Growing Something Special: Preparing Our Gardens for Summer at Vineyard Cottages

One of the things I love most about this time of year is the feeling of possibility. We’ve hit the longest night and we’re on starters orders for the race towards summer.

The mornings are becoming a little lighter, the days a little longer and everywhere you look there’s the promise of another growing season. At Vineyard Cottages, that means it’s time to pull on the gumboots and start preparing our kitchen gardens for another summer.

This year is particularly exciting because we’ve made our biggest investment in the gardens since we first opened our gates. We’ve doubled our growing space.

Over the winter we’ve been building four beautiful new raised garden beds, each one carefully positioned to make the most of the sunshine, with a couple tucked into shadier spots for leafy greens that prefer cooler conditions. Together they’ll become a productive kitchen garden that will provide fresh produce for our guests and a beautiful place to wander, explore and simply enjoy.

Rather than just growing vegetables, we’ve designed each garden with its own purpose.

There’ll be beds overflowing with tomatoes, basil and summer vegetables destined for long lunches on the deck. Others will be filled with herbs picked moments before they reach your plate. We’ve even created dedicated gardens for the birds and the bees, packed with nectar-rich flowers, native plants and fragrant herbs that will keep our busy pollinators happy throughout the seasons.

The idea is to create a true cottage garden where vegetables, herbs and flowers all grow happily together. Marigolds will protect the tomatoes, nasturtiums will tumble over the edges of the beds, lavender will hum with bees and edible flowers will find their way into salads, desserts and grazing platters.

Growing from seed has always been part of life here at Vineyard Cottages. Every spring the kitchen windowsills, greenhouse (an old glass fridge) and sheltered corners begin to fill with trays of tiny seedlings, all waiting patiently for the soil to warm. It’s one of my favourite times of the year, watching the first shoots appear and knowing they’ll soon become part of the garden.

We always grow far more than we need ourselves. There are usually trays of spare tomatoes, herbs and flowers destined for friends, neighbours and anyone who happens to stop by at the right time. Gardening has always been something best shared, and there’s a real sense of satisfaction in seeing plants you’ve raised from seed thriving in someone else’s garden too.

As many of you know, food has always been at the heart of Vineyard Cottages. Whether it’s honey from our hives, herbs picked just before dinner, vegetables harvested for a barbecue lunch or lemons from the orchard, there’s something very special about sharing food that has travelled only a few metres from garden to table.

Our hope is that the gardens become part of your stay.

Perhaps you’ll wander through with your morning coffee while the birds are singing. Maybe you’ll spot a tūī feeding on the kōwhai, watch a bumblebee disappear into a foxglove or pick a sprig of rosemary to add to dinner. If you’re joining us for one of our food experiences, you might even find yourself gathering herbs or edible flowers alongside us before lunch.

The gardens are always changing and that’s one of the reasons we love them so much. Every season brings something new to discover.

Over the coming months we’ll be sharing the journey as our new kitchen gardens grow, from tiny seedlings on the windowsill to baskets overflowing with fresh produce. We can’t wait to share it all with you.

We’ve always believed that good food begins long before it reaches the kitchen. It starts with healthy soil, tiny seeds, busy bees, generous gardeners and a willingness to share. We can’t wait to watch these gardens grow and, more importantly, to share them with everyone who visits Vineyard Cottages this summer.

Here’s to sunshine, homegrown vegetables, buzzing bees, singing birds and another beautiful summer at Vineyard Cottages.