I’m working away, in the spare moments (yes, both of them), on building a vegetable garden. It’s been something of a laborious process as I’ve winched myself up the learning curve. I wish my Dad was here, he would’ve knocked it together in an afternoon – he of the ‘I built my own pig sty, [...]

According to A History of the Garden in New Zealand, Wartime had also encouraged home food production. The Press of 5 October 1939 carried a report about a meeting conducted in Christchurch the previous evening by the Canterbury Horticultural Society to promote the production of vegetables in home gardens: ‘Home gardeners could materially assist in [...]

Click to play flash video 4.77 mb, duration 2:08 minutes I interviewed John Quirk at his home on 19 May, 2007. John remembers how he and a group of his fellow students developed land at Wellington College in 1940. John and his mates were boarders, and is possible the headmaster simply found something for the [...]

Click to play flash video 6.68 mb, duration 2:43 minutes Part of an interview with Ruth Gedye (my Mum) recorded at the Tea Garden on 7 May, 2007. Ruth shares some of her memories of the New Zealand approach to Victory Gardens (the ‘Dig for Victory’ scheme from the 1940s), what was grown, and how [...]