A very productive place

WHAT is a garden? A place to grow pretty  flowers and display plant treasures? A pleasing retreat from our workaday world? A rewarding outlet for creative inclinations or somewhere to grow food?

It’s all these things, of course, but with fashion and other forces focus changes. Right now the garden’s productive role is paramount, especially in our back gardens, with veggies thriving where there were lawns.

Fruit trees have replaced 1970s silver birches. And why not? We still get the shade, nobody gets upset when we prune them and generally they stay a manageable size – and provide the joys of picking your own crops.

To help you choose which fruit to grow, Andrew Steens and Gillian Vine have plenty of tips and pointers (page 16).

Like fruit, bulbs and their ilk (tubers, corms and rhizomes) are tangible evidence of a garden’s productivity. Some like onions and potatoes, we eat; others we grow for their floral charms.

Autumn is the time many of these go on sale. Lesley Ingham talks to a skilled pair of bulb specialists who share some useful advice (page 12).

In this issue, we also bring you the official programme of the Waitakere Artists Studio Weekend as a centre pullout – good reason to visit Auckland on March 27 – 28. This arts trail is a wonderful chance to meet local artists in their studios (many in garden settings), learn creative processes and buy artwork.

See you at Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch.

Susie Longdell,

Editor.