June 2022
Welcome to you all from the Hurunui Garden Festival team
The stunning colours of autumn are starting to fade and blow away as we move into Winter with June officially being the beginning of our colder months. Growth in the garden slows due to less sunlight from now on. Maybe it is the same for us humans as we tend to hide indoors a bit more over the colder months.
In the garden it is a good time for tidying and planning. The Garden Festival team are doing exactly that, as they prepare their properties in readiness of seeing you all at their private gardens, historic homesteads, art, and collections, from Amberley to Gore Bay and Waikari to Hanmer Springs at this year’s garden festival from October 27th – 30th October 2022.
We are also excited to have New Zealand’s celebrity gardening guru, the wonderful Lynda Hallinan, able to attend this festival, as COVID prevented this happening last year. She will be with us for a dinner and speaking event that will educate, entertain, and inspire you.
It is also our pleasure to have Julia Atkinson-Dunn with us again this year. Julia will be available at three of our gardens during the festival, where she will be sharing her knowledge and ideas aimed at beginners but also keen gardeners. You will have ample opportunity to ask Julia questions about all those things she may be able to help you with.
Information about both our guests and their events will be in the guidebook and on the website soon. Start talking to your friends, family, relatives, neighbours, work colleagues and get a group together so you can all enjoy coming and visiting the Hurunui Garden Festival this year.
Did you know:
At every property in the festival the owner(s) will be ready to meet you and tell you all about their property and answer any of your questions that you may have.
Some of the properties have plants for sale that are special to the garden and grown by the owners themselves. They’ll be able to share with you the know-how about growing your chosen plants.
Visitors are encouraged to bring picnics and relax in the gardens, so please do so.
This year we have a private museum and car collection as part of the festival and thoroughly worth a look.
Our historic homesteads have tours available but pre-booking is required and are at an additional cost. We also have a Fossil and Concretions guided tour available, pre booking required. All the information will be available on the individual property pages in our guide and on the website.
For those with self-contained motor homes, many gardens offer space on-site for your overnight stay.
School age children accompanied by an adult may enter the gardens for free.
Artists, exhibitions and artwork for sale is a special feature at this year’s festival.
Many properties offer a welcoming complimentary cuppa, and some have refreshments available for purchase.
The 2022 festival guidebook is in its final stages of production so will be available in July, but we will keep you informed about this in our next newsletter. By then, the website will be up-dated with all the information you will need then as well. July will also be the time for purchasing our ‘Early Bird’ tickets so your Hurunui experience at the Garden Festival will be ‘ready to go’. We look forward to seeing you.
While in the Hurunui, do not forget to take advantage of, and support some of the attractions, cafes, wineries, hospitality venues that the area has on offer. Stay a while and enjoy this special part of the South Island.
Last month we introduced in the newsletter, the committee who work behind the scenes with the property owners to produce for you this lovely array of homes, gardens, displays and collections. At this time, we farewelled our chairperson Gary Mitchell so he can now pursue other interests, but Gary’s departure did not go without the committee showing their sign of appreciation for all the work he has done for the Hurunui Garden Festival during his time as Chair. Thank you so much Gary.
Gary Mitchell
We look forward to welcoming you to the 2022 Hurunui Garden Festival
27 October to 30 October 2022
Sponsors
Of course, none of this would be possible without the generous support of our sponsors. A full list of our sponsors will be posted in the July Newsletter and listed on our website from July 2022.
If you want to contact the committee, you can do so via our email address info@hurunuigardenfestival.com
If you haven’t ‘liked’ our Facebook or Instagram page yet, we recommend you do as we are often posting snippets of information and updates – more regularly than newsletters. Our website www.hurunuigardenfestival.com will be updated on a regular basis too.
