Be prepared to fail, says gardening author

A landscape designer, TV personality and author of a new backyard gardening book says failure can be a good thing and research is critical when growing your own food.

Carson Arthur who wrote Vegetables, Chickens & Bees: An Honest Guide to Growing Your Own Food Anywheresat down with The Homestretch ahead of his appearance at this weekend's Calgary Home + Garden Show.

This interview has been edited and paraphrased for clarity and length. You can listen to the complete interview here.

Q: Why should we all grow a garden?

A: I find gardening books tend to be stuffier and I want people to have fun and embrace the failures, because it doesn't always work.

The new Canada's Food Guide says more and more Canadians are incorporating vegetables in their diets, but vegetables are more expensive than ever.

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We have all these young people who want to buy houses and raise things in their backyards. They keep turning to online media for answers and it's not always there.

I wanted to write a book to address things that work and things that don't. I have had tons of garden fails that I document in this book.

Q: What's the first thing people need to be thinking about?

A: Plants need three things to grow: water, sunlight and good soil, so a situation where they can thrive.

We always get one of the three things wrong. We underestimate how much sunlight plants really need.

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Go to the dollar store and get a solar powered toy. Put it where you want plants to grow; if it works, you have enough sunlight. Set an hourly reminder on your phone to check out the toy and record how many hours per day it's working.

We can control water and soil but sunlight is so hard to fake.

Q: What if we have limited space, what can we do?

A: There is so much new technology coming out around gardening for small spaces.

Vertical gardening has come a long way, it's planting on a sunny wall on the side of your house.

You have to do it properly, you have to be careful about damaging the side of your home from water. There are containers that you can stack one on anotherthat allow you to grow three or four types of food all in one area, maximizing the space you have available.

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Some of the technology is as easy as putting two bolts into the wall and hanging a planter on it. You can grow your way up the side of the house.

Q: What are some of the big mistakes people make?

A: Going online. There is so much misinformation, it often feels like lemmings following lemmings over a cliff.

As an example, we see people planting in old tires. The soil becomes contaminated and the vegetables are absorbing those heavy minerals. So you are consuming mercury and lead that tires use in the vulcanization process.

Q: What are some more tips?

A: If you Google, 'What killed by backyard chicken?' you get tens of thousands of answers. So before you do that, you have to do your research.

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Same thing with bees. Beekeeping as a hobby is drastically on the rise, in part because saving the bees is good for the environment, but people are really interested in it.

You have to do a ton of research because you go down that route. I give tips in my book to think about before you start this process.

Editor's Note: Backyard chickens are not currently legal in Calgarybut are being considered as emotional support animals.