ASK YOUR FLORIST TO USE LOCALLY GROWN FLOWERS.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it... but if you’ve got a broken axe head gathering dust in your shed then Lewis ‘Taz’ Nicholls is just the man for the job. began as a hobby for the West Auckland dog trainer and crafty wood-chopper, but is now a nifty side hustle. “I restore vintage axes,” says Taz. “I clean them up, sharpen them, and then put them on a hand-carved wooden handle (left). Axes were meant for use. Use them.” Phone Taz on 027 909 1258 or email restored.axes.nz@gmail.com.

Incidentally, if – like me – you acquired a lockdown pet that now thinks it owns the place (and your garden), then Taz and his partner Hannah Sadgrove, a clinical animal behaviourist, offer dog training lessons both online and in person from thinkdog.nz.

The lockdown was an absolute blooming nightmare for local cut flower growers, as they were forced to chop their crops into the compost. But Suzette and Frans van Dorsser, who grow 2ha of gerberas and a rainbow of long-stemmed roses at Blooming Hill Flowers in Pukekohe, were able to donate their flowers rather than dump them all. With the help of Seven Sharp, they got the go-ahead to deliver hundreds of free bouquets to frontline staff at North Shore, Middlemore and Waitakere hospitals.

For Anzac Day, Blooming Hill also collaborated with the Franklin RSA to surround the Pukekohe, Waiuku and Tuakau cenotaphs with fresh flowers, and that publicity resulted in a creative idea: “People messaged us to say, ‘Why throw your roses away when you could dry them?’”

Though “definitely not our normal gig”, Suzette gave it a go, hanging dozens of bunches up in their empty coolstore and then offering them up by the boxload in a blind auction on their Facebook page.

With florists and cut flower growers all back in business, Suzette now has a favour to ask Kiwis:

“Unlike every other type of produce, cut flowers do not have to carry a ‘Country of Origin’ label. This allows foreign imports to masquerade as ‘freshly picked’ when they are anything but! New Zealand-grown flowers are a premium product that costs a little extra, but we are ethical producers who support our communities. Plus you avoid the carbon cost of air freight and the toxic treatments of flowers for longevity.”