Our Land

Spring gardening: What to grow, sow and keep safe indoors

Empty those winter beds and get started with (carefully selected) warm-weather crops.

Zooming in: Beauty therapist teaches confidence from her new rural home

A beauty therapist loves her new rural life while keeping up her work for a good cause.

The secret to growing nutrient-rich food

The best way to increase the nutrients in the food you grow means a fundamental change in how you work in your garden, using some very special crops.

A harvest in 7- 14 days: A step-by-step guide to growing microgreens

Microgreens provide fast-growing, highly nutritious mouthfuls of goodness.

10 late-winter tasks for the farm

Keep an eye on the pasture and young livestock as the weather starts to warm up.

Why growing a food forest can be trickier than you think

Imitating nature to grow food seems like a good idea but creating a thriving food forest can be tricky.

How to kick off the veggie garden this August

It's time to start sowing a plentiful veggie garden.

7 things that make winter on a block easier

Good equipment saves you time and money.

A classical garden in the middle of wine country

Mythological creatures live harmoniously in a fun-but-formal Italianate garden created by a pillar of the community.

This indoor jungle started with a cheap bundle of houseplants

Huw Evans bought a bundle of houseplants from Trade Me. They’ve grown into a passion that’s taking over his home, inside and out.

Explore the edible jungle in the middle of dairy country

Thirty-three years ago, Hawi and Susann Winter decided to create a jungle of the most delicious kind.

The Auckland couple transform dried flowers into beautiful floral artworks

To cement their partnership, Antonia de Vere and Mark Seeney got married. Now they combine their talents in one very creative business, Markantonia

The best spots to plant fruit trees

Use data from a basemap to find the best places for fruit trees.

Cool-weather tasks to tick off in the garden

Don't let chilly weather stall progress in the garden.

How to get a berry patch started this winter

It's a berry good time of year to plant these varieties in the backyard.

How to plant and prune deciduous fruit trees

While cutting back a tree may seem counter-intuitive, pruning is an essential step to promote a fruitful harvest.

8 good reasons to chop down a tree

The best time to plant a tree is always today, but when it’s best to chop one down takes more consideration.

6 tips for composting in winter

As temperatures tumble, the process of composting slows down, but it doesn’t stop altogether.

3 ways to fix a bad driveway

Many country driveways will worsen as they erode with use and time. Here's how to fix the most common problems.

8 tasks for the flower garden in June

Choose winter bloomers to add a pop of colour to your garden.

We're going on a truffle hunt

Hunting for truffles is not for the impatient or the olfactorily impaired. Success calls for a sniffer-out of buried bounty – in other words, a dog.

Transforming a dry block into a food forest and off-grid nursery

Twelve years ago, an enterprising couple started creating a permaculture food forest and perennial farm on a dusty, bare block in a dry Hawke’s Bay valley. Today, it’s unrecognisable.

7 gardening tasks for June: Plant garlic, feed leafy crops

Make the most of the chilly weather by growing hardy, nutritious crops.

How to grow mushrooms at home using a fungi spawn kit

Growing kits are an excellent way to get started with your first crop of home-grown mushrooms.

 

A couple's decades-long mission to save heritage seeds and fruit trees

Kay Baxter and her family faced the biggest challenge of their lives in their quest to save New Zealand’s heritage seeds and fruit trees.

Explore Clachanburn Station through the seasons

Creating a Garden of National Significance in the remote foothills of inland Otago with its extreme climate and heavy clay soil takes a body of strong bones, a will of iron and a soul of magic.

Growing Mexican limes in New Zealand

How to keep a lime happy, even in the cold.

This couple ditched their jobs to grow mushrooms

The Krummenacher family business is based on an ancient and dynamic natural system that is going about its important business silently beneath their feet.

How to reap the many health benefits from mushrooms

Mushrooms are so much more than their tasty flavour.

Why New Zealanders are not natural-born mushroom foragers

Mushroom foraging can be dangerous even in the age of Google.

4 types of apple that every orchard needs

Plant the right trees and you can enjoy the amazing flavour of heritage apples for most of the year.

6 ways to use seaweed on your garden

Very few things in life are free, but a wonderful garden resource is lying around, going to waste, and it will only cost you a trip to the beach.

10 farming tips for late autumn

Prepare the paddock and animals for wetter, coolor weather.

3 tips for planting a tricky slope

A little ingenuity and the right plants can help you overcome one of the biggest landscape challenges, the awkward slope.

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