The Auckland Garden DesignFest is Auckland's premium garden festival created in 2011 by the Garden Design Society of New Zealand, Rotary Newmarket and this year joined by Dove Hospice & Wellness.

A biennial event, it is only held every two years, and our 2024 event will be our seventh.

The weekend event allows attendees to visit 20 unique, professionally designed gardens - beautiful private spaces that are not normally accessible to the public and most have never been 'opened' before. For the first time ever we have a primary school open for the weekend allowing visitors to walk around and experience a 'Garden to Table' garden and the official festival market. We also have Dawson & Co's beautiful furniture showroom in Parnell with a stunning green wall open for the weekend offering complimentary refreshments courtesy of Dilmah tea and Jack's coffee, and toilet facilities.

It’s also a chance to meet some of New Zealand’s garden design elite. Attendees have the unique opportunity to meet the designers and creators of these beautiful gardens; ask questions, take advice and be inspired by ideas to enhance your own garden.

This year’s event, being held on Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th November 2024, will support Youthline, Garden to Table, OKE Trust, Dove Hospice & Wellness and Rotary Newmarket. The last event in 2022 was the most successful event ever, raising $60,000 for chosen charities.

Choose from an ALL GARDEN ticket which will give you access to ALL 21 gardens ALL weekend, an ACCESSIBLE GARDEN TICKET allowing entry for our visitors in wheelchairs or with limited mobility to 9 gardens in the festival. We have assessed all our gardens and believe that 5 gardens have ‘good access’ and 4 gardens have ‘limited access’ for visitors in wheelchairs. All gardens have been assigned a symbol to indicate wheelchair accessibility: GREEN = ‘good access’, ORANGE = ‘limited access’, RED = 'no access'. SINGLE garden tickets are also available which will give you access to any single garden of your choosing (purchase as many as you want).

You can start your Auckland Garden DesignFest experience at ANY of the gardens from 10am both mornings (except Garden 21 - no wristbands available here).

At the first garden you visit, simply hand over your ALL GARDEN ticket and you will receive a WRISTBAND. Once you have your wristband on your wrist, simply show it to the volunteers at the garden gate and you can enter any and all gardens.

Official GUIDED BUS TOUR. We are looking forward to offering our successful guided bus tours again this year as an alternative to the self-drive option for visiting the Auckland Garden DesignFest gardens. We provide guided visits to a different selection of delightful gardens each day, catering for a wide range of interests. The tours will give you an insight into the gardens, the designers and will provide plant selection information with notes and plans. We will round off each day with an opportunity for an extended walk around the last garden of the tour, glass of wine in hand. The feedback from our previous tours was outstanding, with tourers appreciating the insights gained, the knowledge of the guides, meeting other garden enthusiasts, the delicious lunch and ease of transport - no trouble parking! Led by Penny Cliffin former lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Unitec and Anna-Maria Morris, qualified landscape designer. Both are long serving and active members of the Garden Design Society, and love sharing gardens with fellow garden enthusiasts. The bus tour will visit half the gardens on Saturday (this ticket) and the other half on Sunday. $150 for one day, $290 for those registering for both days. Price includes a delicious picnic lunch, refreshments, mini coach travel, tour guides, entry fees and garden notes.

Numbers are limited, so please book early to avoid disappointment. More details can be found on our website gardendesignfest.co.nz/tours

Our designers have been announced and you can see which designers are showing gardens are showing gardens in the festival on our website now gardendesignfest.c ....

Details of the gardens and will be published on our website mid-October. Addresses will not be published until November.

All details about the festival can be found on our website gardendesignfest.co.nz. A downloadable programme will be available closer to the event from our website (we'll let you know when they're ready), as well as a printed programme which you will be able to pick up from any Dove Hospice Store and Kings Plant Barn store from every garden during the festival weekend.

Please note: We regret that children under 12 cannot be admitted (unless they are young enough to be carried).

All Weather Event: This is an all-weather event on private properties, so there are no rain dates. Please dress to accommodate all types of weather. Gardens are also beautiful in the rain. In past years when it has rained, the weather is only apparent in photos through the colourful addition of umbrellas above each visitor.

Safety Note: While every precaution has been taken, please note that it is a condition of entry to the gardens that you assume all responsibility for your own safety, the safety of those in your care, and of your possessions. If you are an overseas traveller visiting our gardens, please ensure you have sufficient travel insurance cover in case of an accident.

For a full list of Terms and Condition for the festival please refer to our website. Thank you for your understanding.