Celebrity landscaper secured for Sustainable Home and Garden Show
Friday 22 February 2013
Xanthe White, one of New Zealand's most highly regarded landscape designers, will be the special guest at this year's Sustainable Home and Garden Show on 23-24 March in Kāpiti.
Ms White, who has won awards at the Chelsea and Ellerslie flower shows and, most recently, the Gardening World Cup in Japan, will share her knowledge about plant-based landscaping with locals and visitors.
Planning is well underway for the annual show, which will again feature a wide range of exhibitors keen to display their sustainable home and garden products.
Another highlight will be the first public outing for the Kāpiti Coast District Council's first electric rubbish truck. The truck, which will soon be at work on streets in the district, is the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. It is being built by Clean Technology Centre business Zero Emission Vehicles.
There will also be more than ten school gardens on display at the show which is a record number since the show began in 2005.
"It's great to see so much interest from our young people," says Mayor Jenny Rowan. "More people are becoming aware of the need to be sustainable in their daily lives and the fact that school-aged children are becoming more involved in events like this can only be good for the future of the district."
Presentations, workshops and activities for kids will be on offer throughout the two-day show along with food stalls and music. Council and the Department of Conservation have also collaborated to run a scheme during the event in which people can exchange their weeds for native plants.
The Sustainable Home and Garden Show in Kāpiti has become the lower North Island's premier annual event on sustainability.
It will be held at Kāpiti Primary School, Rimu Rd, Paraparaumu on Saturday 23 March (9am-4pm) and Sunday 24 March (10am-4pm).
About Xanthe White
Xanthe White is one of New Zealand's most highly regarded landscape designers who has received numerous top awards at events such as the Chelsea Flower Show, the Ellerslie Flower Show and, most recently, the Gardening World Cup in Japan.
She has also written two books called Organic Vegetable Gardening and The Natural Garden, the latter which explores Xanthe's signature style of plant-based landscape design.
In addition, she is a columnist for the New Zealand Gardener magazine and the New Zealand Listener.
Xanthe's landscaping company 'Xanthe White Design', based in Auckland, specialises in the design of residential, rural and interior landscapes. Her work includes both temporary living installations and permanent gardens.
The designer holds strong beliefs in the ability to achieve sustainability through passive design. Rather than needing to reinvent the wheel, Xanthe believes in creating simple and functional living spaces, then filling in the empty gaps and under-utilised spaces with as much positive diversity as possible.
"Gardeners are essential for this approach as their individual tastes and interests mean we end up with cities that are a rich tapestry of life," she says. "Individuals who take an interest in their own living spaces can create a far more complex and detailed urban and suburban environment than any city planner can ever achieve."