Welcome!
Gardening at USask offers pesticide-free growing advice online, free and low-cost public workshops and events, and ample ways to connect with local gardeners and gardening communities. We aim to serve the people of the Canadian prairies and northern Canada so all of our information is proven to work, right here. We realize that gardening is about more than fruits and flowers - it's about your health, your community, and building a relationship with your environment. All of our advice is free.
The University of Saskatchewan Gardening at USask and Gardenline programs are unique: no comparable university-based horticultural outreach programs exist in Canada. These are valued public services with local, national, and international reach.
Gardening at USask
It is wonderful to acknowledge Vanessa Boniface (Young) for her significant contributions including the development of the online gardening.usask.ca website which provides such a rich resource of information. This website was viewed 1.3 million times by 265,000 unique users in the period between January 1 and September 27, 2024, with social media impressions exceeding 10 million. Vanessa’s passion and energy have clearly made a lasting impact on the gardening community. The innovative projects she spearheaded will undoubtedly continue to inspire and benefit gardeners across the province and beyond.
We are in the process of re-hiring into this position soon. Keep watching this website for more news to come!
Visit gardening.usask.ca for trusted, pesticide-free gardening advice proven to work on the prairies. We offer free growing advice online and low-cost learn at your own pace classes. The free-online classes are delayed due to this current transition. We thank you for your patience. Please note there are also 62 free online videos on a diverse range of topics posted on the gardening.usask.ca website which may be of interest. Even more free information is available on our YouTube channel.
Gardenline
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Submit a question at Ask Gardenline Online from May to September.
Follow us on social media to get you through the gardening season.
We thank Helen Shook in her role as the Gardenline outreach specialist. Helen is taking a well deserved retirement. Helen’s dedication and excellent work over the years have made a significant impact. In a typical gardening season, Helen would have answered about 1800 questions. She has been the subject matter expert on gardening for CBC radio. Helen also initiated the new Gardenline feature of weekly social media posts. Facebook and Instagram posts are short, concise educational pieces, illustrated with one or more photos. Followers have increased year over year with about 30,000 followers in 2024.
We are grateful to Helen who will be helping to orient Hannah Gass as the new Gardenline outreach specialist. Welcome, Hannah!
Hello everyone,
My name is Hannah Gass, and I graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a major in Horticulture Science. I bring over eight years of experience in horticulture education and outreach within the greater Saskatoon community. My background includes working in non-profit and school settings, engaging with individuals from diverse backgrounds and abilities, and creating digital educational content. I am passionate about entomology and integrating horticulture with the arts. As a gardener with a physical disability, I strive to share the joys of plants and gardening with everyone, regardless of any obstacles.
Last but not least, Bev Shober has been supporting the agriculture programs over the past several years. Her expertise and assistance during this transition period have been invaluable. Thank you, Bev!
Gardening advice
This is a big site so we've tried to make it easy to find things. Look immediately above these lines for the tabs labeled Special situation, Sorted by plant, General advice and how-to's, etc. When you click on a tab you'll find popular pages from our Gardening advice section on our site. From any page on this site you can click on the Gardening advice section in the menu for the full list.
We've also included a site search tool below.
You can help us grow
Gardening at USask is free public resource that includes this comprehensive website, a very active Facebook page, a YouTube channel, selected free classes year-round, public speaking engagements, and a Gardenline support person to personally help you during the growing season. We are a not-for-profit but also a cost recovery program. We support our year round free education primarily through our public workshop series of live webinars and on-demand classes, our Master Gardener certification course, and various contract work. If you woud like to help us to help people grow, please consider volunteering or donating.