This garden started with trust. Harry from Nichols Development met Connor on one of his previous developments and liked his energy and enthusiasm for the work straight away. As Harry puts it, he's not a garden person, so there was no point telling a professional landscaper how to do the job. He gave Connor a free hand and let him run with it.
The home was built to sell, so the garden needed to finish it properly and look right from day one. Connor designed a fully native garden to suit the house. The cedar and dark cladding set the tone, and the planting was chosen to sit against them: fine native tussocks that catch the light, strappy-leaved natives along the base of the timber, and soft silver foliage against the black walls, all set into a deep layer of bark mulch.
The garden is laid out in zones that tie back to the architecture, so the planting reads as one design with the house. Harry describes it as a full-circle garden: you start with a patch of grass and you finish with a patch of grass, with the planting telling the story in between.
With the Remarkables in view, it's a low-fuss native garden that's ready for the new owners to enjoy as it grows in.
“I really just love giving people trust, and they just sort of take it and run with it.”
