The woodland walk is where Jill indulges her love of plants, including rhodos, maples and ligularias
Jill Lloyd is remembering the bare paddock that greeted them when they bought their Taupo property in 1994. “Nigel had been approached to manage the Wairakei International Golf Course in Taupo and leaving behind our garden and the house in Inglewood that Nigel had built himself was quite a mission. In fact,” Jill laughs, “I cried all the way to Benneydale,” – a township well on the way to Taupo – “but the job was too big for him to turn down.”
The Lloyds lived for a time in a little house at the golf course but all the while Jill was looking for a piece of ground on which she could start a new garden. She was quite firm with the land agent, insisting that it had to have at least two acres with a rolling contour. After a long search she spied a craggy old pine tree and some attractive land with it and thought, “This is it.” Later when they had cleared away some of the undergrowth, they discovered the site had probably one of the best views in the town; more of this later.
Jill says the hardest thing about leaving the wonderful soil in Taranaki was learning to cope with the pumice and meagre topsoil in what was to be her new garden; in the early days they had to use a posthole digger to plant the trees and spread loads of mulch from the land fill. One thing Nigel and Jill were determined not to do, unlike many section developers, was alter the contours of their new garden. “We left the contour as it was – we worked with the land and never even got the bulldozer in.” And so today when visitors arrive, and there are many, they see a gentle rolling landscape that is lovingly cared for. In hindsight they wouldn’t do anything differently.
A very old pine tree, probably Pinus pinaster, guards the entrance. Jill is uncertain of its exact parentage, but it was one of the very few trees on the property when the Lloyds arrived. A white limestone-chipped driveway and neatly clipped buxus hedges surrounded by sweeping lawns lead gently onwards to the house.
Jill’s preferred gardening style is in evidence here: a few choice evergreen shrubs – rhododendron, choisya and clipped box – in front of the house make a statement. These are grouped behind an immaculate hedge, where there also is a large group of a spreading Grevillea lanigera. Jill explains that it’s a variety called ‘Mt Tamboritha’, distinct for its low-mounding habit and dark-green foliage; it bears pinkish red and cream, nectar-rich flowers that attract tuis, waxeyes and other nectar-seeking birds almost year-round. A feature just beyond this is a grouping of tiny buxus topiary underplanted with parsley – a novel use of this kitchen plant.
Except for a group of silver birches – which Nigel thinks have run their race and should come out – the main lawn stretches off into the distance. A woodland walk near the entrance is a big drawcard for visitors. This is where Jill indulges in her love of plants; a pathway winds between banks of rhododendrons – with its red blooms and lovely foliage ‘Rubicon’ is one of the best – and maples underplanted with hellebores and angelica; ferns, bearded iris and roses grow too in the sunnier spots. Lately she has been planting all manner of low-growing ferns along the margins, some of which have been gathered around the property, others bought in. Another feature here is a large group of the bold-leafed Ligularia reniformis which, although growing well enough, she finds do better in light shade.
In this part of the garden, fantails are busily darting here and there, collecting insects disturbed as we walk. There are tuis flying around too: “There’s no need for