I had been thinking about writing about soil and the importance of firm foundations in all areas of our lives. But what kept crowding to the forefront of my mind were different examples of new growth, plant-based or people-based. It’s spring! To be honest, things are...

Garden centres everywhere (well, around the prairies) will be opening their doors to the public in the next week or so. As a result, there will be a dramatic in new plant acquisitions in yards and gardens across the region. People that love indoor plants, as well as...

One of the things that I’ve spent much of my working career doing is to sort out different problems that occur in different crops. When I moved to Alberta almost 20 years ago, I started working a lot with fruit crops. Since this is the Canadian Prairies, that meant...

This is Part 2 of the series "Tis the Season for New Ideas..." Read Part 1 here As I mentioned in Part 1, I love the celebration of newness that comes at this time of year. It’s (almost) spring (or, well, it’s spring somewhere…), or it will be if winter shoves off....

Happy Easter Monday! I love the symbolism of all of the different elements of the Easter season. As a religious person, I appreciate the impact that the celebration of the events associated with this season has on my life. As a horticulturist, I love the celebration...

Pre-season / Early Season fertilizing strategies With spring poised to … well … spring (at least after winter gets the last few kicks in), we start to turn our minds towards getting things ready for our soon-to-be-growing plants. If you have any perennial fruit...

It’s getting to the end of winter, and most of the orchard pruning will mostly be wrapped up. In case you ever wondered “Why bother?”, I dusted off and reworked something I put together years ago, outlining some of the “Why?” behind pruning. Why (generally)? Pruning...

I spent a fair bit of time thinking about what to write about this week and my mind kept circling back to the following saying or adage or whatever it is. “The only two certainties in life are death and taxes.” Although it has been used and adapted many times, by many...

For the past week or so, I’ve been floating in a surreal sort of déjà vu state, not all of it happy and upbeat. This time of year (late February/early March) has been structured almost the same for almost 20 years, so it has a bit of a Groundhog Day feel to it...