Kootenay Gardening


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There are many beautiful gardens in our area. Unfortunately, not many people have the opportunity to see their fleeting beauty. Unlike other creations of art they can not be preserved and shown in museums. Our aim is to preserve that beauty in the virtual world and show them to a broader audience.

We want people to understand that beautiful gardens can be cultivated by anybody. That we can create our own miniature "botanical gardens", our little paradises, wherever we live. And that earth friendly gardening can be a source of beauty, health and satisfaction.

You can grow!

Petite Fleur Gardens in Rossland

Some of our finest gardens:	Garden Tours and Festivals	Gardening Information
Our Kootenays Garden of the Year - Country Garden	Beaver Valley Garden Tour	General Information
Our Kootenays Garden of the Year - City Garden	Castlegar Garden Tour	Gardening Techniques
Old Fashioned Garden	Nelson Garden Festival	Special Interest Gardening
Artist's Garden		Flower Garden
Heirloom Vegetable Garden	Kootenays Garden Clubs	Fruit Garden
	Cranbrook Garden Club
Kootenay Garden Shows, Tours and Festivals 2008	Kimberley Garden Club	Other Gardening Resources

Did you know?

While some plants, such as grasses, have very light pollen which can be transferred by wind, about 80% of flowering plants are dependent on pollinators to help them transfer their pollen.
Bees are the principal pollinators, but there are other important pollinators as well. These include other insects such as flies, moths, butterflies, wasps, and even some beetles. They also include hummingbirds and bats.

Read more at

CWF – Attracting Pollinators

Our link of the week

Butterflies of North America

Butterflies have been revered by mankind since before the dawn of recorded history. They are among the most fascinating and beautiful animals; even people who care not for insects in general usually have an affection for these winged wonders. They live nearly everywhere -- from gardens and forests and mountains to acid bogs and frozen arctic tundra. Almost 700 of the world's 10 - 20,000 species live in North America north of Mexico.
Great pictures of North American butterflies. Photo Gallery by Cirrus Digital Imaging.

Garden humor

A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.
- James Dent

Do you grow a heirloom or a native garden here in the Kootenays? I would like to hear from you!

Is something interesting happening or going to happen in your garden or in other gardens in your area?
Would you like our visitors know about that?

contact us

Gardeners to Gardeners

Have you been thinking of building a pvc pipe hoop-house but did not know exactly how? A friendly gardener from the Creston Valley shares his expertise on this and other topics at Dan's Album

Photo by Dan McMurray

Many people have asked about my daylilies and recently the local newspaper ran a two page article on my garden which is now around 1000 different daylilies. About 135 are named varieties and the rest are seedlings or unnamed. I live in zone 3 and I do nothing to protect my plants other than leaving the foliage on for the winter. We have high winds and little snow cover as well as repeated freeze-thaw cycles so you know that these are VERY hardy plants. Please click on the link to my pages . I hope that you can find something you like.
- Sherry Kuystermans, Crowsnest Pass, S-W Alberta.

The beauty of grass

Poetry Corner

I used to imagine him
coming from the house, like Merlin
strolling with important gestures
through the garden
where everything grows so thickly,
where birds sing, little snakes lie
on the boughs, thinking of nothing
but their own good lives,
where petals float upward,
their colors exploding,
and trees open their moist
pages of thunder --
it has happened every summer for years.

But now I know more
about the great wheel of growth,
and decay, and rebirth,
and know my vision for a falsehood.
Now I see him coming from the house --
I see him on his knees,
cutting away the diseased, the superfluous,
coaxing the new,
knowing that the hour of fulfillment
is buried in years of patience --
yet willing to labor like that
on the mortal wheel.

- Mary Oliver, Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006)

Kootenays location

The Kootenays region of British Columbia, Canada, marked white

The Kootenays region is located in the S-E triangle of British Columbia, Canada, in-between two majestic mountain ranges: the Monashee Mountains in the West and the Rocky Mountains in the East.

Cranbrook, Elkford, Fernie, Invermere, Kimberley, Sparwood and Radium Hot Springs are major cities/towns in the East Kootenay. Castlegar, Creston, Greenwood, Grand Forks, Kaslo, Midway, Nakusp, Nelson, New Denver, Rossland, Salmo and Trail are major cities/towns in the West Kootenay (including Kootenay-Boundary).

Because of its mountainous location, the region encompasses several gardening zones, from zone 6 in the South, close to big tables of water, to zone 1 in the North-East part and in higher elevations.

Gardening is one of the favourite activities in the Kootenays. There are many beautiful flower as well as vegetable gardens in the region.

Each summer we have garden tours and garden festivals in Nelson, Castlegar, Creston, Grand Forks, Beaver Valley, Slocan Valley, Slocan Lake area, Kimberley and Cranbrook.

To support sustainability and help local farmers sell their products directly to consumers, outdoor markets become more and more popular. The largest outdoor community market in the Kootenays, Cottonwood Falls Outdoor Market is located in Nelson. There are also farmers markets operating during summer in Creston, Fernie, Grand Forks, Invermere, New Denver and Silverton.

We take neither credit nor responsibility for the information at the websites we link to.

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