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...

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...