Garden special

Earlier this year Good conducted an online reader survey because we wanted to know what content was resonating with you, our loyal readers, and what you wanted more of. One topic that featured strongly on your ‘yes’ list was gardening!

As the weather warms, it’s a beautiful time to get things growing so we’ve dedicated our time to creating this special garden edition filled with practical advice and tips as well as plenty of pretty and wild stu .

Gardening is a topic that is definitely trending, particularly in fashion circles. Collections inspired by ‘the love of gardening’ have sprouted up this season from designers locally and around the world, including eco labels Kowtow, Luna & Rose, ReCreate and collabs between Saben x Fleur Woods and

Levi’s x GANNI. The latter campaign features international model Emma Chamberlain and friends frolicking through a lush vegetable garden on a surprise and delight journey, “relishing in their love for nature and their exceptional gardening skills”.

Exceptional is definitely not how I’d describe my garden right now, which is overrun with weeds, though according to Wendyl Nissen, that is not necessarily a bad thing. You can read all about her wild weed experiment on pages 20-24.

I also won’t feel discouraged about the sad state of my veggie patch after chatting with Nadia Lim. It turns out she only took up gardening six years ago and her garden is epic. Over this time she’s worked out what to do, or not, and her gardening tips – which you can read on pages 14-18 – are green gold.

This year’s theme for National Gardening Week (17-24 October 2022) is ‘grow good soil’.

Good soil doesn’t just grow healthy plants. Did you know that touching or inhaling tiny micro-particles of soil can also boost your immune system?

The 2022 Best of Natural Awards also deserve a special mention. It was wonderful to partner on the Awards again with HealthPost as we share so many values. And we were blown away by the number of entries from New Zealand and Australia – more than 400.

The judges spent hundreds of hours testing and trialling the products and were unanimous on the category winners, which are featured on pages 40-46.

It’s truly heartening that there are so many natural brands leading the way and rivalling their non-natural counterparts.

The 2022 Awards also saw the introduction of a Food & Drink category and Little Bird Organics Good Nuts – Cheesy Chipotle Cashews and Wildwood Cinnamon Cacao hot chocolate are now on my shopping list!

Great tasting healthy rewards after a hard day’s work in the garden, I reckon.