May 2022
Welcome to our May 2022 newsletter
It is May already and the autumn colours are looking superb around the Hurunui district.
Since our last newsletter, Hurunui Garden Festival Inc. have held our AGM. It is a pleasure to introduce our committee for 2022/2023.
Meg Macfarlane – Chair & Treasurer (Waihui, Rotherham)
Anita Todd – Secretary (Saddlewood, Hawarden)
Penny Zino – Garden assessments and cluster leader (Flaxmere, Hawarden)
Doreen Dryden – Garden assessments and cluster leader (Loch Leven, Rotherham)
Vicki Collett – Administration (Coldstream, Culverden)
Ruth Appleby – Cluster leader (Newstead, Hawarden)
From left to right: Doreen Dryden, Meg Macfarlane, Ruth Appleby, Anita Todd, Vicki Collett and Penny Zino.
We are also thrilled to welcome Ann Toomey to the team as our HGF Office Administrator. Ann brings a wealth of experience to the event, and we are so pleased to have her joining us.
All of these people can be contacted via our website www.hurunuigardenfestival.com or via our email address info@hurunuigardenfestival.com
The Festival committee has continued with this year’s planning and it is all coming together well.
Mark in your diary these dates. 1st July, the guide will be printed, and the website will be fully updated with the information about our 25 gardens including historic homesteads, artists and collections. They will all be open for the 4 days: Thursday 27th - Sunday 30th October 2022, 9am to 5pm daily.
Each participant’s page and the maps will be downloadable and printable for your convenience. The website’s online shop will be ‘open for business’ from 1st July selling early bird garden entry tickets; buy 10 and get one free.
This year we are delighted to announce we have two very inspiring speakers organised for you.
Lynda Hallinan
Lynda Hallinan will be travelling down from Auckland to host a dinner event.
Lynda is a gardener, author, broadcaster, journalist, part-time farmer, parent and plantaholic. For half her life, the former editor of New Zealand Gardener magazine has been digging up ideas and inspiration for growing food and flowers in Kiwi gardens. Lynda is an entertaining speaker who imparts her wisdom with a generous spadeful of common-sense advice and a good crop of laughs. Lynda lives with her family in the foothills of the Hunua Ranges, south-east of Auckland, and is currently splitting her time between her large country garden and a small colonial cottage renovation project.
Lynda will be hosting a dinner and speaking event at the Hanmer Springs Hotel on Friday 28th October at 7pm. The cost for this is $75 per person, includes a glass of bubbly on arrival and a delicious 3 course Italian meal. A cash bar will be available.
There are limited numbers for this event so mark it in your dairies now and be in early so you don’t miss out on hearing Lynda. Tickets for this event will be via our website from 1st July.
Julia Atkinson-Dunn
It is also a pleasure to introduce Julia Atkinson Dunn of The Studio Home. She is an accomplished author and gardening enthusiast who will be visiting many of the gardens during the weekend and organising 3 special workshops at different gardens.
The Studio Home Sessions are a small series of free to attend talks, hosted by Julia and the generous owners of three inspiring gardens involved in this year’s Hurunui Garden Festival.
Working with Julia, the gardeners will concentrate on walking tours, open Q+A and demonstrations focused on knowledge beneficial to those starting out. As Julia can attest, being a gardener for only 5.5 years herself, the wisdom and advice departed by experienced gardeners in her local region have been the richest source of information to give confidence for her own progression.
At just the festival gate price of $10 per person, attendees of each talk will receive a guided tour of the garden, are free to ask questions, and can be assured Julia will be prompting further relevant ones to support those at the start of their gardening life. This is a new and exceptional opportunity focused on beginners, and a terrific chance to take a day or two to explore the beautiful region of Hurunui. More information for The Studio Home Sessions will be available on our website from 1st July.
Our next newsletter will be all about our wonderful sponsors and informing you who is supporting our fabulous event for 2022. Until then, keep warm and safe.
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 May 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.
