense food.
'Tomato House': A 10-ft. by 16-ft. greenhouse made from a repurposed Shelterlogic garage frame for season extension.
Monika: It sounds like you’ve got a great setup. What are some of your favourite vegetables to grow? Are there any varieties that have become staples in your garden over the years?
Garth: One of my go-to staples is Nicola potatoes — they have a low glycemic index, which makes them a great option for diabetics. Next year, I’ll be returning to Kennebec spuds because they’re so productive, store well and are very nutritious. I love growing pickling cucumbers, which happily climb up a concrete reinforcing mesh. They make excellent fermented dill pickles which I store for winter. Romano pole beans are also a staple.
Beyond that, my garden is filled with essentials like carrots, onions, beets and winter storage squash, which are perfect for stocking up through the colder months. Of course, there are also plenty of tomato and pepper varieties — they’re the heart of my greenhouse setup.
To keep things interesting, I’ve got raspberries and rhubarb for a splash of tartness, and in summer, nothing beats corn and even more squash and beans.
Poblano, jalapeno and Hungarian hot wax ... One batch of cowboy candy coming up on Monday. The shine on the fruit is due to the health of the plant. It's an expression of the natural oils in a healthy plant.
Italian round paste tomato and localized Romano heirloom pole beans. | Monika Rekola photos
Monika: Every gardener faces challenges. What obstacles have you encountered, and how have you adapted? Pests can be tough to manage — what kinds do you deal with, and how do you keep them under control?
Garth: Overhead watering can cause tomato diseases, especially when the leaves stay wet, so I built a greenhouse to solve that. I grow most of my tomatoes from saved seeds, but they aren’t very disease-resistant. The greenhouse keeps them dry and healthy.
Slugs and cutworms are my main pests. Slugs devour seedlings, so I use transplants for most crops. For crops like carrots, I limit mulch use to prevent slugs from finding winter shelter. To control both slugs and cutworms, I use a 10-per-cent ammonia solution — it’s strong nitrogen, kills them on contact and doesn’t harm the plants. Just remember to rinse it off after 15 minutes if used for several days in a row.
Monika: Compost is another critical element in many successful gardens. How do you approach composting in your garden? Any tips for creating nutrient-rich compost?
Garth: Think about making smaller amounts of very high-quality compost then using it to create excellent compost teas and extracts. It gets the biology into the soil, and the biology will look after building the humus and creating/improving soil structure. Compost nutrient profile varies very little whether it is made from manure or local waste vegetation. If you can’t make compost, then I suggest worm castings. Pure Life castings are produced in Toronto and are readily available.
You can also make compost tea and apply it to your plants early in the season. This is a 24- to 36-hour brew, but well worth the effort to learn how to do it properly. The beneficial bacteria and fungi multiply and out-compete harmful fungal spores. When I sprayed my roses with it last year, they stayed completely free of blight and pests. This year, I didn’t get around to making the tea, and now there’s blight on the plants. It feels like the older I get, the busier I become — though maybe it’s just that everything takes more time because of less energy.
Monika: Biochar is becoming a popular soil amendment for many gardeners. I know that you are a believer and have seen the results. Can you expand on how it affects your soil quality and plant growth?
Garth: Oh biochar … AKA the permanent compost. It is being tested to death. Some reports are great, others the jury is still out.
Biochar is excellent for long-term carbon sequestration, I make my charcoal in a wood burner in my workshop, using no extra fuel while heating both my greenhouse and shop. The gases are captured and burned, producing clean exhaust and extra heat. Though the process is slow, by winter’s end, I have hundreds of litres of charcoal, ready to turn into biochar in spring.
I source wood scraps from a woman in Wanup who makes paddles for Swift Canoe and Kayak, along with dry branches, nut shells, egg shells and bones from broth. Based on my testing, biochar should make up just five to eight per cent of soil, acting as a storehouse for both minerals and water.
Monika: What are the biggest threats to global food security, and how do they impact farmers and home growers?
Garth: When it comes to global food security, we are facing some serious dangers. Mega-corporations are pushing toward creating a seed monopoly. This has led to a dramatic increase in farmers’ input costs, which has directly contributed to a global rise in farmer suicides. India is a particularly tragic example of this.
Closer to home, I had a farmer cousin in Alberta who took his own life because he just couldn’t make ends meet. Big Agriculture played a major role in his death, though they will never admit to that. Their goal seems to be putting small, family-run farms out of business entirely.
Food security depends on supporting local farmers and learning to grow as much of our own food as we can. This isn’t just about preserving traditional skills or hobbies; it’s about survival and maintaining our health. If we let corporations control all our food, we risk losing the ability to provide for ourselves and future generations. Supporting local, sustainable agriculture is one of the most important things we can do to safeguard food security and, ultimately, our well-being.
Graphic illustration designed in Canva.
Monika: It’s been fantastic hearing about your gardening techniques and experiences, Garth. Before we wrap up, do you have any advice for new gardeners looking to create a thriving vegetable garden?
Garth: Absolutely! My biggest advice for new gardeners is to start small and focus on building healthy soil — everything else will follow. One often overlooked aspect is soil health, especially the need to remineralize. Industrial farming, especially post-WWI, depleted our soils' natural nutrients by diverting nitrate-based explosives to boost crop production, which ultimately kills soil biology.
By remineralizing — adding essential minerals — we can restore soil to pre-WWI nutrient levels, improving crop yield and boosting our health. Nutrient-dense food reduces the risk of chronic diseases and this process of remineralizing your soil is well documented in Steve Solomon’s excellent book The Intelligent Gardener.
Healthy soil is alive! It's rich in organic matter, full of nutrients and supports strong plant growth by holding moisture while draining well.
This is a truss of Sweet Million. Over fifty fruits. Three or four times a normal yield. Result of Garth’s homemade fertilizer and remineralizing soil. | Monika Rekola photos
This approach doesn't just benefit our individual health; it’s been proven to lower healthcare costs on a broader scale. Nutrient-dense foods can help prevent many of the lifestyle diseases we see today, from diabetes to heart disease, reducing the burden on healthcare systems.
Plus, by increasing nutrient density, we can help lengthen both our health-span and lifespan, meaning we not only live longer but also enjoy more years in good health — less frailty, less illness and more vitality.
Monika: Thank you so much for sharing your insights, Garth. Best of luck with your gardening adventures!
Monika Rekola photo
Monika Rekola is a certified landscape designer and horticulturist, passionate about gardening and sustainable living. As a budding homesteader and garden writer, she shares her love for recycling, repurposing and birdwatching. Monika is dedicated to ecological gardening, aiming to balance our delicate ecosystem. Contact her at [email protected].
