Home & Garden

An Outram gardener is getting ready for the town's annual flower show. Gillian Vine reports.

Vegetables Onion seed sown this month will withstand the winter, then mature into good-sized bulbs for harvesting next summer. Prepare soil with wood ash if you can get it, lime and some garden compost, or a general garden fertiliser.

Saturday, February 11 Sawyers Bay Garden Club birthday bus trip. Bus departs hall, Station Rd, Sawyers Bay 10am. Note correction to time.

Androsace lanuginosa - there are several variations on the pronunciation of this name, any one of which ends up sounding like a Harry Potter levitation spell.

Looking particularly good in the white herbaceous border at Dunedin Botanic Garden is a plant smothered in a mass of flowers.

Vegetables There is a good case for mixing vegetables with flowers to get the best production from gardens, especially those that lose the sun early. This is particularly true for south-facing properties or gardens overshadowed by high trees.

Tomorrow, February 4 Tour some of Alexandra's special homes, noon-4pm. Grahame Sydney talk at 1pm, 2pm and 3pm at Henderson House.

Lilies are not difficult to grow from seed. Gillian Vine gives tips on creating your own hybrids.