It’s been a darn good summer and tested us as gardeners. Extremely sunny across New Zealand. The combination of northwest winds and the ‘blocking high’ resulted in record January sunshine across the eastern South Island. Temperatures were above average. Of the six main centres in January 2013, Auckland was the warmest, Dunedin the coolest, Wellington … Read More
Many of our members are establishing new gardens on old sites post-earthquake. This might pose some problems so look out for: Interference from surroundings such as established big trees over the fence that might take all the nutrients and moisture from the soil. You will need to compensate for this at least until your new … Read More
With Michael Coulter How’s your Spring? It has been a traditional hot/cold start to spring. It was predicted. It was relatively stormy October, with more frequent southwest winds and lower pressures than usual affecting New Zealand. These south-westerly winds produced a rather cool October for the south and the west of the South Island. Of … Read More
August – All About Gardening With Michael Coulter Michael opened with last night’s brilliant display of lightning and roaring thunder, followed by ‘golf-ball sized’ hailstones. ‘’I lost about 100 panes in my glasshouse’’ he said. Hailstones in some suburbs measured about 3cm in diameter. Metservice weather forecaster, Allister Gorman, said hailstones larger than 20 millimetres … Read More
August – All About Gardening With Michael Coulter It was good to see a book on New Zealand’s Native Trees was crowned New Zealand Post Book of the Year at a recent gala dinner in Auckland. Seven years work, more than 100,000 four-wheel drive kilometres and countless hours walking in dense forest paid off for … Read More
JULY – ALL ABOUT GARDENING With Michael Coulter The good news for today……we actually get into double figures, with a predicted 10 degrees. As gardeners we never stop. Michael said Southhort compost at $6.50 for a 40 litre bag was very good buying. To buy now ready for the mulching in the spring and summer … Read More
MAY ALL ABOUT GARDENING With Michael Coulter How’s your autumn ? It’s a funny season …. the end of the growing season. It’s time to think about what we did in the previous twelve months. What worked and what didn’t. Chrysanthemums are looking good this year. It’s not easy to get colour in your gardens … Read More
APRIL ALL ABOUT GARDENING With Michael Coulter It’s been a great month so far. Above average. But so far, we’re 40 sunshine hours behind the average for the year. We haven’t had any extremes of temperatures and no sign of early frosts. Now is a good time to clean up your gardens before the weather … Read More
MARCH ALL ABOUT GARDENING With Michael Coulter ‘Autumn has come a bit early’, said Michael. Rainfall has been above average BUT sunshine hours are about 45 hours below average. Temperatures have been between 18 and 22 degrees. ‘Things have been growing pretty well considering the imposed water restrictions’ ‘Now is harvesting time and time to … Read More
FEBRUARY ALL ABOUT GARDENING With Michael Coulter Michael opened February’s meeting with the introduction of a ‘special’ table and problem board that would be available for those members who often wanted to ask a question but did not feel comfortable speaking in an open forum. They would be able to place their questions on the … Read More