The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just on the body, but the soul.  — Alfred Austin, English poet

Life in the garden sounds idyllic, but here in our zone 3, northern Alberta climate, it has its challenges. We experience long harsh winters and short glorious summers. Our long daylight hours in summer provide enough growing time to produce abundant crops, although we are restricted in which plant varieties thrive here.

Our short growing season makes me start dreaming garden thoughts in late winter and yearn to get my fingers into the soil. During our beautiful summers, that’s where you’ll find me; happily digging and seeding, pruning, mulching, and snipping, munching, puttering, and picking, and just plain dreaming.