2026: Shaping Spaces
This year’s edition of The Prairie Garden explores “Shaping Spaces.” The intention behind this theme is to make design feel accessible, inspiring, and deeply connected to place. This edition challenges the traditional notion of design as something exclusive or elite. Instead, it celebrates garden-making as an act of everyday creativity, resilience, and care. Regardless of the size or shape of your garden, the ability to shape your space is at your fingertips.
PRODUCT INFO
No matter where one resides, everyone wants a buffer against the rush, noise and complexities of modern living – a sheltered spot where one can relax in comfort. It is possible to create a private retreat, be it small or large, through appropriate landscaping. It’s possible to set out a place to play, find room for a flower garden, grow vegetables or incorporate fruit bushes or trees or find a way to screen out the view of the neighbour’s garage.
You may decide to hire a professional landscaper who will help you determine what is needed to meet the needs of your yard, your family and your friends when they come to visit. If you are a do-it-your-selfer and if your budget is tight, there are so many resources available to help you these days from a nearly endless selection of online videos and a myriad of books and how to manuals from your local library or bookstore.
One of these resources can be the new edition of The Prairie Garden. Read about why it’s not a good idea to plant anything under a tree, how to design a vegetable garden, look at constructing a rock-alpine garden and how to create a goth garden. In the general section, you can learn to grow winter squash and look at choosing a pear tree for your yard.
Gardening is a tradition spanning centuries and one that can be seen on every continent. It is an ever-changing creative activity to which gardeners apply new techniques that will fit their own particular situation. These techniques are publicized as new but often turn out to be little more than contemporary updates of good old common sense.
GUEST EDITOR
Mark Bauche is a landscape architect and Senior Associate at HTFC Planning & Design in Winnipeg. With more than twenty years of experience, he brings a creative and thoughtful approach to shaping outdoor spaces that connect people, nature, and community. His work ranges from urban parks and Indigenous gathering places to streetscapes and naturalized landscapes that reflect the spirit of the Prairies.
Born and raised in southern Saskatchewan, Mark’s prairie roots continue to influence his design philosophy, which embraces resilience, adaptability, and the beauty found in simple, enduring details. He is a member of the Manitoba Master Gardener Association and a strong advocate for nature-based design, blending practical experience with a genuine love of landscapes and how people experience them.
Beyond his professional practice, Mark enjoys exploring the creative side of landscape through public art and temporary installations, including Cool Gardens and Nuit Blanche. He also serves on the board of Peg City Car Co-op, promoting sustainable urban living.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Topic
Author
From bland to bloom: transforming the prairie boulevard
Mark Bauche
Nobody’s asking you to give up your peonies
Linda Dietrick
Seven simple tips to consider when planning and planting a vegetable garden
Brent Poole
Small garden design: expand your horizons
Shannon Bahuaud
Colour and mood
Jeannette Adams
Designing a prairie garden in colder climates
Indy Mitra
A blue grama lawn: six years later
Chelsea Synychych
How to design your edible garden
June Flanagan
A Place in the sun: landscaping garden design ideas for the prairies
Mary Veldman
Darkly beautiful: bringing a touch of goth to your garden
Sheryl Normandeau
A rose grows in Winnipeg
Pam Mckenzie
Designing and stewarding a 13-circle natural labyrinth hidden within a city
Len van Roon
Butterfly havens: 10 stunning bloomers to incorporate into your garden design to attract and support pollinators
Jen Olenick
A condo garden design – really!
Joël Simpson
How to design a great garden: right plant for the right place, maintaining for success
Tania Ottenbreit
From woods to alpine meadows: designing combo woodland/rock gardens on the prairies
Joe Gadbois
Designing a native plant garden for shade
Diana Bizecki Robson
Fireworks without fire: lots of bulbs
Anna Thurmayr & Deitmar Straub
Shady gardening: trees rarely best buds with under-planting
Gordon Bone
Gardens at schools
Shauna Dobbie
In Honour of the Tamarack
Marilyn Latta
How pain forced me to modify my garden design
Wendy MacLean
My adventures in rain gardening
Virginia Stephenson
Perennial planning: a joyful guide for every gardener
Melanie Stuve
Reimagining small spaces
David Riach
Garden design
Lois Maclennan
Tips for designing your outdoor space
Brenda Evans
Gardening on the bank of the Red River
Meera Sinha
Transforming a traditional yard into a prairie native and foodscape garden
Sandra Pachol
Landscaping with a large pond
Dr. Eva Pip
Growing winter squash
Lenore Linton
Plant collecting with purpose on the last frontier
Neil Anderson
The grass is not always greener
Susan Heidenreich
Pears for the Canadian Prairies
Dr. Ieuan Evans
Living in the garden
Dorothy Dobbie
Growing cottonwoods from cuttings
Ian Wise
Overwintering prairie plants in pots
Tim Evans
Peonies and ants
Evelyn Lundeen
Cercospora leaf spot – new to me, and perhaps to you
Andy Tekauz
Gardening is for everyone
Karen Baines
Cold-hardy and landscape-ready: NDSU’s trees and shrubs that conquer the cold!
Dr. Todd West
Owning a hobby greenhouse
Mick Manfield
Growing and cooking East Indian food
Diana Dhaliwal
A journey through cancer to a field of roses
Michael Schiefer
Thalictrums you didn’t know you could grow on the Prairies!
Tim Evans
The prickly side of gardening
Rita Campbell
Building Belonging’ Kids’ Garden
Stephen Kirk
Starting tree peonies from seed
Sandy Venton
Tulip planting is a work of art
Dennis Rawluk
Why compost? Why not?
Lori Graham
Real estate portfolio diversification and the common sparrow
Susan Heidenreich
