Cover Stories
September 9th - 22nd 2010
Yes, it’s tulip time
To celebrate spring, Esther Paddon shares her
unforgettable trip to the world’s top tulip display.
Connoisseur Keith
Susie Longdell gets tips from a Nelson man
who grows hundreds of different varieties.
Starting tomatoes
Susie Longdell and Rodney Dunn help you choose
seed and get tomatoes off to a good start.
Using nature’s art
Lesley Ingham visits a garden where a destructive
storm has lead to standout sculptures.
DIY: Mini propagator
Mark Rayner shows how to construct a small
unit for seed sowing and rooting tip cuttings.
Beauty in ‘Blue’
Jacqueline Sparrow delights in blue ginger even though she’s not so keen on its name.
Myrtle has merits
Herb specialist Marilyn Wightman gives tips on growing and cooking with the true myrtle.
Propagating Aids
Mark Rayner presents more DIY propagators made with recycled household items.
Savouring spring
Try this rocket and radicchio recipe from the just-released New Zealand Vegetable Cookbook.
Walls: What works
Mark Rayner picks some of his favourite plants for growing on retaining and crib walls.
Dig that garden
Andrew Maloy gives tips on digging in green crops and weeds in readiness for summer veggie planting.
In the edible garden
Our team from around the country gives tips and reports on top crops and tasks.NEXT ISSUE AVAILABLE FROM 23rd September 2010
Living Stones in Auckland
July 12, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
IN this our mid-winter issue, Andrew Maloy tells the story of an Auckland man’s long-time love affair with Lithops, unusual living stones or pebble plants he discovered in South Africa.
After also visiting the republic and walking the fynbos, Sue Linn has plenty of pointers for lots of protea perfection.
Talking about national icons, we’ve tips on kiwifruit and a recipe for a marinade.
Down south, Gillian Vine goes to Dunedin’s delightful Chinese Garden, an inspiring place, now the city’s biggest tourist attraction, that shines in our coldest months.
Veronica Armstrong gives advice on lichen; and Plant Gallery has interesting vegetable seeds to grow.
It’s a great time for DIY projects; we’ve three you can tackle in the garage: a patio display, a climbing frame; newspaper eco seedling pots; and a great project for the kids, Mark Rayner’s delightful sleepy Mexican ornament made from pots.
With all the rain around, it’s a good time to be pottering around in a glasshouse; enter our feature draw and be in to win a Redpath® model.
Good gardening and reading.
Chelsea golds galore
June 15, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
WHEN it comes to gardening events, Chelsea Flower Show is tops and this year saw new records, including the most gold medals awarded.
This was unexpected as night frosts were still rolling in 12 days before the show and exhibitors worried whether flowers would unfold in time.
This year can also claim Chelsea’s most expensive show garden – the $44 million Ace of Diamonds Garden. But it takes more than sparkling jewels to dazzle Chelsea judges who gave it a bronze award despite its glitter.
Then the judges awarded just a silver to the Peoples Choice winner for small gardens.
In this issue (page 10) we bring you highlights of the show – choose your own favourites and be inspired by ideas for your backyard.
Now winter has really arrived we’ve tips on feeding hungry birds (page 14), on choosing and caring for citrus, the mainstay of the winter orchard (page 22), and show how to take hardwood cuttings, the great no-cost way to produce new edible and ornamental plants (page 26).
Also in this issue, our centrefold supplement has winter offerings from Diack’s Nurseries, a southern gardening institution based in Invercargill. View www.diacks.co.nz
Susie Longdell,
Editor.
Vegetable Seeds to Grow
June 15, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
This issue of Weekend Gardener magazine includes Vegetable Seeds to Grow: a selection of seeds new to Kings Seeds. More details at www.kingsseeds.co.nz
Flora Tours 2011 Diary
June 15, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
In this issue of Weekend Gardener, we have a special pullout guide – The Flora Tours 2011 Tour Diary.
Reader Letters – Issue #292
June 1, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
Nameless delight
I have had this rose (pictured left) in my garden for many years. It is completely free of thorns, and each branch is covered with blooms lasting for weeks. The blooms don’t lose their petals – when they turn brown I just remove them from the stems.
This beautiful rose delights visitors and yes, they all want cuttings, which I gladly give. It is also almost disease-free and I have not seen it elsewhere.
