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How to Grow a Subtropical Food Forest in a Cold Climate | With Steve Fawcett
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🌱 In this episode, I sit down with Steve Fawcett to explore Troppo — an urban tropical food forest in Te Puke. Yes, tropical plants… outdoors… in a place that gets frost and hail!
We dive into:
 🍌 Bananas as mineral accumulators (and why banana lollies taste the way they do)
 🌴 Air layering and how it can trigger early flowering in plants
 ❄️ Frost protection strategies and mulching like crazy
 🌳 Why food forests build deeper community resilience than veggie beds alone
Steve’s casual style hides just how much knowledge he’s built through hands-on experimenting. From Papua New Guinea childhood memories of climbing fruit trees, to creating a lush, diverse, small-space forest garden in New Zealand, this conversation is a reminder of how much joy and abundance plants bring.
📚 Recommended for: food forest dreamers, experimental gardeners, permaculture enthusiasts, anyone curious about growing the “impossible” plants in their climate.
đź’ˇ Resources & References:
Troppo
Victor Group Charitable Trust
Kai Resilience Project
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