Celebrate National Gardening Week with FREE Butterfly-friendly Seeds
Our Monarch Butterfly is under threat and this National Gardening Week Kiwis are being called upon to plant butterfly friendly plants to help save the caterpillars when they hatch in Spring and Summer.
Last year saw a national shortage of Swan plants, the main diet of Monarch caterpillars, causing a large number of the population to be wiped out.
Yates is getting behind the drive to avert a similar crisis this year by giving away various free butterfly friendly seeds including Yates new Butterfly Field Mix seeds between 1st and 14th October. Just register here during this time to receive your packet of seeds.
A national planting day will be held on 20th October. Plant a Swan plant or other butterfly friendly plants in your garden, in your neighbour’s garden, at school, in your local community garden – and let’s help Monarch butterflies flourish.
National Gardening Week aims to foster a love of gardening with a focus on growing not only plants but friendships, good health, strong communities and closer connections with nature.
Some Choice News!
DOC is rolling out a new tool to help figure out what to tackle first when it comes to protecting our threatened species and the things putting them at risk.
Why does this matter? As Nikki Macdonald from The Post points out, we’re a country with around 4,400 threatened species. With limited time and funding, conservation has always meant making tough calls about what gets attention first.
For the first time, DOC has put real numbers around what it would take to do everything needed to properly safeguard our unique natural environment. The new BioInvest tool shows the scale of the challenge: 310,177 actions across 28,007 sites.
Now that we can see the full picture, it brings the big question into focus: how much do we, as Kiwis, truly value protecting nature — and what are we prepared to invest to make it happen?
We hope this brings a smile!
☔️ Where’d the summer go?
It’s the talk of the town (and every coffee queue): the Canterbury "summer" has felt a bit wet this year! We’ve definitely had our fair share of grey skies and raincoats lately 🌧️ In fact, the Post reports that Christchurch experienced almost double our usual!
While the forecast is looking bright for this weekend (fingers crossed!), we aren't out of the woods ... there are a few more cold fronts lining up before winter hits.
We want to hear from you: What are your go-to rainy-day activities? Whether you’re a local legend at the indoor courts or a professional movie-marathoner, share your secrets with us!
Drop your favourite rainy-day tips or photos in the comments below! 👇
Share your favourite main crop potato recipe and win a copy of our mag!
Love potatoes? We will give away free copies of the May 2026 issue to readers whose potato recipes are used in our magazine. To be in the running, make sure you email your family's favourite way to enjoy potatoes: mailbox@nzgardener.co.nz, by March 1, 2026.
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