Native Plants for the Short Season Yard: Best Picks for the Chinook and Canadian Prairie Zones

by Lyndon Penner

This is the definitive guide to gardening with native plants on the prairies. Gardening with native plants has lots of advantages, not only for your yard, but also for the ecosystem. What could be better than a beautiful, low-maintenance yard that preserves biodiversity and withstands the prairie climate? Native Plants for the Short Season Yard is the key for western Canadian gardeners wanting to unlock the full potential of native plants.

With the wit and wisdom his fans love, Lyndon shares the basics of shopping for, propagating, and designing with native plants. He also shines a light on more than 100 of his favourite native plants, along with tips on how to grow them. Topics include:
How to ethically and responsibly grow native plants from seeds and cuttings. Identifying the best plants for sunny, shady, wet, or dry spots in your yard. The plants best left to wild spaces and those you should avoid at all costs. Advice from gardening experts who share their secrets and successes with native plants. Protecting your garden with natural alternatives to herbicides and pesticides.

Genres: Nonfiction

254 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2016

Reviews

[Mark Lisac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone looking for guidance on how to grow native plants in the Prairie provinces will find plenty of help and information here. The book goes beyond standard, though, because Penner brings to it a lot of personality and strong opinion about how to treat plants properly in order to ensure their survival in natural areas. A fun as well as a useful read, and nicely organized.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book of plants with not as much as usual bullcrap and opinionated indict for Lyndon.
5 for content
0 for Lyndon
=
3 stars

[Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Advice from a well-traveled Canadian Prairie boy. Lyndon Penner is a passionate, sensible gardener. In addition to chapters on native plant species, Penner also includes:
- A discussion of "Why can't I find this plant at a nursery?"
- Framing expectations when growing native plants.
- Restoration gardening
- Being politically involved to ensure policies protect spaces, control for diseases, and combat invasive species.
- Propagation and the issues of wild digging.
- Hybrids (he is not a species purist).
- Damage done by the loss of the bison herds, suppression of fire, herbicides.

[Elsabe Retief · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two friends gifted me this fabulous book! All I wanted to know is the names of the beautiful flowers in the ditches and field. Now I want to plant my yard with them! So inspired to start planting "weeds" copying my innovative daughter. Landscaping her new garden in a wild side and a civil side. She so loved the 'weeds' alongside the streets, she wanted to give them a little spot just for themselves.
Now there's the ultimate going back to basics!

[Serena Martindale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspiring and very informative.

A great source of information. This book is well written, with beautiful pictures and great content. It is a book you will want to come back to again and again.

[Nairn McLean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential and easy to read. I really enjoyed this! Helped me to get inspired

[Sheryl Normandeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re looking to introduce reliable and hardy plants to your short-season garden – plants that will actually THRIVE in the Chinook belt and on the Prairies – this is your indispensable guide. Lyndon Penner’s new book, Native Plants for the Short Season Yard, offers everything you need to know about selecting and growing beautiful native plants – and he does so with a wealth of experience and wisdom. Practical and accessible for gardeners of every level of expertise, Native Plants for the Short Season Yard, is an absolute must-have reference in your garden library!