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Competitions
To enter a competition, click on the link, answer a question and voila, you're in the draw.
We have 2 x one year subscriptions to Homestyle magazine to give away. For details click here .
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Wally Richards - if you can eat it, grow it!
Growing your own vegetables is not only kind on your health, it's kind on your budget.
Wally gives us advice on what to grow and how best to grow it, even if you don't have much space.
Read the article here.
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Easy Christmas Cake
I know we don't need any reminders that Christmas is only a few weeks away, so for those of you (like us) who haven't made a cake yet, here's one that's easy and delicious.
Ingredients:
250g fruit mix medley (Tasti do a good one) 100g dried apricots 50g glace green cherries 50g glace red cherries 300g raisins 300g sultanas 1 1/2 cups brandy 1/2 cup orange juice 1 tsp vanilla essence 2 cups plain flour 1 tsp mixed spice 60g blanced almonds 1/4 cup apricot jam
Method:
Place fruit mix medley and apricots in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until roughly chopped. Add cherries and pulse again - just until cherries are very roughly chopped. Place the mixture into a large glass or ceramic bowl and add raisins and sultanas. Pour over brandy, orange juice and vanilla, cover and leave to sit overnight. The next day, preheat the oven to 150 C. Line a 22cm round cake tin with brown paper and baking paper. Sift over the flour and spice and mix until well combined. Spoon into prepared tin and smooth the surface. Arrange almonds over the top of the cake.
Cook for 2 1/2 hours until the cake is firm and pulling away from the edges, cover if the top browns too quickly. Warm the apricot jam and brush over the surface of the cake, cook a further 5 minutes.
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Join us on social and business networking sites
If you would like help setting up your business on social networks or advice on the benefits of social networking please contact us for more information - info@landscapedesign.co.nz
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 Our sister website - NZ's online nursery and plant finder. Use Findaplant.co.nz to search for wholesale and retail nurseries, growing on lines, revegetation and new species.
Bookmark us today!
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Greetings!
Wow another year is almost over and the silly season is almost upon us.
Landscape contractors and builders will be planning how to get their jobs completed for their clients by Christmas; it's the same every year.
On the whole the industry seems to have picked up and we see a lot more traffic going through the site. As of today we have had just under 30,000 individual people visit our site over the past 30 days. That's around 100 people per client in the directory. Clearly more and more people are using the internet to research ideas and find businesses to create and maintain their landscapes.
It is also our sixth birthday this month and a really positive sign to see the site growing every day.
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Historical image of the first website Jan 2006
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When we started we got excited about the first hundred visitors, then the first thousand over a month. We now average over one thousand unique visitors each day! We get great feedback from many clients and a lot of larger orders are being taken for plants, new driveways and swimming pools.
This month we welcome Bottle Trees NZ to our pages. We have created their Directory listing which they are also using as their main website. Owner Brian Keucke approached us late last month for a solution to promote his Bottle Trees which he has been growing in Hahei for the past 20 years. Check them out - they are pretty cool!
You can also vote for the premier Native Plant in New Zealand while you are in the voting mood!
Enjoy this months Groundwork!
Regards,
Tim Durrant and the Landscapedesign.co.nz team
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Auckland city's Maungarei Springs Wetland opens
The Maungarei Springs Wetland, a key feature of the Stonefields urban village development in Mt Wellington Auckland has opened.
Read more here.
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Top designers feature in Auckland's
new Garden DesignFest -This weekend!
The inaugural Auckland Garden DesignFest will take place on this weekend (November 19th and 20th).
All the gardens have been designed by professional garden designers and the owners have generously agreed to open them to raise much-needed funds for three children's charities supported by The Rotary Club of Newmarket.
We are very proud that five Landscapedesign.co.nz clients have gardens featuring in this event - Tony Murrell, Gudrun Fischer, Karen Wealleans, Lyndell Shannon and Robin Shafer.
Read more about the DesignFest here.
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A garden designed by Robin Shafer
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Forget the general election, the most important vote of the year is here!
Vote for New Zealands premier plant
It's a Green issue, of National interest, but not Labour intensive; it's the annual election of New Zealand's favourite plant - but none of these candidates will be kissing babies to get votes.
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Myosotidium hortensia
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Voting begins 11th November via the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network's website to choose New Zealand's premier plant, and to gauge public opinion about what Kiwis love most about their native plants.
Read more here.
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Starling Murmeration - Video
A chance encounter and shared moment with one of natures greatest and most fleeting phenomena. Click here...
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A warm welcome......
This month we welcome Bottle Trees NZ to our client base.
 Brian Keucke has been growing the Queensland Bottle Tree for the past 20 years and now they're ready for sale.
With more than 1500 trees on site, Brian has a tree suitable for all locations; commercial and residential.
The Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris) is native of Queensland, Australia and its swollen trunk gives it a remarkable appearance, giving rise to the name. Brian also stocks a range of Ponytail Palms (Nolina Recurvata) which are 20 years old.
Read more about Bottle Trees NZ here.
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"Greening the Rubble" wins growing support
A community response to the Canterbury earthquakes has received a prestigious local award as it celebrates its first year of building temporary parks and gardens on quake damaged sites.
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St. Asaph St garden
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Greening the Rubble, recipient of a Christchurch Civic Trust Award is a voluntary project involving students, landscape designers, gardeners and professionals from a wide range of backgrounds.
The temporary 'mini' parks are public spaces created on private land, under a licence agreement with owners covering from six months up to a few years.
Read the article here.
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Green Wall project for Auckland City gets go ahead
A Green Wall project from the Committee for Auckland's Future Leaders Programme has received a funding boost to bring it to life.
The Future Auckland Leaders Programme taps into the energy and insight of the city's emerging leaders, cultivating their passion for Auckland and helping channel it into city-enhancing projects.
Every two years, Future Auckland Leaders unveil their projects to the broader Committee for Auckland membership.
To read more please click here.
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That's all for this month!
If you have any feedback or comments, we'd love to hear from you. You can comment or respond at the bottom of every article on our site.
Kind regards,
Tim Durrant
Adv. Cert. Landscape Design & Construction
Editor | Managing Director
Landscapedesign.co.nz Limited | Findaplant.co.nz
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