A garden in the sun
Keen gardener Anne Dotchin poured her heart and soul into a classic English garden for her daughter and son-in-law.
It takes flair and hard work to create a stunning garden out of 10 acres of bare land, but Auckland gardener Anne Dotchin has done just that. In just five years, she transformed her daughter and son-in-law’s bare Coatesville property into a garden of great beauty and abundance.
Large-scale vegetable beds, flower gardens, perennials, bulbs, rambling roses, citrus groves, clipped hedges and arches – developing an English-style garden was the proverbial dream come true for Anne, whose own garden in Glenfield – mostly native bush – receives too little sunlight.
“I’ve always been a potterer, but I’ve never really had the opportunity until then to really indulge my gardening love,” says Anne. “And I was lucky enough to be able to have a blank canvas to develop it.”
Used to gardening in shade, Anne was itching to get stuck into the sun. “I’ve always had a love of English gardens and, of course, in the bush with very little sunlight, this was like the best gift I could be given – to be able to plant in full sun and to choose all the plants that I loved but had been unable to grow myself,” she recalls. “And it was incredible how they performed so well with light and sun.”
The house at Coatesville was brand new when daughter Angela and son-in-law Brent moved in, in 2010. Once a strawberry field, the land had been put back into grass and some bromeliads, palm trees and cycads planted.
Over the course of a year, these were removed and Anne started from scratch again. She planted all around the house and the pool, while landscape designer Cilla Cooper was brought in to develop the area by the entrance to the house where a gazebo now stands.
“I thought it would be good to establish four raised beds – two for vegetables and two for roses, perennials and bulbs, like a cutting garden,” Anne explains. “We constructed them with railway sleepers and made them very large, 8m x 4m each.”
Good quality soil was bought in for the beds, then an abundance of various herbs, vegetables and flowers were planted.
With the addition of plants, the family soon noticed an increase in wildlife. “Before the gardens were established there were only lapwings, rabbits and pukeko,” Anne recalls, “but once we started planting, we were amazed to see how it attracted dragonflies, butterflies, hedgehogs and a range of birdlife.”
As a fun project when the beds were first established, all four children were given their own area to plant as they wished.
“I would take my grandson out to pick the strawberries when in season and we would also go down the pond to feed the ducks.”
The family picked fresh vegetables for the house twice a week, and with the vast range of plants, they never ran out. They grew silverbeet, spinach, broccoli, cauliflower,
“This was like the best gift I could be given – to be able to plant in full sun and to choose all the plants that I loved but had been unable to grow in my own garden.”