Growing vegetables or fruit in your own backyard has made a comeback. Christina McDonald learns from an old hand how it's done in Queenstown.
His garden boasts pinot noir grapes, radishes and everything in between but what Pat Paulin is most proud of in his Frankton garden is his apple tree.
Mr Paulin was raised in Glenorchy at the top of Lake Wakatipu and within the established garden, which he shares with wife Shirley, is a piece of Glenorchy which has recently begun to feel at home.
''That's the most precious plant in the garden.''
He is of course talking about a grafted apple tree, ''an ignorant apple tree'', which has finally begun to take off after a few attempts.
''I'm very, very thrilled to keep that bloodline going.''
The apple tree isn't the only garden resident with Glenorchy roots - raspberries from Paradise and near Earnslaw Station now flourish in their new home under the Remarkables while the peach tree has Central Otago origins.
The aforementioned fruit help create an annual ''rumpot'', which begins growing when the strawberries start ripening.
The strawberries are joined by a pound of sugar and covered with rum before the process is repeated with raspberries, cherries, blackberries and peaches.
It's a treat which makes the months when the Remarkables are covered in snow a little bit warmer, as does the tomato soup and spaghetti which is made from the garden's tomatoes and stored in the freezer.
However, an attempt to capitalise on the pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay grapes, which originate from Gibbston, has not gone so well.
''I tried making wine from them but that was just a good supply of vinegar,'' Mr Paulin says.
He had tried to make 13 varieties of wine, including oak leaf wine: ''I went through the process of making oak leaf wine and it was the most vile, horrible taste I'd ever had''.
''So I put it away in my cupboard and thought I'd keep it for my enemies,'' but after five years the wine had matured and ''it was just about as good as brandy and I was impressed'', so no-one but himself got the wine in the end.
Many grapes are given to neighbours and friends, as are other fruits grown in this suburban orchard which makes use of every bit of space.
Potatoes are grown in bags, which Mr Paulin said will last him and Shirley months, mint is grown in a container to prevent the roots spreading, beans are grown behind the glasshouse containing tomatoes and grapes are in multiple locations.
Mr Paulin says his favourite spot in the garden for the past 25 years is in a chair facing the Remarkables and surrounded by the raspberries, broad beans, mint, potatoes, grapes artichokes, peaches and others.
''The garden produces many surprises,'' he muses.
Top tips
• Keep the bloodlines going. Keep at your cuttings - they will grow.
• In Queenstown, people don't have much room so grow potatoes in bags and buckets.
• Use your own compost with a bit of nitrogen in. Don't buy any special potting mix.
• When pruning roses: be ruthless.
• Make use of your grandchilden for jobs like pruning grapes.
• Use the experts when apple-grafting.
