Slipping back into our everyday chores and challenges is a comedown after a great holiday, but Aucklanders Andrew Carpenter and Gavin Travers have found the answer to post-holiday blues.
They have created a backyard ‘getaway’ where it’s easy to pretend you are at a Pacific island resort. Now on summer’s stingingly hot days they have the perfect place to relax (see page 19).
Everyone has their own ‘idyll’ to allude to when creating successful restful retreats like this. We give some suggestions for shaping your own garden getaway (page 12).
Meanwhile, peak harvest time is nigh in edible gardens with veggies and fruit fast maturing in great abundance. It’s easy to be so beguiled by our success we overlook the real test of a good kitchen gardener. Then suddenly, especially in cooler districts, it’s too late to sow or even plant some of the choicest winter crops, like the cabbages on page 28.
Northerners have more leeway but nature has no favourites. I can be smug about the fruiting bananas in my garden but yet again brown rot has already won with nectarines and peaches.
Great gardeners find the right balance between accepting their site’s limitations and finding ways to defy them. The rest of us keep trying and that’s a lot of fun.
It also fun to view lovely gardens like the 23 in the 2009 Heroic Gardens Festival in Auckland on March 7–8, one of our favourite garden weekends.
In this issue we carry our pullout official programme so you can get a sneak preview and have plenty of time to buy tickets.
This year’s festival -– it all started in 1997 – showcases new gardens alongside favourites from over the years. These gardens are leading edge and provide a wonderful look at subtropical Auckland.
Get your tickets now and help support Hospice.
Susie Longdell
Editor
