The gardener’s bucket list

Populated with whimsical characters, this artist’s garden on the South Island is designed to delight and surprise, writes MICHAEL McCOY

The Giant’s House, Akaroa, NZ

Okay, so I may be a snob. The first time I saw pictures of The Giant’s House – pretty rough ones on the internet – I immediately decided I didn’t need to go there. And then I went.

Many visits later, I’m as charmed and disarmed as I was on my first visit.

The mosaic garden surrounds a large timber house on a steep hill in the pretty town of Akaroa, on the impossibly picturesque Banks Peninsula, just south-east of Christchurch, New Zealand.

The size of the house and its imposing position had a local girl concluding that a giant must live there, so artist and horticulturist Josie Martin, the current owner, named it accordingly.

It’s hard to work out what hits you first – probably the incredulity that anyone has enough time in one life span to achieve that much mosaic work, as every single one of the millions of tiles has been laid by Josie herself. Then, when you discover that Josie has done this between more than 30 overseas artist residencies, between the opening hours of the garden, and alongside her painting, sculpting and textile work, the believability factor is stretched even further.

It’s also an engineering feat. Built on the side of a very steep slope, each of the highly decorative retaining walls has an important job to do. On top of that – and literally on top of the walls – the sculptures, which are all decorated with mosaics, have digits and limbs that defy your sense of their stability. How does Josie make them rigid enough, out of concrete-coated reinforcing, to carry thousands of tiles, and to cope with being handled by thousands of visitors who, like me, must all give them a bit of a wobble to see whether there’s any flex in them? I can assure you there isn’t. And I can’t work out how there isn’t.

It’s all so astonishing, there’s a very great danger you’ll be so distracted by the sheer achievement on view that you’ll overlook the artistic feat this is.

A large part of the garden’s artistic power lies in its unfettered creativity. You find yourself laughing at the mad stuff that Josie has dreamed up and then manifested in broken tiles. But there’s way more to it than that. There’s an unrestrained sense of joy. And if that weren’t enough, there’s also an overarching sense of unity throughout. This is achieved, of course, by the fact that nearly everything is treated with mosaics, but it’s also reinforced by the consistent sculptural or anatomical language underlying the hundreds of human and animal figures. It’s so obviously the creation of one person.

There’s real horticultural discernment, too, with plant and mosaic combinations that border on genius. In some places, the colours of the tiles are perfectly echoed in surrounding planting; in others, succulents look like they’re mimicking the textures and mineral qualities of the tiles.

If you’re ever in this part of the world, The Giant’s House is a must-see.

NEED TO KNOW

Drive, or catch a daytripping bus, to Akaroa, 1.5 hours from Christchurch. The Giant’s House is an easy walk from the centre of Akaroa. The garden is open 11am–4pm from October 1 to April 30, and 11am–2pm from May 1 to September 30. Check if the house is accessible when you’re there – it’s so worth the extra few dollars to see it!

CLOCKWISE FROM MAIN The succulent-filled mosaic piano actually provides music to visitors; the site’s steep slope is terraced and heavily planted; all retaining walls are decorated with mosaics such as this ribbon of acrobats, with equally narrow planting in coordinated colours.

CLOCKWISE FROM ABOVE What are they all staring at, you can’t help but wonder of this staircase that was an opportunity for unrestrained creativity; as much the horticulturist as the artist, Josie Martin has included some interesting plants, such as this Asphodeline lutea, playing about the mosaics; the chance to literally sit in the lap of the gods!