Any garden on that bare, wind-swept prairie meant toil and infinite
pains, but a garden like that of the Dunbars represented in addition
something of genius. In conception, in design, and in execution the
Dunbars' garden was something apart. Visitors were taken 'round to the
back street to get a glimpse of the Dunbars' cottage and garden.

The garden was in two sections. That at the back of the cottage,
sheltered by a high, close board fence covered with Virginia creeper,
was given over to vegetables, and it was quite marvellous how, under
Richard Dunbar's care, a quarter of an acre of ground could grow such
enormous quantities of vegetables of all kinds. Next to the vegetable
garden came the plot for small fruits--strawberries, raspberries,
currants, of rare varieties.

The front garden was devoted to flowers. Here were to be found the old
fashioned flowers dear to our grandmothers, and more particularly the
old fashioned flowers native to English and Scottish soil. Between the
two gardens a thick row of tall, splendid sunflowers made a stately
hedge. Then came larkspur, peonies, stocks, and sweet-williams, verbenas
and mignonette, with borders of lobelia and heliotrope. Along the fence
were sweet peas, for which Alberta is famous.

But it was the part of the garden close about the front porch and
verandah where the particular genius of Richard Dunbar showed itself.
Here the flowers native to the prairie, the coulee, the canyon, were
gathered; the early wind flower, the crowfoot and the buffalo bean, wild
snowdrops and violets. Over trellises ran the tiny morning-glory,
with vetch and trailing arbutus. A bed of wild roses grew to wonderful
perfection. Later in the year would be seen the yellow and crimson
lilies, daisies white and golden, and when other flowers had faded,