Windbreaks

The prairie winds never stop blowing. That about sums up the biggest challenge Jeannette and Leonard Wickstrand have found while gardening on an exposed plateau near Battle-ford, Saskatchewan. "In the summer, the wind dries things out; in the winter, it blows away any protective snow cover," Jeannette says.

Winter temperatures that plummet to -40° F. are enough to discourage even the hardiest gardeners, but the Wickstrands stood up to the windy challenge by planting trees. Hundreds of drought-tolerant Colorado spruce seedlings went into the ground more than 30 years ago with the hope of using them to tame the wind and to create a shelterbelt around the house and garden.

Today, those constant winds flow up and over the sturdy wall of spruce trees, effectively buffering the chilling and drying force of the gales and creating a cozy microclimate for an amazingly lush gardenscape.

Shrubs alone wouldn't do it

As newlyweds, the Wickstrands inherited mature lilac, honeysuckle, and - Caragana around the homestead. Although the shrubs were hardy, they were shabby looking and starting to die out from age. To have a garden, the Wickstrands knew they would need to replace the old shrubs.

"Without the - shelter of trees, you couldn't grow a thing," Jeannette says. "We couldn't even get strawberries to survive, and most other plants would just be lost to winterkill." Then the couple planted drought--resistant Colorado spruce seedlings side by side in rows. Surprisingly, all of the seedlings survived those first few seasons, thanks to regular watering.