Kristof Grina, and the rest of Up Top Acres, give farming a foothold on the city skyline in Washington, D.C.

Bringing farming to new heights

Up Top Acres finds its niche in the urban jungle

Farmer Kristof Grina takes elevators to get to his fields. The field in question, with a street address of 55 M Street, is on the 10th storey of an office building overlooking the U.S. capital. It is one of Up Top Acres’ 18 rooftop plots, totalling almost three acres. Members of the ag sector have

The 2021 edition of The Prairie Garden.

The Prairie Garden highlights latest in hardy flowering shrubs

The 82nd edition also reprises previous popular publication on roses

The newest edition of The Prairie Garden highlights the latest and greatest in Manitoba-hardy flowering shrubs and roses. “Flowers are truly a lifeline to another world,” guest-editor Philip Ronald said in a virtual launch of the periodical. The Prairie Garden, which is produced by a group of volunteers, is Canada’s only Prairie-specific gardening annual and


Evening Scented Stocks are combined here with dark-purple petunias.

Evening Scented Stocks will provide wonderful perfume at night

The pleasant aroma will more than make up for this rather nondescript plant

Plants that provide us with sensory delights in the garden are much sought after like those that exude wonderful scent to the surrounding air. Most highly scented plants emit their perfume abundantly in the evening and overnight and the Evening Scented Stock (Matthiola longipetala) is no exception. During the day this nondescript plant, whose flowers

We urban gardeners envy the space available to rural gardeners for growing lots of vegetables.

Planning and planting the veggie garden

Whether it’s a large patch or a smaller one, there’s a few things that will help to make it a success

Growing your own vegetables is a great way to connect with nature and to gain a supply of good-quality food, and for those who prefer organic, growing your own veggies ensures control over what techniques (and chemicals) are used. There is great satisfaction in being able to grow some of your own food and I



Seed catalogues are a good source of information about planting dates.
Use clean containers, a sterile planting medium, and don’t forget to label


It’s time to start planting!

Not all seeds should be started yet indoors but there are some that can be planted now

It’s time! Mid-March, for avid gardeners, is like a bell ringing. We can begin to start some seeds indoors to establish plants for our outdoor gardens. Many of us have already ordered seeds from catalogues or visited seed houses that sell them. (I luckily live fairly close to a really reliable one that has been

Foxtail ferns ready for sale in a greenhouse.

Asparagus fern not a member of the asparagus family

Common name comes from the feathery, delicate-looking foliage

Many of the plants in my sunroom in the winter are ones that I use both indoors and out. Some of them are old tried-and-true favourites, such as the asparagus fern. These are dependable, easy-to-grow plants that can put on an attractive display of foliage. An asparagus fern is delicate looking (although it really isn’t)

These small offshoots of G. maculata have been detached from the parent plant and planted into a container for future use.

Looking for a low-maintenance indoor plant?

Succulents have the ability to hold large amounts of water in their tissues

Several of my gardening friends are very knowledgeable about plant classification and their Latin names and can identify the family name. This doesn’t interest me much but I do use this information quite frequently such as when researching a plant such as a succulent. Succulent is a term applied to plants which have the ability


Comment: Our garden’s last stand

There was no food waste on the rural farm of my youth

In the unseasonable heat of mid-September, the yard’s many black walnut trees began shedding their heavy fruit. Now, a month on, the stately trees are bare of nuts and most of their leaves weeks earlier than any year I can remember. Does that suggest an early winter? A long one? Time will tell. All I

A dark-pink David Austin rose bloom.

Getting David Austin rose plants ready for the cold

Now comes the real challenge of growing these plants — preparing them for a Manitoba winter

Gardeners sometimes take on the challenge of growing a plant that is way outside their climate zone rating. We want to see if we can grow the plant and winter it successfully, or because the plant is so spectacular it is worth the extra effort required to care for it and protect it. Such plants