It flowers from spring to autumn like other roses and the largest bloom is about 7-8cm across. The petal edges turn pink after the second or third week and most blooms stay tightly cupped.
Your magazine is so informative. Since I started gardening five years ago I’ve learned so much from it. I was never interested in planting vegetables but now I enjoy it.
Thank you so much. I look forward to each issue. Good on you, team. Keep it up. Read more
DNA exposes ferns in international plant trade
June 1, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
AMERICAN scientists have used DNA to identify fake ferns.
DNA testing of garden ferns sold at some American plant nurseries has found that plants marketed as American natives may actually be exotic species from other parts of the globe.
The finding relied on a new technique called “DNA barcoding” that uses small snippets of DNA to distinguish between species, in much the same way that a supermarket scanner uses the black lines in a barcode to identify cans of soup or boxes of cereal.
A team of North Carolina researchers suspected a fern might not be what the labels said it was.
When they pasted the DNA sequence of three of the plant’s genes into an online database, they discovered that what had been labeled as Wright’s lip fern (Cheilanthes wrightii), an American native popular in rock gardens and xeriscapes, was in fact a bristle cloak fern (C. distans), a relative from Australia.
Garden guru, celebrity chef at Kitchen and Garden Show
June 1, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
RADIO and television gardening guru Tony Murrell and celebrity chef Helen Jackson will star in an evening of laughter, enjoyment and give aways – the Kitchen and Garden Show live at TSB Showplace, New Plymouth, on August 19.
Tony Murrell, of TV One’s Mucking In, is joined by Helen Jackson, food editor of NZ Woman’s Weekly. She has an award-winning website Foodlovers.co.nz and as well as working on radio with Tony she has regular spots on Television One’s Good Morning show.
There are prizes and giveaways for everyone from sponsors Tui Products and part proceeds will go to the Child Cancer Foundation. Tickets available through Ticketek and from Big Jim’s Garden Centre in Bell Block, New Plymouth.
Lots to Like About Winter
June 1, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
ALAS, our recent long drought has in one way spoilt me. Just one wet weekend has been enough to provoke raging cabin fever but in this issue Mark Rayner has the prefect antidote – a low-cost project to undertake under cover (page 16). The result, a nifty patio planter for veggies and herbs does away with dashes in the dark down to the garden when we want fresh greens for dinner.
What to plant in it now? Andrew Maloy has veggie suggestions for winter containers (page 14). Pamela McGeorge (page 22) looks at gravel gardens – an appealing idea when after months of drought, its either raining or the grass is sodden when we mow our lawns. Gravel would combat winter mud too.
But there are lots to like about winter. No flies inside, no mosquitoes out, and there’s that ascetic appeal of gardens stripped of the other seasons’ froth and frill. Austere at times, but the perfect backdrop to star winter plants like those Mark Rayner suggests (page 20). What better way to warm the heart than a bright and beautiful bloom.
Susie Longdell,
Editor.
Weekend Gardener Gains 8000 Readers
June 1, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
Weekend Gardener now has 132,000 readers.
Readership jumped 6.5% for the year ended March 31, 2010, up from 124,000 for the same period last year, according to Neilsen Media National Readership Survey.
Weekend Gardener’s readership for the Q2 09 – Q1 2010 period represents 3.5% of population 10+.
Treemendous School Makeover
June 1, 2010 by Susie · Leave a Comment
ALBANY School is one of four to win Treemendous School Makeovers having its grounds enhanced with a native tree garden.
Bucklands Beach Primary School (East Auckland), St Joseph’s School (New Plymouth) and East Taieri School (Dunedin) were also selected by the Mazda Foundation and Project Crimson Trust joint initiative from 94 schools.
“We’ve completed eight school makeovers,” says Mazda Foundation chairman Andrew Clearwater. “Many schools are now viewing environmental education as an important part of the curriculum and are using their makeover areas as outdoor classrooms.”
Albany School’s grove, originally ‘out of bounds’ for students, is now transformed with seating, landscaping and mature native trees to attract native birds and insects, after teachers discussed the idea for five years before being able to put their plan into action.
View: www.projectcrimson.org.nz and www.mazdafoundation.org.nz
Quarterly Magazines
Our new special edition “Growing Edibles” is out now.
Full of tips and know-how plus inspirational examples of sustainable vegetable, fruit and herb gardens.
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