This week it seems timely to celebrate autumn and plan planting schemes for the winter. The summer recedes, but autumn can be one of the most beautiful and colourful seasons and the autumn leaf colours last an unusually long time in New Zealand especially in the north where leaf fall is not speeded by frost […]
Can you have a garden without plants? – a good question indeed. Many people’s idea of a garden is somewhere to grow flowers, vegetables and fruit. Indeed one definition of a garden is ‘a place set aside from the wilderness where the hand of the gardener works in harmony with nature to cultivate for use […]
We Kiwis love our gardens. Apparently, gardening itself is still one our most popular pastimes. However, despite surveys suggesting the contrary, more and more of us are opting for the ‘do-it-for-me’ approach. We want our homes to look as smart and stylish on the outside as they do indoors, and increasingly, we’re just as happy […]
Visitors to the Ellerslie International Flower Show have spoken and chosen Texture Plants’ Off the Wall garden as their favourite. The People’s Choice Award was last night given to a garden which is a secluded area in which to escape from the hustle and bustle of every-day life. It is a combination of seamless structures, […]
Now is the time to re-invent native planting. The 1980s saw what I like to call the ‘early period’ of native planting design. It was based on the ‘DoC Visitor Centre’ idiom – a bushy thicket of mixed vigorous shrubs and trees with a scattering of sedges or grasses at the edges – oh, and […]
On 11th of March the gates for the first Christchurch-hosted Ellerslie International Flower Show open, promising “the biggest and the best show” in Ellerslie’s 14-year-old history. With more than 80 horticultural exhibits, the stage is set to develop the Southern Hemisphere’s largest garden show into one of the top five garden shows in the world, […]
Sustainability is a buzzword which permeates flower shows these days – and this year’s Ellerslie International Flower Show is no exception. Waterwise planting, water recycling, intelligent use of water, low-energy gardens and restoring soil nutrients are all key international garden trends and many of these concepts will be seen in two exhibition gardens at […]
This month we discuss what to plant in January, how to save seeds, offer tips on saving water and tell you why you shouldn’t worry about slaters in your garden. Seedlings to plant in January Beetroot, Carrot, Celery, Climbing beans, Cucumber, Dwarf beans, Lettuce, Leeks, Kumara, Parsnip, Pepper, Potato, Pumpkin, Radish, Rhubarb, Silverbeet Saving seeds Seed saving is the […]
