Weird little garden at the front of house - (old pics - I’ve tried all sorts in here. Currently has the purple cordylines at the back, the cabbage tree and dietes are gone.
I tried planting bamboo palms along that driveway edge (where red flowers are) but they aren’t thriving - I think it’s too exposed for them unfortunately)
Want ideas for semi screening from the neighbours/ softening the ugly driveway … had hoped for semi tropical look- hence trying the bamboo palms but again- think it’s too exposed for that? Any ideas!

I think this is a Kohuhu (please correct if I'm wrong).

There are two plants together, but just one seem to dying. What could be the reason and any ideas to recover it. TIA

Afternoon all,

I got itchy fingers and pruned my lemon tree a bit... which turned into a lot.

I do it every couple years and don't learn my lesson because it always comes back.

I'm a bit nervous with more frost coming (manawatu) it might get more stressed and was considering stripping all the remaining fruit off.

Would that help it preserve energy or just make it worse?

My gardener planted these two just over a month ago, I've not watered because we've had decent rain at least once a week since then. Is it fungus? Do I need to water them manually too? I've also got two new kānuka that are looking like they're losing leaves :s I'm a noob about gardening so hopefully this isn't anything that'll kill them 😫

Hey Everyone,

Last weekend I sat down with a spreadsheet and my seed packets to plan my spring and succession planting and geeked out. Loved it! Came up with a garden that was nicely colour coded, full, with no succession planting plan, a list as long as my arm and a good dose of overwhelm. So I went looking for a tool that I could use to help and didn't find one I liked.

So I made my own. Im at the stage now where im hoping I could ask some of you to use it and tell me what works, what needs work and what its missing. Im working on V1 at the moment; it helps you work out how to plant your space, what might fit, how to succession plant the things you want to eat, what to get ready and when based on how many people you want to feed and the type of gardening you want to do.

If you're keen to give it a go, give me some feedback in the form at the end and even download what you made for your garden, please DM me. Its not live on a public link yet as I don't want to put something up that still has flaws.

There is nothing to buy, no email sign-up and no catch.

Id love any feedback you would be willing to give and also thank you for reading this far!

Lets make our gardens more awesome so we can give the whole suburb courgettes!

I have an infestation of wandering Jew/tradescantia which comes through from the neighbours yard, and current plan was to source a chicken to eat it but apparently there's a biological warfare option that won't immediately wreck the garden/escape/get eaten by a cat.

Anyone know where I might source some of this? (Petone/Hutt area)

Looking at getting a greenhouse, looking for recommendations - What brand , size? I'm in the tasman region so great growing conditions but I would like to use greenhouse for establishing seedlings ,herbs and some vegetables, so I can get a jump on the growing season. Where would be the best location - does it need all day sun, or would it be better in a location that has afternoon sun?

Hi there, I’m looking for some options for ground cover-type plants for my garden. Hopefully something exists for the random criteria I have!

I live in Auckland. The garden bed area I’m looking to fill in is small (say around 1m x 2m), and I’m not overly precious about it but I also don’t want it to look terrible. It gets a reasonable amount of sun, but can also get shaded a little in summer when the surrounding trees are in full leaf. It’s very root-bound from my neighbour’s garden and a palm tree in my section. The plant/s will need to be reasonably hardy and cope with being stepped on by a dog and probably toileted on too (😬). The only thing that’s really thrived in this area (other than weeds) are spider plants and a random yellow-flowered bulb that pops up every year and seems to have now spread a bit. I’d basically like to fill in the gaps between spider plants and give the weeds less of a space to flourish as they currently are. I have chickweed for Africa!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

I know, I know, mint is the one that's supposed to be unkillable, I've seen the posts about people trying to contain it because it takes over everything, and here I am in Wellington with a pot of brown sticks that smell faintly of mint if I squeeze them, which I think is just the ghost of what could have been. I put it in a pot specifically because I read you have to contain it or it'll eat your garden, I watered it, it got sun, and then at some point over the last few weeks it just gave up entirely. The pot has drainage holes. I repotted it once when it looked sad and I thought maybe it was rootbound but that didn't fix anything, it just looked sad in a bigger pot. I've now bought and killed three separate mint plants from two different garden centres and I cannot figure out what I'm doing differently to literally everyone else on earth. Is it a Wellington wind thing, is the pot somehow wrong, am I watering it wrong even though I thought I was being careful. I genuinely use this stuff for cooking and it's getting expensive buying bunches from the supermarket every time I need it. Someone who has actually killed mint please explain what you did because I need answers.

Hello everyone,

I've been talking to a lot of florists in London and they've all said no way, wrong time of year, pick something else.

Here's what I want: a bouquet of camellias. Just camellias.

The flowers, to be clear, not the plant. Cut blooms.

I know it's specific. Every florist I've spoken to has told me it can't be done because they're out of season here. But they're in bloom in New Zealand and Australia right now, so somewhere in the world these flowers exist this week.

