A cold start to summer saw Waikato grape growers’ harvests slashed by up to 30 per cent, despite the national harvest climbing 11 per cent this year.

Judge Valley Vineyard owner Kevin Geraghty said the harvest at his 5ha operation, halfway between Cambridge and Te Awamutu, was down by about 30 per cent. This was due to a cold November and December, which had prevented grape flower buds from setting, leading to fewer grapes in the malbec, cabernet franc and merlot planted vineyard.

“I wasn’t surprised at all,” said Mr Geraghty. “All the malbec is reliant on warm, sunny weather, but the quality is right up there.”
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GREEN fingered pupils at a Blackwell school are digging deep and growing their own vegetables.

Healthy eating and the environment are lessons that the children of Blackwell First School have been enthusiastically participating in, so much so that they have now decided to grow their own vegetables at school.

The budding gardeners keep everyone informed of their progress by writing a blog for the school website, which can be viewed at www.blackwellfirstschool.com To get themselves started the children wrote letters to garden centres asking for help and advice and they received offers of assistance from Little Heath garden centre and Webbs.
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After a slew of acquisitions in tea and non-tea spaces, Tata Tea is now weighing the pros and cons of entering the out-of-home format for its tea business in India. The company, the second largest branded tea manufacturer, is also planning to enter the mass market with a new brand.

For international markets, too, the company has lined up major marketing initiatives to increase its share of the global business. The company has some of the leading global brands within its fold — Tetley, Good Earth, Eight o’clock, Jemca, Vitax and Flosana.

“In India, we are not present in the out-of-home format and vending segments. Right now, we are evaluating these two sectors. If we find there is some business sense, we may explore these avenues,” Tata Tea managing director Percy Siganporia told ET.
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Keep an eye on your garlic. At some point as days get longer and the temperatures rise, you’ll notice that top growth stops and no new leaves appear. That is a sure sign that bulbing is occurring.

Stop feeding, remove any flowers that appear and continue to water regularly until the tops begin to dry (usually in July or August). At that point, reduce watering and harvest when three or four green leaves remain on the stem.

You’ll break into an Italian aria when you slurp down your first bite of spaghetti with homegrown garlic sauce.
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They say the Chelsea Flower Show has been particularly innovative this year. Designer roof gardens, Norwegian science parks, even an astronaut’s allotment - they’ve all won prizes and plaudits.

You may even have been busy this Bank Holiday, braving the wind and rain, to give your own garden a modernist makeover.

But it’s a fair bet that even the most cutting- edge gardener would find it hard to include the outrageous specimen I’m seeking.

Because right now I’m striding across the dunes of Namibia’s Skeleton Coast, surrounded by mile after mile of barren wasteland, on the hunt for the word’s ugliest plant.
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