‘Budget-Minded Gardening’ is a great gift for the gardeners in your life – InForum

The Prairie Garden book series just hit another home run. The hot-off-the-press 2025 edition, “Budget-Minded Gardening,” is the perfect Christmas gift for yourself and other gardeners.

Books tailored to gardening in the Upper Midwest are rare. Even rarer: an entire book series with new and different editions published each year and especially suited for Northern gardeners.

“The Prairie Garden” book series, originating in Manitoba, Canada, is that rare garden treasure — a valued resource for gardeners in North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota. If it plays well in Winnipeg, it’ll be a hit in Fargo, Bismarck, Minneapolis and all points within planting distance.

The newest edition, “Budget-Minded Gardening,” is packed with practical, down-to-earth advice. This year’s theme is especially applicable, as we’ve all been hit with rising prices, and the book provides ways we can save money in our gardening passion without compromising beauty and productivity.

The edition’s editor, Evelyn Lundeen, said: “When we were looking for a name for this year’s book, my husband suggested the cheeky title ‘More Green for Less Green.’ While the committee appreciated the levity of the phrase, the underlying and more serious meaning was also evident.”

What’s in the 2025 edition? Devoted to providing ways we can save money while gardening, the book contains 57 articles that could each stand alone, making it easy to pick up the edition and read one of the gardening gems over a cup of coffee.

As you read each brief but detailed essay, it’s soon apparent each author thoroughly knows his or her material. The ability to relay in-depth details comes from actual hands-on experience. That’s what separates a practical gardening book from one less valuable.

The 2025 edition’s budget-minded gardening theme has something for everyone, whether you garden indoors, outdoors, or both.

To whet your appetite, here’s a content sample:

• “Eight easy ways to save money in the garden”
• “Garden décor on a dime”
• “Save time and money and create a better-looking garden”
• “Plant propagation”
• “Favorite unconventional plant pots”
• “Tips for growing your own fruit forest”
• “Good gardening practices leave us richer than we think”
• “Growing your own food”
• “An easy way to see if old seed can be used”
• “Thrifty drought gardening with peonies”
• “Beware of free plants”
• “Growing tomatoes from seed”
• “Growing apples in the North”

“The Prairie Garden” series has a rich history as a nonprofit annual publication dedicated to the advancement of horticulture in the northern prairies. It’s a digest-sized paperback that’s been published by the Winnipeg-based volunteer committee since 1937, and I’m proud to be a member of the committee that oversees the book’s creation.

I’ve long valued horticultural research and information originating in the prairie provinces of Canada because it partners perfectly with gardening in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota. There might be a national boundary dividing our two countries, but the growing conditions are similar throughout the entire region, and climate doesn’t recognize national dividing lines.

Chris Flynn / The Forum

Reflecting this shared gardening climate, “The Prairie Garden” devotes each yearly edition to a different aspect of horticulture. For example, last year’s edition, “Year-Round Gardening,” was packed with tips for enjoying our passion during every season.

Previous themes included small-space gardening, flowering shrubs, shade gardening, fruits and berries, grasses and succulents, perennials, edible landscapes and more.

Most of the previous editions are still available for purchase and listed on “The Prairie Garden” website. I’ve got nearly 20 different editions myself, and I consider them among the most valuable resources in my gardening book collection.

About half of each digest is devoted to the yearly focus topic, and the book’s other half offers a wide variety of pertinent topics. Because practical, down-to-earth gardening information is timeless, past years’ digests remain valuable resources.

For more information, including price and ordering details for the 2025 edition “Budget-Minded Gardening” plus past editions, visit

https://www.theprairiegarden.ca/order

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