Free guide
Understanding the Growing Icons
A handful of small symbols travel across every Garden Ōtepoti guide — a quick visual shorthand for how a plant likes to live. Here's the whole set in one place, read through a southern lens.
Draft reference — written to show the format. To be reviewed with our gardeners
You'll find these on plant cards and in the chooser guides. Sun, frost-hardiness and water are the three that matter most in a Dunedin garden — start there.
Light
Full sun
Six hours-plus of direct sun. In the South, "full sun" is a gift — give heat-lovers your warmest, north-facing wall.
Part shade
Morning sun, afternoon shelter — or dappled light all day. Suits many southern favourites in a hot, dry summer.
Shade
Little or no direct sun. Think woodland: ferns, hostas, hellebores and the rhododendrons the South is famous for.
Frost & hardiness
Frost hardy
Shrugs off a hard Dunedin frost. Many even sweeten for it — parsnips, kale and leeks among them.
Half-hardy
Takes a light frost but resents a heavy one. Give it a cloche, a wall, or wait until the worst has passed.
Frost tender
One frost can kill it. Tomatoes, basil and beans wait for the warm nights — traditionally Labour Weekend or later.
Sowing & planting
Sow under cover
Start on a warm windowsill, in a glasshouse or under a cloche. Buys our short season the head start it needs.
Sow direct
Goes straight into the garden where it'll grow. Best once the soil has warmed — carrots, peas and beetroot like this.
Plant out
Move hardened-off seedlings into their final spot. Do it on a still, grey day, not into a frost or a drying wind.
Water & feeding
Drought-hardy
Happy on the dry side once established. Lavender, sedum and rosemary love a sunny, free-draining southern bank.
Keep moist
Doesn't like to dry out. Leafy greens and newly planted things especially — mulch holds the moisture in.
Hungry feeder
Wants rich soil and a regular feed to crop well — tomatoes, pumpkins and the brassica family head the list.
Habit & use
Pot-friendly
Grows well in a container — perfect for a courtyard, deck or balcony in town.
Needs space
Wants room to spread — give it the elbow room it asks for and don't crowd the bed.
Edible
You can eat it — fruit, leaf, root or flower. Most of our guides flag the harvest window too.
Pollinator-friendly
Feeds the bees and other beneficials — a small kindness that pays back the whole garden.
Evergreen
Holds its leaves all year — useful structure and shelter through a southern winter.
Deciduous
Drops its leaves in autumn — bare in winter, but often with the best autumn colour of all.