January has to be one of my favourite months for gardens. Spring’s sometimes tempestuous exuberance settles into the more relaxed, grown-up style of our mid-summer, in perfect tandem with prime holiday time. Lawns are usually still a pleasant green, trees cast cool shade by day and the evenings are balmy. To top it off in [...]

If you mark the festive season by sitting down to a meal of new potatoes and fresh peas from your garden, you are doing far better than I’ve managed this year. With moving house, the new garden is not ready – but I’ve promised myself I will do better next year. But I can, at [...]

Roses are our most loved flower. So each November, when blooms should be at their best, the country’s big rose fraternity and rose fans by the thousand focus on Hamilton Gardens where over a weekend of great ceremony, fun and excitement the prestigious New Zealand Rose of the Year awards are decided. Children, the public, [...]