Media Release 5 August 2011

Help the Garden City bloom

New Zealand Gardener magazine is calling for green-fingered Kiwis to donate seeds to gardeners in Christchurch affected by the recent earthquakes.

Editor Jo McCarroll wants people from all over the country to send any spare seeds they have down to the beleaguered region so they could be used to help gardeners who have lost plants, tress and at time entire gardens in landslips and liquefaction. Donated seeds will be given away at the Combined Spring Show, held jointly by Canterbury several garden societies, on September 24 and 25.

"It might seem a minor thing to some people, given what was lost in the quakes," Jo says. "But we've had a lot of readers contact us to talk about how hard it's been losing their gardens: watching plants they loved die because they had no irrigation, or seeing them smothered by liquefaction. We can't replace what they've lost but we can help people start another garden. That's what these seeds are for. We'd like to see the Garden City bloom again."

Donated seeds, which can be for veges, flowers, herbs or foliage plants, need to be mailed to the Canterbury Horticultural Society (the postal address is Seeds for Canterbury, PO Box 369, Christchurch 8140). They'll be given away at the Combined Spring Show, which is being held in the Canterbury Horticultural Society Centre on the Riccarton Ave-side of Hagley Park. Entry to the show is free.

"We're a staunch bunch down in Canterbury," says Canterbury Horticultural Society manager Shirley Russ, (members of the society will be distributing the seeds at the show). "But even the hardiest plants need to have the right conditions to grow and constantly shaking ground is not one of them. This idea has been a lift for many people here who have to shift or have lost beloved plants in the liquefaction quagmire."

Full details of the Seeds for Canterbury project are in the August issue of New Zealand Gardener, on sale now.

Ends

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