On May 30, author, gardener and radio personality Lyndon Penner will be giving a talk at the Spring Break Flower Farm in Hillcrest.
“He’s going to talk to us about gardening in this crazy climate we have,” says Spring Break Flower Farm co-owner Val Breakenridge. “Our gardening season is extremely short here so there are limitations on what you can do. So he’ll be telling us how to get the most out of our frost free days.”
Penner knows a thing or two about gardening in a harsh climate. He dispenses gardening advice on CBC Radio in Alberta and Saskatchewan and appears frequently as a guest speaker at universities and colleges in Western Canada. He’s has authored The Chinook Short Season Yard, The Prairie Short Season Yard and just recently published his third book Garden Design for the Short Season Yard.
Penner will be speaking at 3 p.m. and admission is free.
“He might inspire you to start gardening,” says Breakenridge. “It could happen.”

The short growing season, abundant frosts and plenty of plant eating ungulates make this a tough place to raise a crop.
“Our challenge is the frost,” says Breakenridge. “On average our last day of frost is June 6 in the spring and our first day of frost is usually September 15. Plants are not very frost tolerant so it makes it challenging to garden here.”
The deer population will also nibble down a garden to its nubs.
“Unless you’ve got a great big deer fence, you’ve got to plant deer resistant plants,” says Breakenridge. “It’s challenging to garden here but it can be done and there are a lot of gardening enthusiasts in the Pass.”
Spring Break Flower Farm is a year round bed and breakfast, a garden centre in May and June and a wedding venue from July to the end of September.