‘Gardening Nun’ goes viral (on the big screen)

If you were part of the audience at the Embassy theatre for the world premiere of Gardening with Soul during the International Film Festival you will have witnessed something quite extraordinary. A standing ovation for a 92 year-old Island Bay resident and a speech by the diminutive woman, who started by telling the clapping crowd, […]

Ask Wellington: spring gardening?

fresh spray


fresh spray
Originally uploaded by Philip Fierlinger
of turntable.com

Sometimes we at the Wellingtonista must admit that even we, strange though it may seem, do not know everything about our fine city (and in this case, its climatic peculiarities). So periodically we must call upon the mighty and erudite collective wisdom of our readers to fill in the gaps.

Many of you may have noticed the arrival of springtime, if only to observe the marginally warmer temperatures, a sustained breeziness, and an increased rate of sneezing experienced between your front doors and that of your air-conditioned workplaces. But not all of you fall into this category, and it is of you in particular we are enquiring today.

You see, some in the Wellingtonista (and again, this may be a little shocking) live in the suburbs. And some of us actually have areas of flat ground reserved for the growing of things that can be eaten (it is true that some apartment-dwellers have a couple of terracotta pots on their balconies for the same purpose – the following may apply to them too), called “vegetable gardens”.

And so the question we have for you today is: What should we be planting in our “vegetable gardens” right now?

We suspect that potatoes are good at the moment. But we wonder: what else is good, assuming that it’s both legal and tasty? If we were to get planting this coming week, what’s best?

Answers, please, dear readers.