Gillian Vine

Working bees are the model for Permablitz, which is converting backyards to vegetables beds. Gillian Vine reports.

Many international flower shows feature new plants. Gillian Vine looks at this year's Ellerslie line-up.

It's not to late to sow winter vegetables, writes Gillian Vine.

Discreetly tucked away behind the garden centres' heaps of daffodils and tulips are likely to be the bulbs available in smaller quantities - snowdrops, snowflakes, camassias, tritelias, dog's-tooth violets and maybe even a few of the pretty little Mariposa tulips (Calochortus).

There's a fashion at the moment for books recording a year in the writer's garden. New Zealand Gardener editor-at-large Lynda Hallinan is the latest to tap into the trend with a record that progressed from scrawled notes in garden diary to the publication of Back to the Land.

She misses out on tasting the cherries but Gillian Vine still gets excited by an English fruit collection.

More vegetables, fewer flowers, impressive floral art, the first school entry, excellent sculpture and a massive photographic section were some of the impressions of this year's Ellerslie International Flower Show in Christchurch this week.

In South Australia, there is a push to have more community gardens so that people will eat more fruit and vegetables.

Formerly unused land at a Dunedin school has been turned into a productive community garden. Gillian Vine reports.

Waihola gardens are in the spotlight tomorrow, reports Gillian Vine.

Gardening was a Waihola woman's way of meeting her neighbours, Gillian Vine learns.

Gillian Vine gets excited about Southland.

Stuck for an idea for a present for a gardener? Gillian Vine has some suggestions.

Former New Zealand Woman's Weekly gardening editor Denise Cleverley has given Yates Garden Problem Solver a makeover, so it bears little resemblance to its ancestors, the 1990 Yates Garden Doctor or the 2000 and 2006 editions of Yates Garden Problem Solver.

The Otago Iris Group is holding its first show tomorrow. Gillian Vine reports.

Dunedin is looking rosy during the next couple of weeks, Gillian Vine says.

A Waikouaiti small garden is big on trees. Gillian Vine reports.

Three Dunedin gardens will be open this month to raise funds for a cancer charity. Gillian Vine visits one of them.

Carrots are often lauded as being easy to grow, but their exponents tend to omit three qualifying "ifs": carrots will do well if your ground is not too rich, if the soil is fine and if the minimum temperature is above 5degC when seed is sown.