A lifelong urge to discover and share.
Julia Atkinson-Dunn of Studio Home
While gardening is a relatively new part of my life adventure, writing and sharing online has been central to my everyday’s for 15 years now.
I started New Zealand’s first design blog Studio Home in 2008, forging ahead in creating an online community before Instagram or Pinterest had even reared their (very useful!) heads.
Where the focus of this project was highlighting NZ and Australian creative, design and art-led talent, I have found it is a natural progression to continue with this work, but now in the exploration of gardening.
Over almost three years I wrote 90 articles as part of my beginner gardening column for New Zealand’s premier news platform Stuff. This came to a natural end in May 2023 when I felt the urge to have more control over the content I presented by interviewing gardeners outside of my physical reach.
While the subscription-based model of Unearthed. had a short life of just 5 months, a new life opportunity for my husband and I cropped up to purchase Akaroa Butchery + Deli and move to our favourite area in New Zealand. This demands all of my time , so for now, I open the work to you for free browsing and will continue to add to it in the future, beginning with the start of a new garden in a beautiful new area.
In 2021 I wrote and photographed Petal Power and Flowers for Friends (both Koa Press) which have been sold throughout NZ/AUS/UK and the USA. In 2022 I contributed the creative and technical writing for Zoe Field’s beautiful book Lost & Found and, my third and most comprehensive book A Guided Discovery of Gardening is out now in NZ/AUS with the Northern Hemisphere to follow in early 2024.