Author Talk: Steven Biggs
November 28 @ 11:30 am – 1:00 pm
Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t: Stories, Ingenuity, and Homegrown Figs
What makes someone build a “figatorium,” collect hundreds of varieties, or tuck fig trees into bed for a Canadian winter?
Join Toronto horticulturist and author Steven Biggs for a mix of storytelling and practical fig-growing advice celebrating the revised and expanded edition of Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t.
Meet some of the fascinating growers featured in the book—from a generous mentor in an Ontario backyard to a California fig hunter—and discover the family traditions, curiosity, and ingenuity behind their gardens. Along the way, Steven shares ideas for growing figs here in the Toronto area, getting ripe fruit, and finding room for a little Mediterranean flavour at home.
Whether you already grow figs or are simply curious, come for the stories, bring your questions, and stay for the book signing.
Saturday, November 28, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Free to attend. Please register beforehand so we know you’re coming!
About Steven Biggs
Recognized by Garden Making magazine as one of the “Green Gang” of Canadians making a difference in horticulture, Steven Biggs is a Toronto-based horticulturist, author, and host of the award-winning Food Garden Life Show. A former horticulture instructor with George Brown College and Durham College, he has spent decades helping gardeners grow edible plants in unlikely places. In his own Toronto garden, his experiments have included driveway straw-bale gardens, a rooftop kitchen garden, wicking beds, fruit plantings, an edible-themed front yard, and a fig collection that got slightly out of hand.
Steven’s fascination with figs took off in 1993, when he spent a summer working at a nursery with the UK National Collection of figs. Since 2009, he has been teaching, writing, speaking, and interviewing growers about figs in cold climates. His first fig book, Grow Figs Where You Think You Can’t, won a Silver Award of Achievement from the Garden Writers Association. Steven’s fig writing has appeared in Fine Gardening, Garden Making, The Gardener, and Edible Toronto.
Steven continues the fig conversation through his Fig Culture podcast and newsletter, where he shares stories, interviews, and practical ideas for growing figs in cold climates and containers. Find his fig tips and other food-gardening ideas at foodgardenlife.com.
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