A side view of the machinery shed with baby’s breath and lilies growing in front.
A close-up of the unique shaped silo. Young George’s father was interested in nature, a trait he
passed on to his sons. He was the first person to grow alfalfa in Glenevis. The Pegg boys were passionately interested in the world around them and George spent much of his early childhood playing outdoors. Birdwatching became a love that George and his brother, Fred, shared. The boys took yearly bird counts and kept migration records of their find- ings, the majority of which were made between the 1920s and mid-1940s. While the collections seem to be from all over Alberta, most were from the Glenevis area. The family identified 180 species during this time. By 1929 the family had built a new home and planted
the first windbreak of spruce trees along the west side of the garden. From the front door of the second homestead house, one can look out over a gently sloping garden to the front gate. Flower and shrub beds are placed to the left and right. Many perennials grace these beds – clustered bellflow- ers, violets, delphiniums, columbines, Jacob’s ladder, sweet William, Siberian iris and globe knapweed. Following the path away from the house are forget-me-nots, cranesbills and herbs such as comfrey, lovage and mint. George Pegg’s botanical impact
After his parents’ deaths George Pegg continued to farm
This heirloom garden is grown in collaboration with A’Bunadh Seeds of Cherhill in order to save seeds.
the family homestead. Although Pegg was an avid natu- ralist, it is his interest in botany and horticulture that will be most remembered. He became interested in identifying and classifying the wild plants of the countryside. Pegg pressed specimens to record his observations, accumulat- ing a massive pressed plant collection. He is recognized for his many contributions to the field of botany with his first-time-in-Alberta identification of plant species, his plant collection and library of books on botany. George Pegg had a powerful impact on the categoriza-
The ‘Booth’ rose located in the rose garden. 24 • Fall 2016
tion and understanding of Alberta’s diverse flora. It was his discovery of an area that had escaped the glacial scrubbing and plant eradication of the last ice age that had the most significant impact and led to the theory of “glacial refugia” in the Rockies. His consultations with Dr. Ezra H. Moss at the University of Alberta expanded Moss’s 1959 book, Flora of Alberta, by more than 100 species, 50 of which had been unknown to exist in Alberta up to that time. He
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