Last yard I ran over a fence post that was laying in long grass causing the flailing hammer thingy to break its drive band. I took the mangled band and a picture of the thingy to this place: http://www.swanstons.com/. They advertise "if your tractor is older than you are, we're the place for parts". I went there from work, in shiny shoes. They made fun of my shoes but their service was excellent, they found the bits I needed and, on subsequent visits they've treated me well. I just bought a chainsaw there because I like their service.

I suppose it might seem trivial to get good service from a farm equipment company but it's not. Most of them bristle with machismo, "I'm too manly to sell you a tractor attachment". How much they need to get over themselves!

This thread has inspired me to get a tomato plant for my deck this afternoon. Looks lovely out there now.

MMC - Hi - as fledermaus has suggested, go for native plants.

I've decided, after a few plant losses, and now having done a wee course to get up to speed, that one should plant for a winter landscape with lots of Zone 2 and Zone 3 plants - and be done with it! Add some pots of annuals for a blast of colour.

I can give you a mini list of suggestions if you wish, but I'd pepper the area with red, yellow and apple-green stemmed dogwoods, especially up against light or dark coloured buildings, or out in the open where you can 'see through' them against the blue sky, or snow.

A lot of the silvery-green native plants will take all the drought, freezing and abuse that Alberta weather can throw at them - eg, Silver Buffaloberry, Russian Olive, Common Sea Buckthorn.

Lilacs do really well here (yes, I know they are everywhere, but that's for a reason), and have a look for the Caragana family (I like the Sutherland Caragana - bronze-green bark and grows into a screening vase shape; or the Pygmy Caragana - looks like a soft and fluffy round bush but is hardy as hell and covered in tiny thorns (good for low hedging)).

As you have tons of space you might want stuff that will sucker and spread on it's own? I can give you names if you are interested....

Ref colour and perennials, again look for the Zone 2 to 4 stuff (Zone 4 might need a little looking after or a more sheltered position - depends on what it is). Mega useful book for this area is Lois Hole's Alberta Perennials book - available everywhere - or any of her books to be honest.

You are marginally further north than me but not enough to make much of a difference on plantings. Yell if I can help anymore

Make giant garden boarders and fill them in with tons of Alberta Spruces! With all that space I think you should just go simple and plant trees all over the place then in 10 years you'll have a nice little forest

wow thanks ann lots to think about there - I will take a list to the garden centre

SEAN I was thinking of something a little more instant

You have such a huge space, it's hard to know what to suggest

Did you want the the garden per se to be near the house or out on your field?

No the 'field' bit is already covered (its behind the trees at the back of the house - theres about 5 or so acres back there too) so its the whole of the stuff you see in the pics that will eventually get something done with it.

But its a bit like being given a plain room to paint - you get all excited about what to do, and then come up with nothing.

Haha, yes I know that feeling, I spent 5 months trying to chose what colour I wanted to paint my unit (picked a nice green)

Wow, that's a lot of land! I wouldn't know where to start. If I had all that land I would make a huge woodlands and have little paths that lead through to certain parts...

I'm sure you will come up with something

Are you a little exposed up there?

Last summer we visited a house which had a bit of land, and what they'd done was carve out a slightly sunken area which was paved and then had raised beds all around it, with rockery bits, planted mainly with perennials, and then shrubs around that which gave shelter to both floral and human inhabitants.

The rest of the lawn area had occasion small clumps of shrubbery which just broke up the "pasture" appearance, and some white fencing beyond which was more wild areas ...

I can't give actual examples of plants, (as Ann has done), but garden centres should be able to advise you as well about suitability and hardiness.....

Actually,... if it wasn't this house it must have been a near neighbour!! http://www.realtor.ca/propertyDetail...ertyId=8232846

trying again

todays photos of the same views I posted earlier. I am so excited to have a gardening thread. It's sad really

I'm definitely with you on this one and appreciate the pictures of your hard work.

One little comment though (and I'm not suggesting you've had too much wine and sun today) but that's not a bee in lilac. I think that's a cat in phlox.

The bee in lilac didn't happen as the damn site kept telling me that I wasn't allowed to post???

Here be bee

PS have had both wine and sun. Wine was fizzy and mixed with cointreau, sun was just everywhere.

We're just trying to conquer our garden, which the previous owners had left to its own devices for at least five years, so my main focus so far has been digging out weeds, pruning the fruit trees and trying to get the lawn into better shape. I was looking for plants that would work here last week, and stumbled upon this blog by a gardener in Edmonton:

http://zone3b.wordpress.com

That website also links to a useful page at an Edmonton nursery, which tells you want plants will work for your specific circumstances:

http://search.millcreeknursery.ca/Ne...e.asp?11050005

Vesey's seeds' website also allows you to narrow down their seed selection according to your plant hardiness zone if you click the little arrow next to the search box:

http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/

If our garden is anything to go by, some good, low maintenance options are tulips, apple and crabapple trees, rhubarb, rose bushes and cherry bushes, all of which have survived both Calgary's climate and the previous owners! Most of them aren't very colourful, but the cherry and apple blossom should create a splash soon.

Yes we have a few of those bushes and so on around. The Caragana (sp) tend to be the local plant but I understand they can spread like a rash?????

Does anyone know how to get rid of dandelions now we aren't allowed to used weedkiller on lawns? Is there an ecofriendly one that works? We have the stick thing to pull them out but there are so many it's impossible to keep up with.