Common Ground: Garden histories of Aotearoa takes a loving look at gardens and garden practices in Aotearoa New Zealand over time. While a lot of gardening books focus on the grand plantings of wealthy citizens, Matt Morris explores the historical processes behind 'humble gardens'--those created and maintained by ordinary people. From the arrival of the earliest Polynesian settlers carrying precious seeds and cuttings through early settler gardens to 'Dig for Victory' efforts, he traces the collapse and renewal of home gardening culture, through the emergence of community initiatives to the recent concept of food sovereignty. Compost, Maori gardens, the suburban vege patch, the rise of soil toxin levels, the role of native plants, and City Beautiful movements...Morris looks at the ways in which cultural meanings have been inscribed in the land through our gardening practices over time. What do our gardens say about us, and where we have been? Matt Morris digs deep in Common Ground.

Two well-known gardening authors, pool their knowledge and experience as both home gardeners and commercial horticulturalists, to provide a New Zealand gardening guide to inform and inspire. The text is combined with colour photographs, clear diagrams and handy colour tables.

Home gardening the natural way. Niva and Yotam Kay of Pakaraka Permaculture, on the Coromandel Peninsula of Aotearoa New Zealand, share their long experience of organic gardening in this comprehensive book on how to create and maintain a productive and regenerative vegetable garden. Taking care of the soil life and fertility provides plants with what they need to thrive. This is grounded in the latest scientific research on soil health, ecological and regenerative practices. Vegetable gardening, in this way, repeatedly demonstrates that every loved garden bed can produce high-yielding, resilient, nourishing and delicious vegetables year after year. The Abundant Garden has simple, reliable strategies and techniques to help maximise your ability to feed yourself and share the abundance with those around you. With information on growing a wide variety of vegetables, there are also helpful charts to help you plan and plant your garden year-round. In addition there are details on how to grow microgreens, and great recipes for ferments, preserves and pickles to stock the pantry with your garden's bounty.

In this lavishly illustrated book, Canterbury gardener, Margaret Long, tells the fascinating story of Frensham, considered one of New Zealand's finest gardens. As though we are right there with her, the reader is taken on a tour through the seasons, listening as we go to Margaret's thoughts and insights about why this plant was placed here or that tree there, what is behind her choices not just of plantings but also structures, materials, colours. This very personal and yet informative perspective on thirty years of gardening with passion makes for a delightful book to be treasured and shared. Highly acclaimed garden photographer, Juliet Nicholas, has lived with Frensham for an entire year, photographing its changes through the months and the seasons and providing a unique insight into the growth and development of these beautiful gardens, as well as capturing one of the most frequently written comments in Frenshams visitors' book: 'The garden is so peaceful'.

In this practical step-by-step guide, gardening teacher Kath Irvine shares her wealth of knowledge from more than 20 years of helping Kiwi gardeners design, build, grow and maintain their own productive edible gardens. Kath's sage, hands-on, often humorous advice steps readers through everything they need to know to grow great produce at home, including garden design, tools and equipment, seasonal planting advice, soil fertility, seed-saving basics, managing pests and diseases, and how to incorporate organic and permaculture gardening methods into any home garden. While documenting a year on her own property, Kath shows how you can successfully produce bountiful crops throughout the seasons to provide a steady, daily harvest with minimal wastage. The book is illustrated with hundreds of stunning photographs and helpful hand-drawn illustrations that share clever design concepts and planting plans for gardens of all shapes and sizes. Kath is the perfect guide, and this easy-to-understand, comprehensive book is ideal for gardeners at any skill level, from beginners setting up a new garden from scratch, to intermediate trouble-shooters, to advanced green-thumbs seeking deeper knowledge.

From trees to ground covers, ferns to hebes, an expert guide to the top 100 New Zealand native plants for gardens. Since its first publication, this book has been an indispensable guide for gardeners wishing to use New Zealand plants. Now extensively revised, it features inspirational and practical advice on 100 species that are easy to grow and maintain, across a range of climates. It lists each plant's likes and dislikes and gives sage advice for care and maintenace and for combatting pests and problems. It suggests how your soil can be best prepared for maximum growing results and gives creative landscaping tips for combining textures and forms to maximum effect. Engagingly written by the head gardener at Larnach Castle, whose gardens are world-renowned, it deserves a place on every gardener's book shelf.