In a previous life, Marnie worked as a landscape gardner and she loves nature and the outdoors. She's even done a beekeeping qualification! Marnie has picked out some of her favourite books and why she thinks you should read them.
I’ve gathered a lot of books in my few years of gardening, and while I’ll touch on my favourites next, I think every kiwi gardener should own a Yates or Tui Garden Guide, any guide to trees, shrubs, and flowers, a guide to growing bulbs, and a guide to fruit trees. Even if it’s not your dream to have a home orchard, knowing when to start looking for roadside feijoa trees is invaluable information!
My personal favourites in any garden are our native plants of Aotearoa, dahlias, anything with a leaf colour that’s not green, and shade plants. My favourite gardens to work in were themed in some way, whether it be a fern garden, a moon garden (white flowers and silver leaved plants, to be enjoyed at night time), or anything with colour coordinating flowers and leaves. I think the best thing you can do before designing your own garden is to browse other peoples’. Here are two books I own that are perfect for grabbing inspiration from other NZ gardens:
If you want to take gardening one step further, try to make some spaces in your garden that will accommodate our small insect friends. Making a space where our solitary native bees (28 species!) can live undisturbed is more helpful than you know, just leave a small pile of plant matter or wood to decompose in a back corner. Bumblebees, too, will often only spend one season in a place in a small burrow in the ground, but they’re individually more effective pollinators than your honey bee. Having flowers in your garden year-round is an amazing way to support your local honey bees, who will often struggle to forage in late winter and late autumn when most flowering periods are coming to an end. I can’t recommend enough that if anyone has a passing interest in beekeeping, reach out to a local beekeeper or find a course in your area. Bees are fascinating and so crucial, and if you need an extra incentive, I got 16kg of honey in my first season! If that feels like an overwhelming number don’t worry, a lot of people around you will suddenly be your new best friend.
