PLANTING TIMES With a great number of first time gardeners growing their own vegetables, a question that I am often asked is; when is the best time to plant various crops? This is a difficult question to answer as conditions vary greatly in different parts of the country. To make matters more complicated,

With Christmas quickly looming, ones mind starts to turn to what gifts to buy for family members and friends. With the downturn in the economy, people will not expect the lavish gifts that may have been bestowed in the the better times of the past, instead we should be more practical

The world economic situation is in a upheaval and by the looks of things it is only going to get worse. At this time in New Zealand things are not too bad as yet, so as we used to say, ‘Make hay while the sun shines’ There are two aspects to growing

TOMATOES: THE FINER POINTS (by Wally Richards) Growing tomato plants is one of the big items for gardeners at this time of the year and even non gardeners will likely have a go at growing a plant or two. Some gardeners are very fastidious in their selection of types grown, the special

ABOUT IRIS The Iris is known as the Rainbow flower and is named after the Greek goddess who wore a rainbow as a gown and was a messenger of the gods. The bearded irises receive their name because of the fuzzy beard that is on the fall of the flower. The falls are

PRUNING ROSES It is about that time of the year when gardeners oil up their secateurs, put on their gloves and go out to do battle with their thorny but well loved roses. Just how you go about pruning your roses is really up to you, but the most popular cut is

We have the Rugby Test between the All Blacks and England tomorrow at Eden Park. Go All Blacks . I will have more on the Eden Park redevelopment for the 2011 Rugby World Cup in the secondry blog on this site as we travel down the road.   With our close vicinity

I just discovered this video on You Tube and felt this is a pratical example of sustainable living for a "townie"! This is a video that shows you how to germinate seeds. With Aucklanders living in the fast lane ( yeah right !) i guess that we all should try to

Hi I'm Marlene the part owner of Eden Parked BedandBreakfast, well, actually I,m the boss lady, hubby is just the handy man and odd job bloke! At the moment Tony my hubby is building me a shelf to put the TV on, so after a busy day with looking after the

We all try to be perfect but living in Auckland, New Zealand does create a series of obstacles when we try to do our bit for the environment. Within the Tourism Industry "down under" the buzz word is Environmental Sustainability. We do the recyclying of paper, tins and bottles. This