If you've joined us for a Takapoto Tour and you'd like to stay in touch, this is your space — connect with our knowledgeable Garden Team for your regenerative gardening and conservation questions, ongoing.
Ask a questionThe questions we hear most on the garden tours — opened up, one at a time.
Apples, pears and plums, trained into shape by pruning and guiding the new growth in the direction you want — there are many shapes, and it's all personal preference. Espaliers make everything easier: spraying, pruning, netting, harvest.
The traps we use across the estate come from Auto Traps New Zealand and Traps New Zealand.
Before the frost arrives, not after — one application of frost protection holds about a month. Watch the long-range forecast and get ahead of the first cold week.
Bird nets over the raised beds, winter cloth over the top — shade in the heat of the day. Simple but effective: anything inclined to bolt to seed gets noticeable relief.
We turn the soil over every time something new is seeded or planted — it makes the optimum growing medium for the plants. The in-ground beds get the rotary hoe each time we prep for new planting, for the same reason. (You'll hear these called "no-dig" beds; raised garden beds is the truer name.)
Pea straw is a separate thing altogether — it goes on primarily for weed control and moisture retention, with worm activity and a natural source of nitrogen as the bonus.
Every question we're asked, answered in full on the Q&A blog.
Visit the blogSend it through — the team answers as the season allows.
The seasonal notes live in our Facebook group — what the team is doing in the beds this month, in real time, with room for your questions and your own garden's progress.
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