Exploring Design, Home, Art and Gardening since 2008. By Julia Atkinson-Dunn
In late autumn I joined a group of my gardening mentors to explore some fabulous gardens and environments from Cromwell to Dunedin. Click through to read my top takeaways from the trip and explore these places through video and imagery.
Read MoreContinuing my feature on breathtaking Fisherman’s Bay garden, I have published a long format Q+A with Jill Simpson. It is so special to learn about a creative gardener’s life and learning in their own words.
Enjoy!
Read MoreArrive at extraordinary Fisherman's Bay just before dawn. Witness the sun rise and reach the South Island at this point before any other on a calm autumn morning. Fisherman's Bay is a world-renown garden on the steep slopes of Banks Peninsula, New Zealand. Created by Jill and Richard Simpson, it has adorned the pages of the worlds best magazines and books, celebrated for its beautiful planting and amazing environment.
Click through for video and full article
Introducing Robyn Kilty and the small but enormously inspiring wild garden that ultimately ignited my gardening fire.
Read MoreLet me introduce you to the beauty of The Blue House in the summer gloaming. Hidden from passers-by, this garden answered my long-held lust for witnessing naturalistic style planting locally.
To say that I was, and have since been, inspired would be an understatement.
So much of what I have learned about flower gardening for my home has come from the world of small scale flower farms. Here I take a tour of a young woman’s business and marvel at how the digital age has allowed farmers to connect with their customers.
Read MoreSometimes, we need a real person to breakdown what is vital and what isn’t, as books and the Internet can get a little bogged down.
Read on for snippets of helpful advice gleaned from the recent Hurunui Garden Festival
Need something to look forward to?
Read on for my round up of exciting and diverse garden events this spring in New Zealand.
All in all, roses are both enticing and mysterious to me as I still stand near the beginning of my gardening adventure. Determined to learn more, I greedily took up the invitation to visit family-owned Gilroy Nurseries on the fertile flats of Clarkville, just north of Christchurch.
Read on for a glorious view of roses grown en masse and helpful tips on growing your own….
My initial experience, and the many following at Flaxmere, opened my eyes to gardens as “spaces”, rather than just places. Any pre-conceived ideas I had around them being delicate or quaint were rapidly unraveled.
Join me for a gentle guided walk through the garden (or realm!) of my mentor; Penny Zino. Share in her ability to create distinctly different areas within her 54 year old, 3.4 hectare garden created in the harsh North Canterbury climate.
Not to mention the most incredible, New Zealand example of “naturalistic planting” as learned directly from Piet Oudolf.
I take you on a tour of my favourite areas of public planting in post earthquake Christchurch. It is exciting, offers lessons in drought tolerant plant selection and in what will thrive in my own climate.
Read More
I’m Julia Atkinson-Dunn
THANK YOU FOR JOINING ME!
Here, you’ll find my ongoing adventures of creating art - oil pastel and painted landscapes, mixed media botanicals, plus some writing and information about me!
Studio Home began as NZ’s first design blog, launching in 2018 as a champion of NZ/AUS creative talent.
Since then I have used this space to continue exploring design and art as well as deeply investigating gardening through the publishing of three books and the launch of Unearthed in 2023.
Julia xo
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