Growing Food and Urban Gardening with Kevin Espiritu

Kevin Espiritu, author of Field Guide to Urban Gardening and founder of Epic Gardening

In this episode that originally aired live on The Food Garden Life Radio Show, we talk with urban gardener, author, podcaster, and YouTuber Kevin Espiritu from California.

Espiritu, who did not grow up gardening, explains how, after studying business, he discovered gardening.

He made the garden—and teaching people to garden—his vocation. Espiritu is the founder of Epic Gardening.

Front Yard Garden

Espiritu converted his San Diego front yard into a garden. The 15 x 30 foot space is the only sunny location he has to garden. He thinks that the garden, with its 14 raised beds, has inspired neighbours to grow.

He’s in the process of moving…and is building a garden at his new, 1/3-acre property.

Gardening and Failure

Espiritu, who considers gardening to be an ongoing learning process, says failure is normal.

But he says that with gardening, it’s often necessary to wait for a year before trying again after a failure—so he documents his failures so that he can remember them and learn from them.

Field Guide to Urban Gardening: How to Grow Plants, No Matter Where You Live, by Kevin Espiritu

Field Guide to Urban Gardening

He says that he wrote his book, Field Guide to Urban Gardening, in a way to help people who have never gardened before.

Rather than telling people how to garden, he guides them through what to consider as they create a garden.

Tomato Talk Segment

In the Tomato-Talk segment, Emma talks about the harvest at Zawadi Farm, along with challenges and top varieties in her own test garden.

Jeff Quattrone grew up in South Philly where he says most yards had a fig tree.

Biggs-on-Figs Segment

Jeff Quattrone from New Jersey tells us about growing up in a family with a fig tree in south Philadelphia, where he says about 90% of the yards had a fig tree.

“My family tree is literally a fig tree.”

Jeff previously joined us on the podcast in June, 2020 to talk about his work in seed saving. Click here to hear that episode.

In Quattrone’s own family, his cousin Gregorio grew a fig tree that was brought from the family’s home town in Calabria.

“We always had figs.”