We’ve found that if domestic plum trees are raised near wild plums, wind pollination readily takes place.

How Prairie fruits fared in 2024

Practical Research: Past assessments show fruit trees do best on northwest- or northeast-facing slopes

We had a very cool spring in 2024, followed by a scorching summer for the third year in a row. So, how did the farm fruit gardens produce this year compared to previous years? The answer is “surprisingly well.” Among my contacts across the Prairies from north to south, fruit production varied from good to […] Read more

As picturesque together as they may be, onions and garlic should be kept in separate areas while growing in the garden.

More on Prairie vegetables and fruits

Part 6 of a series: Let’s look further at what grows well on the Prairies — and when it doesn’t, why

In previous issues I dealt with potatoes and the cabbage family of garden vegetables, but perhaps I should also take a look at all and any successfully grown Prairie vegetable crops. To do this, I should list all vegetable crops into related categories, as in the table shown here, so we can more clearly plan […] Read more


Researchers now recommend allowing one or two years between terminating an old alfalfa stand and reseeding.

Alfalfa replant disease and related disorders

Whatever the cause, we can realize it's a problem and try to avoid it

Back in the 1980s I spent a lot of time on alfalfa diseases, particularly the verticillium wilt disease problem that was spreading across the Prairies, particularly in southern Alberta. In a few snow-free and cold Decembers in those years, a lot of damage was done to alfalfa, winterkilling entire fields of three-year-old stands. Even white […] Read more

Grated and diced apples can add texture to muffins.

Winter fruit, part 3: The versatility of apples

Apples add character to a dish, even when not the star ingredient

I first saw Meryl Streep in 1979 in Kramer vs. Kramer and then in Sophie’s Choice. Both earned her Oscars. A wonderful string of movies followed: Manhattan, Silkwood, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, The Hours and Out of Africa, to name a few. In 1990 at the Screen Actors’ Guild national women’s conference, Streep spoke out […] Read more


What’s now known as the Evans cherry likely had ancestry in Siberia and was brought to Alaska by Russian immigrants.

Fruit growing on Prairie farms

Part 5 of a series on Prairie farm gardens

Fruit growing on the Canadian Prairies is much easier and more rewarding than most people ever imagine. I am an avid fruit grower on my Alberta acreage, growing everything from plums, pears, grapes, apples and cherries to currants and raspberries. You name it, I am growing it. I am familiar with backyard Prairie gardens all […] Read more

Delicious fresh apples picked in late September 2022 from the same Kerr apple-crab tree that has produced a bountiful crop annually for more than 30 years. If trees could talk, what memories and stories they could tell.


My amazing Kerr apple-crab tree

Singing Gardener: Plus a useful breathing technique to help you sleep

If an apple a day keeps the doctor away, then it sounds reasonable that two apples a day are even better. Yes — apples are on the agenda of words today and I’ll tell you about my amazing Kerr apple-crab tree. While I was a youth at home, it was common for friends or neighbours […] Read more


File photo of wild horses running on grasslands in Nova Scotia’s remote Sable Island National Park Reserve. (Photo by Sarah Medill/Parks Canada/Handout via Reuters)

Wild horses face unruly storms as Fiona nears East Coast

Damages feared to buildings, utilities, crops

Ottawa | Reuters — Shaggy, long-maned wild horses grazing freely on the sandy grasslands of the crescent-shaped Sable Island in the North Atlantic are expected to come under the swipe of a powerful storm forecast to hit Eastern Canada this weekend. Hurricane Fiona, tracking northward after carving a destructive path through the Dominican Republic and […] Read more

Migrant workers clean fields in California’s Salinas Valley on March 30, 2020. (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

Canadian, U.S. farms face crop losses on foreign worker delays

Winnipeg/Chicago | Reuters — Mandatory coronavirus quarantines of seasonal foreign workers in Canada could hurt that country’s fruit and vegetable output this year, and travel problems related to the pandemic could also leave U.S. farmers with fewer workers than usual. Foreign labour is critical to farm production in both countries, where domestic workers shun the […] Read more


File photo of apple picking in a Quebec orchard. (Noah Burger/iStock/Getty Images)

EU to ban Bayer’s Calypso insecticide

Brussels | Reuters — European Union governments on Tuesday widened the EU ban on neonicotinoid pesticides after deciding not to renew their approval for Bayer’s thiacloprid. Farmers will not be allowed to use the neonic insecticide, sold under the brands Calypso and Biscaya, after April 30, 2020, when its current approval expires. A majority of […] Read more