About Us

a bit about me...

Donna Dawson achieved her master gardener certificate in 1995, through the University of Alberta Devonian Botanic Garden. She is a current member of the Royal Horticultural Society as well as the Garden Writers Association, Affiliate Member Canadian Institute of Travel Counsellors and member of the North American Travel Journalists Association.

Donna has been featured in numerous gardening magazines including Homemaker's, Gardener for the Prairies, Gardens West, Canadian Gardening and Gardening Life, as well as local newspapers and Internet sites such as Familywave.com and iParenting.com where she is currently the expert on gardening. She is part of the expert panel at www.WorldReviewer.com  with her specialty in gardens. She has also had the opportunity to provide photographs to European Homes & Gardens, BCAA and Doctor's Review. Donna is the only outside writer for Tai Pan Travel magazine featuring gardens and plants from around the world and is also a writer for Vivir Bien, a lifestyle magazine out of the Republic of Panama where she talks about plants in tropical areas – in Spanish and English.

Donna has appeared on Canada AM, HGTV's Indoor Gardener and Calling All Gardeners. She and her husband were one of the few chosen to do a TV special called "the Garden Tourist" on Recreating Eden and while in China on tour, she was a special guest on China TV. She has also been a featured guest speaker at numerous Canadian gardening events including Canada Blooms and Victoria's Art in Bloom. One of Donna's favourite hobbies is collecting photos of unique forms of garden seating from around the world while on her travels. Those can be seen under the Pix area of www.icangarden.com
 
Donna's garden in St. Albert , Alberta , Canada , won many awards over the years including Best Cold Climate Garden in Canada from Canadian Gardening magazine and has been featured both in articles as well as the cover of Gardens West Magazine. She was incredibly sad to leave her garden when she moved to Panama in 2006. From zone 3a to tropical, it has been quite the adjustment, but the plant material she sees now has opened up another world to her. While she does not have a garden, she does have a small balcony and the opportunity to replant the 8 large garden beds that surround the social/pool area of her new home.
 

Garden/website bio

As the owner/publisher of the Internet Web site, www.ICanGarden.com , Donna Dawson has received many awards and has been recognized in numerous publications. Since 1996, ICanGarden.com has grown to become Canada 's largest internet gardening resource site visited by thousands of gardeners daily from over 65 countries. On the site, gardeners share their trials and successes and in turn learn from the wide variety of garden articles submitted by writers from all corners of the earth. Gardeners can also find out what is happening in the Events area, and if they need a garden club or supplier, they will find it all on the site. Her husband Tom is the webmaster of both www.icangarden.com  and www.gardeningtours.com

In 1998 Donna began organizing and hosting gardening tours to England and Europe . Her custom designed garden tours, which can include destinations such as Paris, London, Amsterdam, Belgium, Nice, Florence, China, Ecuador and Dublin as well as flower shows in Florida, Chelsea, and the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, change yearly due to repeat guests. The tours have become well known for bringing gardeners together to share in the joy of seeing how others garden and to go home with both great memories and new found friends, which is why some gardeners travel with Donna year after year.

For more information please visit: www.gardeningtours.com .
 

Donna Dawson, Master Gardener