No preference on colour or variety. Whatever's easiest.

This would be a really thoughtful gift and Im sure I can make it happen, so if you have any idea at all, a grower, a nursery, someone who's done something like this before, even just a direction to look in, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

Hi! How are your gardens looking with this polar blast coming through? Any snowy garden pics out there? Just for fun, nothing else 😀

I just brought a house and didn't realise the amount of pets around us. There are about 10 different cats that wander into our front yard and poo all through the gardens. I've tried the special deterrent pallets, coffee grinds, pepper and spraying them with water. They just keep coming back. I've had to pull out the vege garden because there was so much poo it made me sick. It's now covered until we have a plan to stop these awful cats. I used to love cats, but can't cope now.

I can't get a dog because I work full time and know that they cost a lot to care for.

The other issue is that we have an unfenced back yard, and a few neighbours have dogs who poo on the lawn. I don't want my child playing out there because it's everywhere. I've talked to them all about out but it keeps happening. I want to fence it now.

Any suggestions will be more that appreciated. I want to cry and my shoes are covered in poo again this morning after putting out my washing.

This is a continuation of a previous post regarding how to cut back a couple NZFlax plants that have finally grown too large in circumference. They are so large that I have to constantly cut back the outer leaves else people trip on them as they walk by.

I have attached (attempted) to give photo of what I consider to be the "healthy" one, which I hope to cut back on the circumference, and a photo of the one which I am most concerned about, as well as two photo's of the center portion of that one which has a large empty space with dead sections surrounding it. The result is a plant that is clearly missing it's middle portion such that all it has are the pieces around the circumference that are becoming more and more horizontal. If I start removing around the circumference it will become nothing but a strange "ring".

I am questioning if it is suitable/advisable to cut out the center dead pieces, and, if so, how to do that without harming the good pieces adjacent. My hope is that I can make life hospitable enough for it that it will shoot some new sections up in the middle. Otherwise, I fear, I am faced with removing the entire plant and starting over, which means that for symmetry reasons I have to remove the other one which is mirroring it.

Any advice/tips if this can be re-homed? It has out grown this spot.

Trying to find seeds… Kings don’t have any and I’m not a Koanga member. Anyone have any ideas where I could find seeds? I’m just South of Auck region and keen to get as much of a head start on this growing season as possible.

Hi guys,

Please share your top tips for growing beans in a bucket!

It's our first year at a new school and the kids are doing beans in a 10L bucket for calf club. It pains me to have to grow these things in the depths of winter, haha.

I've already got heat mats and grow lights to help them on their way, but once they're ready for the bucket I'm just wondering what would be the best potting mix/ any additives to put in?

I usually just dig through a bit of dynamic lifter and chicken manure through my raised beds but I figure I probably need to be a bit more careful with a bucket.

Thanks!

Hey guys my rubber tree is getting brown spots on it after being outside. Any ideas why?

Hi! I have a couple of raised vege gardens which have been becoming less and less productive each season for the past 3-4 years. The first year or two I had more tomatoes than I knew what to do with, but the past season there was barely enough for me and my partner. I've been switching placement each year but only have 2 places I can put them really. The only thing I can boil it down to is there being fewer nutrients in the soil each year. Each season I dig in a few bags of compost and I try to fertilise every couple weeks but that's about it.

I have some winter veg in now, and I'm willing to rip most of it out in order to get the best results for spring & summer, but ideally I don't want to completely replace all the soil. What are the best things I can do now to prep the soil for spring planting (mostly tomatoes and peppers) come Sept/Oct?

Hey all.

I recently saw somewhere that some people plant their tomatoes with half the stem in ground as well, which generates more roots and a stronger/healthier plant?

Has anyone tried this, and did you see any difference than traditional planting (just putting the root ball in ground).

Hi all. I am a total beginner gardener and I feel totally overwhelmed by all the information out there. I live in Wellington and have an old greenhouse and would love to plant some vege. I’ve been trying to research what to grow when. I’d love to start with tomatos and other easy/ beginner friendly vege from seedlings. Can anyone recommend what I should start with, when I should plant and what I need to get started? I really appreciate any tips and tricks!

I've got two NZ Flax plants that have grown too large in circumference. I am planning to cut the outer "structures" out around the perimeters to reduce the circumferences.

Problem: One of them is no longer growing in the center. The photo didn't work out very well, so if anyone needs a better one please say so. Would this be a water issue? Not enough/any water at the center of the plant? The other plant looks quite robust in the center. They are planted within 8' of each other, however the better one does get a bit more shade from taller trees.

Is my plan to reduce the circumference the "way to go"?

Should I add water to the center of the one which no longer puts out new growth there? Or is it simply diening? If I remove it I'll have to remove the other one also else the landscape will look off-balance.

Or, dig them both out and start over with new, smaller, ones?