We moved here on May 1, 2009 from a lovely garden in Oneroa at Giverny Inn in Queens Drive. Our vision here was to create a garden that:
- Fed our family healthy nutritious food
- Was attractive to be in
- Was as sustainable as possible
- Could act as a model of what’s possible and a living classroom
Where we Started
At the time we moved in, the garden was very overgrown with long grass everywhere, noxious weeds throughout the bottom of the property, limited access to the back of the site and disjointed planting.
It is a very exposed site with south westerly winds which was a significant challenge, however it has very good soil (as does this whole side of this valley) – a rarity on Waiheke which is mostly clay.
The first tasks were to:
- Create access to the back
- Clear the long grass from the site of the vege gardens and create the beds so we could grow veges again ( they were done using the forms which belong to the community courtesy of Claude Lewenz)
- Clear other garden areas – the driveway, the beds around the house, the courtyard etc, move the plants to where they were better suited and begin to create the gardens
- Prune the olive trees which needed restoration pruning
- Get some shelter onto the bottom boundary to deal with wind
Every garden area needed work and restoration!
The work begins….
The last part to be worked on was the bottom of the property below the vege gardens – this was very inaccessible and overgrown and full of noxious weeds – honeysuckle, woolly nightshade, ramnes and gorse and the existing plants were completely smothered by long grass and weeds I cleared the noxious weeds away and cleared around the natives, planted an orchard on the north facing slope, and finally created the pond area.
The Design
The design was created as I went along rather than being formed in detail in my head in advance, though I commenced with some broad ideas.
The following themes are in the various spaces and rooms in the garden
- Driveway – Mediterranean olive grove with plantings of flanders poppies down the driveway
- Red and green garden in front of the house to continue the driveway theme
- Hot orange and succulent garden on north side of the house – in hot dry north facing garden
- Inner courtyard – herbs and citrus near the kitchen, cream and green plants
- Lower courtyard – purple and red tropical plantings
- Purple Vege walk – crops to eat that are decorative
- Flower gardens around vege gardens – cottage theme, heirloom flowers
- Lower gardens – bush grove, bog gardens near pond orchard on north facing slope and subtropicals in the valley – bananas, tamarillos etc
There is still a lot of work to be done in the lower gardens to make them tidier and more attractive and to ensure future shelter for the property.
Thanks
Thanks to the following people for helping – Mum, who did 6 weekends of work here from clearing to planting, the Easterbrooks from Whangarei, the permaculture design course students, Judee from Canada, Alan and Jan from Tutukaka, Katie from Asheville, North Carolina (who drew the picture of the garden), John Dunleavy our neighbour who helped clear the grass and pruned the olive trees and magnificently allowed us access through his driveway and boundary for months as materials were dropped off, Kate Hastings (from Waiheke), who gave invaluable early advice, Sally McKibben (from Waiheke) with final touches and last but not least Bruce, my husband who followed my list of instructions every weekend and who completed the hard landscaping and helped with the planting.
Thanks to the following people who did some paid work here
Dave Lawrence – who made the raised beds so beautifully
Chris Hankins – who built the wooden paths and steps to create access to the back
Steve Roigard of Living Escapes – who built the path to the pond and the pond
Claire Mummery – who installed the irrigation and who offered invaluable organic gardening advice and who donated many calendula
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