Dunvegan Gardens
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Dunvegan Gardens |
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HOME FAIRVIEW FORT MCMURRAY EDMONTON PLANT SEARCH CONTACT US |
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About Us
Dunvegan Bridge crossing the Peace River 2 km upstream from our farm & greenhouses. Dunvegan Gardens (AB) Ltd. operates three garden centres: Fairview, Fort McMurray, and Edmonton. The company owned by Ron Friesen and his family, is owned and operated independent of Dunvegan Gardens, Grande Prairie and Dunvegan Gardens, Fort St. John, BC. WHAT’S IN A NAME? Dunvegan Gardens takes its name from the community & historic trading post where Bill & Hilda Friesen settled with their family in 1952. During the time of the fur trade, the Hudson’s Bay Company built a small settlement in the Peace River valley called Fort Dunvegan. Later, when the H.B.C. closed its trade in the valley the river crossing became known as the Dunvegan Crossing. It was the only point to cross the Peace River for some distance. From the time the first of the fur traders settled in Dunvegan, crops have been grown in the rich, river-bottom land to supplement food supplies. OUR ROOTS Bill and Hilda Friesen moved to Dunvegan in the fall of 1952. They and their six children quickly became accustomed to the hard work and long hours required to plant, water, fertilize, hoe, and harvest vegetable crops successfully. The three sons began to take on more of the responsibility and purchased more land along the Peace River for vegetable production. Although many crops are seeded directly into the ground in the spring, some require being started earlier in a greenhouse and then being transplanted out when the weather is warm enough. The Friesens learned from their experience growing vegetable seedlings in the greenhouse to grow bedding plants and perennials from seed and later from cuttings. Three brothers opened, then closed a greenhouse in the town of Grimshaw, then opened greenhouses in Grande Prairie, Peace River (now closed), and Fort St. John. In 2000, with families of their own to help out, the brothers separated into three distinct companies. Ron and Pauline Friesen and their three sons resumed operations at the Dunvegan/Fairview and Peace River locations. In January 2001 they purchased MacKenzie Market & Greenhouses in Fort McMurray. In May 2002 Garden Valley Greenhouses, on the western city limits of Edmonton, was purchased. In February 2005 the family purchased Grey Gardens (a Draper area market garden ) in Fort McMurray. In August 2009 the Fort McMurray Garden Centre moved its operations to the market garden site in the Draper area. TODAY We are greenhouses, garden centres, market gardens, gift shops and landscapers located in Dunvegan, Fort McMurray, & Edmonton.
Pictured below: part of the Dunvegan settlement in 1912.
River-bottom land was being farmed
many years before Bill Friesen moved to Dunvegan in 1952.
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