OceaniaSouthern hemisphere
Gardening in New Zealand
Mild, wet and windy, with intense sunlight thanks to thin ozone cover.
The numbers that decide your year
- Growing zones
- Subtropical north to cool temperate south
- Last spring frost
- September inland
- First autumn frost
- April inland
- Rainfall
- 600–3000 mm
The local challenge
Wind, fierce UV and vigorous weeds in a very generous growing climate.
Rules worth knowing
Biosecurity is exceptionally strict on plant and seed imports, and several ornamental species are banned as pest plants.
How people actually garden here
- Native bush gardens
- Coastal planting
- Subtropical northern gardens
- Orchard blocks
Native to this country
Plants that evolved here. They ask least of you and give most back to local insects and birds.
Reliable in this climate
Introduced rather than native, but proven in these conditions. Each links to its full encyclopedia entry.
Seasonal jobs
Open the calendarThe calendar reads your device clock and shifts every job six months for the southern hemisphere.
The printed guide
The New Zealand Gardening Guide
256 pages written for this country alone: its soil, its frost dates, its rules and the plants that reward the effort. Everything on this page, expanded and in your hands.
- A southern-hemisphere year
- Native bush planting
- Wind and coastal shelter
- High UV and leaf scorch
- Fruit growing north and south
- Regional rainfall tables
€9.95256 pages · PDF download