There are lots of different vegetables that the prairie vegetable grower can cultivate, regardless of their scale and experience. However, I’m not sure that there is any other vegetable that tops sweet corn in terms of collective desire. Almost everyone loves sweet...

As we (on the Canadian Prairies and west) enter into an extreme heat wave, it shouldn’t surprise you that water is on my mind. Not only is it heating up earlier in the day and reaching higher daytime highs, but it is staying warm at night. In my local area, we haven’t...

When I was a kid, I used to love “The Just So Stories” by Rudyard Kipling. It isn’t so much that the stories themselves make all that much sense (since they don’t, logically), but I did love the creative and interesting way that natural phenomena are described to...

I’ll be the first to point out that I am not a trained entomologist, but … I dabble. I have run up against a fair number of insects (pest or otherwise) over the course of my career, and, as a result, I can recognize a good number of them, or at least get within the...

You just have to love pumpkins! They come in all sizes, with a host of interesting variations, from tiny gourd-like fellas all the way up to the massive giants. They go from a single, modest-sized seed to create a massive plant with a huge amount of biomass spread out...

As I sit quietly waiting for all of the moisture to eventually leave my body via my poor, sore, sneezy nose and leaky, watery eyes, my thoughts are drawn to pollen. Pollen is such a critical part of the natural and horticultural world. Without it, and its distribution...

At the start of the year, I wrote about how 2021 had been designated as the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables, which I thought was a nice thing. I spend approximately 60-80% of my time working with fruits and vegetables of all different types. And it has...

I’ll come right out and say it. Last year was the first time that I ever planted a tree in my own yard. I’ve planted plenty of shrubs over the years, and I’ve planted trees in a few other places, but never one in my own space. It was exciting. After all the time that...

Over a decade ago, a work colleague of mine was retiring. He’d had a long and storied career working to help build the fruit industry in Alberta. He was involved in lots of the initial research and testing that was required to fill in the gaps for the growers and...