Forever gardeners

What a summer it’s been! The classic New Zealand summer some of us remember from childhood. But what a different place this is from the days of quiet camping grounds and the quarter acre paradise we returned home to. Life here is hardly crowded compared to most of the world, but things are changing.

Urban population pressure and rising housing costs mean sections are getting smaller. The young are renting for longer, and more and more of us are reaching the age where we downsize our houses and our gardens.

But none of that will stop the avid Kiwi gardener. For age is no barrier to gardening. Nor is a lack of soil space. In fact, the more we downsize the more important gardening becomes. If we want to look after our wildlife and maintain healthy biodiversity in our wider environment, we need to have gardens with lots of different plants growing in our built up areas. And as Sarah discovers in this autumn’s Greenlife Matters story, we need nature on our doorsteps simply for the sake of our own health and sanity. The longer we garden, the healthier we can be.

Our Real Gardener this issue shows that renting is absolutely no barrier to gardening. Becs has the kind of vege patch many homeowners could aspire to. By gardening in containers, Becs plants almost anything that takes her fancy, not just houseplants and flowers but favourite shrubs and fruit trees too. Even apple trees can be grown in small spaces or pots. Find out more about this on page 24.

It might be time to say goodbye to the lovely long summer, but if you’re a gardener autumn has to be one of the most exciting times of the year. Nature’s best time for planting, it’s a time of anticipation as we tend the garden in the fresh cooling air, planning and planting for a better than ever spring.