Spring, not autumn, is the time we usually think about poppies and in the northern hemisphere it is spring. It was also in the northern hemisphere that Anzac troops, along with those from other corners of the British empire, laid...

A national symbol derived from boot polish?It's true, that's where the term Kiwi comes from. In an age when being racy was changing the name of the mainland from the Middle Island to the South Island, an Australian boot polish manufacturer...

Director, choreographer and illustrator, Carla Martell is a major collector too, of vintage fabrics, Cornishware, wicker baskets and vintage children's books. She is also currently co-directing, with Sam Scott, the Massive Company's...

I see so many properties with huge north-facing lawns and nothing much else, apart from a little border shrubbery and the odd tree. Such a wasted opportunity! Instead of mowing the same patch of grass week after week, how about dedicating...

In The Edge of the Alphabet , Janet Frame describes autumn: "Now see the sun wrapped in moth-balls, finely waistcoated; the autumn goldfinches swinging on the thistle-tops, the leaves drifting, the old oaks holding fast to their...

Shortly before Lizzi Hines took over Spaceworks, the six-year-old office interiors company, in 2006 it looked destined to be taken over by a construction company.Hines, who had studied the Spatial Design degree at AUT with Spaceworks...

Before I get to into this delicate topic, I want to say right at the top there's always slow release fertiliser if you don't want to read on, but where is the fun in that?A lot of gardening culture revolves around best kept secrets...

Having just built a fence I want to make it quite clear to my neighbour that I'm not trying to block her out or anything, I'm just trying to tidy things up a bit. Over the years Lorraine, our lovely neighbour, has become an important...

Bali is a second home for East Day Spa owner Ina Bajaj, who owns a luxury retreat in rural Canggu. Her love affair with the Indonesian island, a mecca for spa junkies, began when she "ran away" to Bali and found her new love. Soon...

There are three fruits which ripen at Easter that are appropriately egg-shaped, delicious, and perfect for a refreshing break after gorging on chocolate.Of the fruits - feijoa, tamarillo and passionfruit - the passionfruit is most...

It takes a lot of technology to replicate the colours given to us by nature, and because we are bombarded constantly with one visual assault after another we tend to forget just how bright the natural world can be.One of the brightest...

They say build bridges, not fences and I get it, I do, but from where I sit all this anti-fencing is out of hand. Back in the day, (for me that's the 70s and 80s) fencing was something you did with your neighbour. Those were the days...

Judging by the real estate pages, property publications, house advertisements on Trade Me and neighbourhood streets regularly punctuated with flags and signs, you'd never guess that open homes are increasingly viewed with suspicion...

There's a scene in the classic Coen Brothers' film The Big Lebowski when Walter Sobchak spits out that: "life does not stop and start at your own convenience". Architect Lance Herbst can relate to this line from his favourite movie....

A cold frame is a great project for any avid gardener, experienced or not. The purpose of a cold frame is to increase the quality, germination speed and volume of your seedlings: in effect, it's a small greenhouse. The cold frame...