We’re looking for gardens

We have three absolutely gorgeous gardens for your perusal at the back of this issue. Wendy Mallard has one of the most colourful gardens, simply chockablock with flowers, located in Stony Plain, Alberta. Mary and Edgar Wright spend their free time beavering away at a plethora of beautiful and rarely seen plants up in Denare Beach, Saskatchewan. And Brian and Linda Hetherington have pieced together countless rooms of flowers, plants and art on their acreage near Kingston. Choosing the pictures to include had me drooling with anticipation for the stunning gardening season ahead of us.

And this year does promise to be stunning. With so many people home for duration of the pandemic, gardening has taken a big leap forward. The questions from new gardeners are coming fast and furious on Facebook groups, with old pros eager to help. The one disappointment I have—and it’s a big one—is that I won’t be able to see the gardens across the country myself this year to photograph and meet the stewards of them. This brings me to an important ask.

We know so many of our readers have simply glorious gardens, and so many of you are also photographers. How would you like to put the two together and send us some pictures of your garden? Or have a photographing friend take some snaps and send us those? Owing to COVID-19 travel restrictions, it looks like I won’t be able to visit very many gardens this year, and none outside of Ontario. And we have a full year of gardens to put in our magazines.

Now, if you’re not sure what we’re looking for, here it is. • Pictures need to be high-resolution. They must be at least five inches high or wide at 300 dpi. • We need wide shots that show your garden, not just closeups of flowers. A few closeups are good too, particularly of mixes of plants. • We need shots that are not touched up. Our graphic designer needs the original photo to touch up for publication. • About 15 images go into one story for a typical-size garden, so we need more than that to chose from.

All types and sizes are welcome, and we’re interested in gardens from everywhere in Canada. Do you have a sumptuous vegetable garden in Saskatoon? A verdant balcony garden in Vancouver? A dazzling rockery in Cornerbrook? Send us pictures! We’d love to see them, and some of our favourites will be covered in the magazine this year.

For this issue, in addition to the gardens, it’s our annual What’s New, What’s Hot selection of introductions for this year. We have an article on growing figs—yes you can in Canada! A story on growing basil, one on growing hostas, and another on columnar trees. There is a piece on one writers’ trip to gardens in southern Spain. We have a profile of Jim Hole, horticulturist and member of the Hole gardening family in Alberta. And a story on Slow Gardening, which is probably how you garden anyhow!

In this time of closing businesses and washing hands, our spirits are a bright as ever. We are so excited about the renaissance of gardening, and so grateful to be far ahead of the curve.

It’s time to plant!

Shauna Dobbie

We’re looking for gardens! Local GardenerCanada’s Follow us online at: localgardener.net Instagram:@local_gardener

Published by

Pegasus Publications Inc.

President/Publisher

dorothy dobbie dorothy@pegasuspublications.net

Design

Cottonwood Publishing services

Editor

shauna dobbie shauna@pegasuspublications.net

Art Direction & Layout

Karl Thomsen karl@pegasuspublications.net

General Manager

Ian Leatt ian.leatt@pegasuspublications.net

Contributors

dorothy dobbie, shauna dobbie, Gail Murray, Gillian Pegg, Wilbert ronald, Felder rushing

Editorial Advisory Boards

Ontario: Ben Cullen, david Hobson, sean James, Tara nolan Manitoba: Michael allen, Keith Lemkey, Jan Pedersen, Kevin Twomey Alberta: stacey Mar, Cynthia Philp, Leona staples

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