Many gardeners are always looking for ways to improve their gardens whether it be vegetables, roses, ornamentals or fruit trees.
Their goal is to have very healthy plants, wonderful roses, great lawns and excellent crops. There are a number of things that you can do to improve your gardens by improving your soils. The optimum is to have a soil that is teeming with microbes which make up what we call the soil food web. This creates humus from the trillions of their dead bodies and gives the plants the ultimate growing medium.

A good indication of how good your garden soils are, is by the number of earthworms present in a square foot of soil. If there are none you have a problem, if there are about 25 that is good and if there are about 100 that is excellent. Earthworms will only be found if the soil is kept moist. That is moist not soaking wet.
The same applies to your soil food web, it needs ample moisture to keep growing and thriving. When the soil becomes too dry or too wet then activity stops.
Chemicals kill the soil food web and badly affect your worm populations. This not only includes chemical (man made) fertilisers but also chemical sprays including chemical weed killers and chlorinated water from your tap. It is not difficult to overcome all of the above by just not using them on your gardens, especially where your food crops and preferred plants such as roses are growing. If you are in an area where chlorinated water is in your tap then you need to place a 10 micron carbon bonded filter onto your hose line to remove the chemical. This will remove the chlorine from about 16000 litres of water before it needs to be replaced. If you have silty (sediment) water then your carbon filter will block up quickly and to overcome this problem you place a paper filter in line, prior to the carbon filter. (The paper filter can be cleaned and reused for many years with care)
Calcium is the fuel that microbes need so dependant on what plants are growing in an area, soft garden lime is applied (not to acid loving plants) and dolomite and gypsum are also applied.

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An evolving ice garden with a two-metre high towering iceberg, a developing ice sheet and an ocean abundant with plants representing marine life comprises the Christchurch International Airport’s Antarctic Garden at the Ellerslie International Flower Show in March.

A metaphor for the Antarctic landscape, An Icy Oasis (pictured above) is designed by Christchurch landscape designer and Ellerslie International Flower Show mentor Dan Rutherford. [Read more →]

Media Release

Nursery & Garden Industry Association supports Ministry of Health gardening guidelines

Following recent cases of Legionnella infection (legionellosis) in Christchurch, the Nursery and Garden Industry Association (NGIA) endorses Ministry of Health guidelines on safe gardening. Read more about this article...

Words Peta Stavelli   Photographs CPL

Five years ago Karen and Mike Robertson were living in Central London, happily unaware a new home was waiting for them in New Zealand.

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Featured Article from Backyard & Garden Design Ideas Magazine

Words: Natalie Raad Photos: Donna Stanish of Seed Landscapes

An oasis of colour and texture brings a subtropical theme to this humble garden. Set against a backdrop of native New Zealand bushland, the garden has been transformed intoa resort-style haven and is the perfect complement for this suburban Auckland property.

Designed by Donna Stanish of Seed Landscapes, the garden was constructed by the client himself, who is a builder. “It was a real pleasure working with someone who could quickly interpret the plan and envisage the finer construction details that go into making a garden unique,” says Donna.

The design brief called for a family garden, a space suitable for playing, entertaining and relaxing. The interior of the house had recently been renovated and the homeowners were keen to give their garden a makeover — they wanted the garden to reflect their own style and personality. [Read more →]

It is Saturday in Palmerston North, and while I am writing this, nice showers are wetting the soil and plants are growing in response.

It has been a poor spring and summer so far for gardening, but hopefully conditions will improve in February, if they don’t then it’s going to be a bad season overall.
Poor seasons are accepted as part of the life of a seasoned gardener but for the newer gardeners it is a setback they don’t need. In gardening you take the good with the bad and garden on, without losing heart.

Recently I watch the gardening program on the Prime channel which would be of assistance to newer gardeners. There was some good points raised and being the critic I am there were aspects that I did not agree with.

I had not seen any previous episodes but obviously this young family had converted some lawn area into a few raised gardens. The first thing that struck me was that the raised gardens were too wide, which meant that you had to walk on them to sow, plant and harvest. This is wrong as a raised garden should not be walked on, or suitable paths be placed through, so that you can tend plants without walking on the growing areas. Tramping down your growing areas means you would need to dig and cultivate the compacted areas; a raised garden should be a no dig garden.

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A weed can be defined as a plant growing where you do not want it to grow. It maybe a preferred plant that has seeded or spread to become invasive, or it maybe a non desired plant that has made its home in your gardens.

I spoke to one gardener this week that had been told that horseradish makes a good companion plant so he had planted horseradish in several areas of his garden.
Horseradish spreads by its root system similar to convolvulus, couch and a number of other invasive weeds. This gardener now has a major problem trying to gain control.
Horseradish and mints are best grown in containers where they are secure in the pot. It is also advisable not to have the container in contact with the soil as they can creep out of the drainage holes to take over the area. [Read more →]

Featured article from September / October Alfresco Magazine 2009

Landscape designer Sandra Batley investigates the concept of Living Walls, the latest gravity defying technology literally changing the way we view gardens.

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I would like to wish all our readers a very Merry Xmas and a Happy Gardening New Year.
It is a very great pleasure to bring you gardening information each week and to hear about your successes and problems.
Your emails and phone calls contribute a lot to these columns and sometimes when stuck for a topic, one of you will contact me with a query and the resulting answers, make for the start of an article.

We are always coming across better ways of gardening, improving the health of the soil and plants, so it’s never ending.

Maybe that’s what life is all about, always learning and experiencing, so all the best for Xmas and the New Year.
After 25 years of writing these weekly articles I have decided this season to have a couple of weeks off so I will resume the weekly articles early in the New Year.

Some Tips for Current Problems

I receive many emails and phone calls from gardeners that have problems in their gardens or with certain plants. These questions change with each of the seasons but re-appear about the same time each year. I have the view that if one gardener has a specific problem then likely there are 100 or even 1000 more gardeners with the same.

Currently here are some of the problems; Tomatoes not setting fruit? Air movement or vibration are the setters. On a sunny day when flowers are open, tap the plant to cause a slight vibration, which will set those flowers. [Read more →]