garden, just one of many in this garden town. Nor far away at the International Peace Gardens, 150,000 flowers bloom in the name of peace. Pelican Lake at Ninette is a favourite Manitoba play- ground and childhood home of Mani- toba’s own jazz singer and author, Martha Brooks. The area is the inspira- tion for much of what she writes. The golden dunes of Spirit Sands,
16 miles from Carberry, occupy the largest sand area in Canada. The once 6,500-square-kilometre desert was left behind when the glaciers moved north and Lake Agassiz dried up. It is gradually being shrunk by encroaching prairie grasses and aspens. This unique and beautiful area, although now only four square kilometres of open sand, supports its own special garden of ancient juniper, tumbleweed and cacti. Lovely Brandon, once called the
Wonder City of the Northwest, is snug- gled in a valley of the Blue Hills, its stately homes and university sheltered
The fields are alive with Canola blossoms in mid-summer. M
anitobans live in a natural garden where the pure brilliant sunlight, so dazzling and clear that you can see forever, coaxes
amazing growth from the fertile black soil. For gardeners, there is nothing quite so satisfy-
ing as a tour through our own province, visiting gardens and enjoying the beauty of the landscape. In much of the southern province, tall, nodding
sunflowers press their faces to the sky, and acres of lemon yellow canola lap the edges of powder blue flax fields that sparkle like inland lakes as they reach for pretty green bluffs lining the horizon. South of Winnipeg, in the Pembina Valley, roll-
ing hills reveal amazing landscapes, dotted with wild flowers, including the stately cow parsley or parsnip. Near St. Lupicin, the air is heady with the perfume of northern bedstraw, while lady's slippers, coneflowers and wild roses smother the roadsides. Carmen, Winkler, Morden and the small towns in between harbour lovely gardens. The grounds of the Morden Research Station were once filled with yellow roses, blood red peonies and rusty chrysanthemums, all developed there. Today, the rows of fruit trees are gone but remain a memory along with the potentilla, lilacs and clematis varieties that were tested or devel- oped there for hardiness on the prairies. Tall-spired churches and neat-as-a-pin towns
grace the farmlands and reflect the heritage of the French and Mennonites who have carved their psyches deep on the land. Their gardens and their architecture tell an eloquent story of these sturdy settlers. The southwest part of Manitoba is a continu-
ation of the Pembina Valley garden landscape, with pretty little towns such as Souris, where the swinging bridge ends beside a lovely private
localgardener.net Fall 2016 • 15
The beautiful Pembina Valley. And setting it all off in every corner of the province is the lovely blue sky reminding us to be humble.
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