Gillian Vine

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.

Photographer Rob Suisted rightly gets top billing (writer Matt Turner's name is not printed on the cover) for Wildflowers of New Zealand. An elegant collection of images, most of them in close-up, it illustrates a selection of our unique flora and - unlike some other books on the subject - has no introduced plants.

Sow and plant now for summer colour, says Gillian Vine.

The World Daffodil Convention, which is being held in Dunedin next week, offers plenty for the public. Gillian Vine reports.

There is nothing more delicious than home-grown vegetables. Gillian Vine suggests some that do especially well in the South.

There's a lovely photo in My French Affair of a glamorous young blonde with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

Recent young adult fiction runs the gamut from extremely good to incredibly tedious.

Spring is around the corner and the gardener is tempted to plant. Gillian Vine looks at what flower and vegetable seeds can safely be put in now.

A Dutch park gets the thumbs-up from Gillian Vine.

Amsterdam's flower market and botanic garden delight Gillian Vine, but she isn't as impressed with the Floriade horticultural expo.

Southern gardeners may think gardening in the mountains is difficult but it's not all bad, Gillian Vine learns.

Next year, the world's most famous flower show celebrates 100 years in the grounds of Chelsea's Royal Hospital, but, says Gillian Vine, the show is really much older.

Edible flowers make a pretty talking point at mealtimes, says Gillian Vine.

With a little bit of help, it is amazing the number and variety of succulents that will grow outside in Dunedin, if given the right spot and conditions. Our climate is not as extreme as we, or at least the rest of New Zealand, might think.

Small and productive . . . Gillian Vine suggests some fruit trees for smaller gardens.

Soft-fruit shrubs, plants and canes are suitable for gardens of all sizes. Gillian Vine reports.

When he is 16, an autistic boy, Merlin, is hit by a car and lies unconscious in hospital. His mother, Lucy, is devastated not only because her son may die but also because Merlin ran into the road after she had yelled at him.

Two parallel stories of separated parents and the issues surrounding custody of children are the backbone of Matilda is Missing by Australian Caroline Overington.