Janet & Brian Lovelock’s stunning garden was awarded the following in the recent Summer Garden Awards: Premier Garden. Tosswill Memorial Award: 1st. 5 Star Garden. Doyle Award : 1st. 5 Star Garden Special feature award: 1st Perennials and Annuals Special feature award: 2nd Vegetables. See more from the garden in the slideshow above. Full results … Read More
Smart planting for healthy bees Why Are Bees Important? Imagine a world without strawberries, kiwifruit, apples, nuts, coffee, chocolate or even denim jeans! And that’s only the beginning. One mouthful in three and nearly ¾ of the diversity of our daily food is directly attributed to Bee pollination. Billions of dollars in NZ export earnings depend … Read More
Michael Coulter’s Top Tasks February is one of the busy months of the gardeners’ year, during this time we are harvesting fruit and vegetables, weeding, watering, Summer pruning fruit trees, dead heading flowers and roses and getting the garden ready for the coming Winter. Tree ripened fruit is for me the real highlight at this … Read More
Michael Coulter’s Top Tasks January is the month of many tasks in the garden. To keep plants healthy and in full production it is important to have a regular schedule of work that involves weeding, watering, harvesting and replanting for a continual supply or fruit, vegetables and flowers. It is better to try and have … Read More
Michael Coulter’s Top Tasks Now is a very busy time in the garden. Plant growth is rapid and we need to keep on top of the many tasks that need to be done. The weather has been very changeable with a lot of wind. This means that we will have to keep up the watering … Read More
The most exciting release for 2014 is a world first and Oderings’ own exclusive black petunia named ‘Dark Heart’. It has very large, near-black flowers, which at times have undertones of a deep purple hue. In the trials, it had a mounding habit but did not really cascade. ‘Dark Heart’ is unique and will be … Read More
As I write this it is Labour weekend, the time that we gardeners start to plant the warmer loving plants in our vegetable and flower gardens. The weather will still be changeable so we need to watch out for any late frosts on our more tender plants. We have had little rain and the ground … Read More
The month of October is one of the busiest times in the garden. The days are now longer than the nights and along with the higher temperatures plant growth from now on will be very rapid. Flower Garden Keep the water up on daffodils so that they grow well to produce next season’s flowers, also … Read More
The days are getting longer and at the end of the month daylight saving starts, meaning plants begin their growth, flowers burst out and our garden work really gets under way. One of the best tips at this time of year is to do today what needs to be done as tomorrow may be too … Read More
August is one of the coldest months of the year but it is also the Winter month closest to Spring so our thoughts must now turn to the tasks needed to be completed as Spring approaches. Much of the work is preparation for the sowing of seeds, planting and cleaning up of weeds. As the days lengthen day time temperature can be quite warm which can bring on new growth but be aware that nights will still be cold and there will be plenty of frosts to come.