Gardening on the Prairies: A Guide to Canadian Home Gardening

Pleasance Crawford is a Canadian landscape and garden-history researcher
and writer and the co-author of Garden Voices: Two Centuries of Canadian
Garden Writing.

Roger Vick has gardened in England, the Northwest Territories, and Alberta, has written numerous articles on horticulture, and has, since 1971, been curator of the Devonian Botanic Garden at the University of Alberta. He wrote this book to provide helpful up-to-date information “for the average home gardener living in the prairie provinces” where extreme winter and summer temperatures, low annual rainfall, and drying winds can make gardening a real challenge. (An introductory map showing where the book’s advice is most relevant highlights the southern halves of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, plus extreme southwestern Ontario and the bordering states of Montana, North Dakota, and Wisconsin.)

Vick approaches his subject at ground level, beginning with chapters on soil, fertilizers, landscaping, and lawn building. He moves on to the major categories of cultivated plants: trees and shrubs, conifers, fruits, bulbs and plants with fleshy roots, herbaceous perennials, annuals, and vegetables. In each category, he provides descriptive commentary plus lists (including cultivar name, where important) of those proven successful in prairie gardens. A chapter on home greenhouses cautions that they are only for those with extra time and money for gardening. Wise chapters on weeds, insect pests, plant diseases, and tools follow; and a final chapter, “Month by Month,” lists a yearful of gardening chores and pleasures. To supplement its 18 chapters, the book has helpful — and sometimes whimsical — black-and-white drawings and diagrams, a 24-page colour section of plant photographs, a 10-page glossary, suggestions for further reference, and an excellent index.

Throughout, Vick maintains his focus on prairie gardening and provides the best of tried and true gardening practices plus the latest of sound new approaches. His style is knowledgeable yet friendly. Any gardener who can’t ask Vick’s advice firsthand will benefit from reading his book.