It's time to get ready for an entertaining afternoon full of laughter, music, great company and delicious cuisine, at an event not to be missed.

A woman who has made a career out of her passion for gardening will host the Bay of Plenty Garden & Art Festival's Long Lunch at the Doncaster Lounge at Tauranga Racecourse in November.

That much-lauded woman is Lynda Hallinan, who has spent her working life writing and talking about gardening from first-hand experience.

'We are thrilled to have Lynda Hallinan join us to be part of our 2022 Bay of Plenty Garden & Art Festival,” says Bay of Plenty Garden & Art director Marc Anderson.

A New Zealand gardening journalist, author, broadcaster and plantaholic, Lynda has spent half her life digging up ideas for growing food and flowers in Kiwi gardens.

She is a former editor of ‘NZ Gardener' and ‘Weekend Gardener' magazines, she previously edited the gardening pages of ‘Your Home & Garden' and ‘NZ House & Garden' magazines, she's fronted TV gardening shows, was a Sunday Star-Times columnist, and talked gardening on air for many years.

Lynda will be joined at the podium by New Zealand's ‘bug man' Ruud Kleinpaste, and the event will include live musical entertainment.

While in Tauranga Lynda will visit a few of the festival's gardens. There are plenty to choose from.

The 2022 festival, with Bayleys as the principal festival partner, and Palmers Bethlehem sponsors, of the garden and art trail, offers 74 garden and art stops – of these, 20 are art studio stops and 30 per cent of the gardens are new to the festival.

Tickets for the Long Lunch with Lynda Hallinan from 12pm-3pm on Sunday, November 20, are $125 and available at Bay of Plenty Garden and Art Festival website: www.gardenandartfestival.co.nz