NZ Gardener goes green with a sustainability issue

Press Release 25 September 2007

NZ Gardener goes green with a special sustainability issue

NZ Gardener has gone green in its October issue, focusing on the organic and sustainability revolution in New Zealand gardens.

The magazine’s team of experts - including a guest appearance by HRH, The Prince of Wales - share their strategies for cutting down on chemicals and adopting organic solutions instead.

Prince Charles chips in with words of wisdom from his new book, The Elements of Organic Gardening, while local organic gardening guru Kay Baxter joins the magazine to begin a new column focusing on seed saving and heritage fruit trees.

NZ Gardener editor Lynda Hallinan says the worm may be turning in the Kiwi approach to green gardening, following the international growth in the organic market. ”At the Chelsea Flower Show this year, 75 per cent of gardeners questioned in a major study nominated climate change as their key gardening concern - and in New Zealand the organic gardening market is also growing strongly in response to consumer demand.”

Lynda, who began her own sustainable gardening crusade this year by attempting to be self-sufficient in her inner-city Auckland garden, shares her thoughts on food miles, while award-winning landscape designer Xanthe White shows how to have a sustainable garden that’s stylish too.

“While fashions and fads may come and go, gardens that last the distance are the ones that people love the most,” says White. “The designer’s role is to lure people in so they are seduced even before they realise that the garden is also acting with the health of the planet in mind.”

NZ Gardener’s October issue also reveals how to make your own compost and how to plant to attract birds, bees and beneficial bugs.

The North Island Garden of the Month belongs to Alathea and Bill Armstrong in Taranaki and features in the upcoming Taranaki Rhododendron Festival, while the South Island Garden of the Month is Jo and Robin Burleigh’s chemical-free haven in Le Bons Bay, Banks Peninsula.

In this issue the 15 regional winners of the NZ Gardener 2007 Gardener of the Year competition, in association with Bunnings Warehouse, are also announced. Chief judge Lynda Hallinan says she’s thrilled the magazine is able to reward and recognise our nation’s unsung horticultural heroes. “The competition is now open to a public vote to decide the overall champion.”

For more details, see the NZ Gardener October issue, on sale now.

ENDS

© Scoop Media