A garden is a grand teacher. It teaches patience and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thrift; above all it teaches entire trust.
Gertrude Jekyll (1843-1932), British horticulturist and garden designer
Welcome! Whether you are an experienced gardener, a novice gardener, one who dreams about having a garden one day, or someone who enjoys reading about life in a garden, it’s wonderful to have you here.
I am a Master Gardener who lives in Manitoba on the Canadian Prairies. In our garden, my husband and I grow ornamental and edible annuals, perennials that can survive cold winters, and a variety of fruit-bearing and ornamental trees. We also try to provide a hospitable place for birds, pollinating insects and other creatures that want to share this space with us.
To become a Master Gardener, I studied a program of horticultural courses and was certified through the University of Saskatchewan. I am a member of the non-profit, volunteer organization called Manitoba Master Gardeners Association which is part of a world-wide network of passionate gardeners. We volunteer in our local communities in a vast number of capacities including gardening education and leading various garden-related projects — always with a commitment to promoting sustainable, science-based practices.
This is the first of what I hope will be many future blog posts on the expansive topic of gardening. I invite you to spend some time with me in our garden as we explore together topics such as soil and the extraordinary life to be found underground, the wonder of seeds, survival strategies of plants, why native plants are an important choice to include in our gardens, how beans feed more than the gardener, and how composting and mulching benefit more than plants.
I hope you will come back and visit again!
Title photo ©Wendy MacLean, 2022. Some rights reserved. Reproduction permitted for non-commercial use only.
License details: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Wendy spent a good part of her adult life moving with her husband, never staying long enough to see an apple tree mature and bear fruit. When they retired, developing a food garden and planting hardy ornamentals became a passion. Weaving her previous studies in nutrition with her current interest in gardening has become a stimulating and life-giving activity.
Thank you for this introduction, Wendy. What a lovely photo to introduce us to you. My gardening is reduced to a few pots now and that makes looking forward to hearing from you often even more precious.
Thank you, Wendy, for introducing your garden-home to us! I enjoy gardening as a hobby and look forward to learning more from you. Spring time blessings!!
Having toured the amazing Kennedy garden a few times and benefited more than that from its largesse I can only say how excited I am to hear more about what goes into the magic of cultivation.
So looking forward to this space, Wendy! I will be an avid student. Thanks for sharing your wisdom, knowledge and skill with us.
The photo is actually from Wendy and Kennedy’s garden!:)
In my previous post I named Wendy’ s garden the Kennedy garden. Kennedy is Wendy’s husband and fellow gardener. It is a magical place created and nurtured by both.
I will certainly be back again to visit. I am eager to learn more of all the garden has to teach. At the moment, I need patience, as I am also eager for the snow to melt, and my hands to get in the soil.
Wendy, I look forward to coming back to visit again; I am a novice gardener and prefer working with pot plants;