A very popular ornamental shrub commonly known as Buxus or Boxwood and often grown as a border plant, trimmed to keep compact for a more formal type setting. In the past thousands of these plants have been produced by nurseries to satisfy the demand from gardeners wanting to establish box hedges. The same plants have […]
Of all the how-to gardening tips friends and clients could ask of New Zealand’s landscape-design star, Xanthe White says people mostly quiz her about growing veges. It’s clear that vegetable gardening is big again, for both money-saving, eco and health reasons, but many people don’t know how to get growing in the first place. So, […]
I can feel spring in the air and the daffodils are a welcome sight! The dream house is wonderful but the number of slugs and snails in the garden is astounding. Anyway, I am having to make do with the vege beds that are already here for this season until I have time to really […]
The met service has reported that we had the warmest August ever since records began with about 1.5 degrees above average, which does not seem a much on those odd cold days, but for a lot of insect pests it means an early arrival. A good hard, cold winter takes its toll on insect populations […]
Last season a number of gardeners lost potato and tomato crops to an insect called the potato psyllid which releases a toxin into the plants and causes the young potatoes or tomatoes not to grow much larger than a marble. My suggested treatment is a combination of Neem Tree Granules and sprays of Neem Tree […]
We’re on the count down to spring folks, on hindsight, winter doesn’t seem to have been that bad this year. Maybe it just that I’m on an uncontrollable high at the moment. We’ve just moved into our dream home, hence the lateness of the newsletter being sent out, sorry. The garden comes complete with a […]
It may be midwinter, but the Monarch Butterfly New Zealand Trust is urging all butterfly gardeners to think about spring, and the most royal of butterflies, the Monarch. “Earlier this year many gardeners were upset that their caterpillars were dying,” said Jacqui Knight, Secretary of the Trust. “People run out of milkweed (swan plant), and […]
It is likely at this time that the roses are in an in-between state of losing foliage as they go into dormancy for the winter months. Some may still have flowers and buds, and if you have not removed them, they will have seed pods which are called ‘rose hips’. These rose hips will contain […]
