This project began with a referral and a maintenance conversation. Bev wanted an annual stewardship programme for her Arrow Junction garden, so we walked the property together, talking through the seasons and how the garden would be cared for across the year.
One garden bed kept coming up. When we asked Bev what she planned to do with it, the answer was simple: rip it out and start again. The real question was what to plant instead. Once the stewardship programme was in place, we sat down with pen, paper and coloured pencils and sketched the new design together.
The design is deliberately simple. The old bed was cleared with a small excavator, and the established shrubs that came out were mulched and chipped back onto the garden as woodchip, so nothing went to waste. Some plants were lifted and moved into the property's other beds, and the bed itself was extended to give the planting more room.
Ornamental pear trees now stand at the back of the bed, giving it height against the hedge and the mountains beyond. In front, small planted pockets hold buxus balls, the existing hydrangeas, peonies and catmint, along with whatever bulbs were already in the ground, which will be a welcome surprise when they come up.
Next season, hundreds of tulips, daffodils and bluebells will be woven through the bed and around the trees, so the structural planting sits among spring colour, framed by the pears behind. As part of the stewardship programme, Homegrown Tāhuna will look after the garden as it establishes.
“We sat down with a pen and paper, some coloured pencils, and just started drawing together.”
