Strange Planting By Robert Kroetsch

The Canadian prairies are a beautifully unique place to grow up in, where agriculture is an instrumental part of development. Robert Kroetsch’s long poem Seed Catalogue documents his life as a young person living on the Albertan prairies. Seed Catalogue keeps a record of the processes that shaped him and the experiences that helped him to grow as a poet. As the title suggests, gardening is a central idea throughout the poem, and as Wanda Campbell suggests in her article, Strange Plantings: Robert Kroetsch’s Seed Catalogue, is symbolic in almost every sense. The theme of gardening structures the poem by symbolizing growth and development, as both a man and a poet.
The theme of gardening is very prominent throughout the poem, and is also very symbolic. Gardening structures the entirety of the poem, by using symbolism and metaphors to convey to the reader the connections between

Events throughout his life that were significant or impactful give clues as to how he became the person represented in the poem. Falling off of a still horse, his father not being able to shoot a badger, multiple pubescent to adult sexual experiences, as well as various other details of his young life are all important to his growing up. An experience in his life that was incredible impactful was gardening with his mother, who died while Kroetsch was a young child. The repetition of his mother asking for the radish seeds is an example of how his history of gardening influenced his childhood memories of his mother. The garden was a central part of his childhood, connecting him to his mother, and the land. After his mother’s death, Kroetsch explained, "[w]hen my mother died I became the family gardener.... When I found that seed catalogue my whole self was vulnerable and exposed" (Marshall 50) showcasing how gardening was such an important aspect of his