Spiritual sanctuary in Waimate
In this garden of quiet contemplation, colours are muted so peace can prevail as one meditates upon every winding path.
If it’s peace and serenity you’re after, this garden is the perfect spot to visit.
“Plants and trees emit a certain field of energy. It depends on how sensitive you are, whether you feel it.”
We gardeners spend a lot of time discussing the aesthetics of our gardens – their visual style, layout, the position, shapes and colours of plants and other features. Vassilis Skouras too values these aspects of his Waikari garden, but for him, the essential quality is the garden’s ability to make people feel calm, peaceful and inspired. “The effect a garden has on someone is the most important part of it,” he says. “I see that all the time with people who visit our garden. It’s the biggest compliment to me. They feel creative, there’s a certain peace, a certain glow about them as they walk about or sit and sip a cup of tea.”
Greek-born Vassilis and his partner Laura Sultze, who is originally from the US, feel a profound spiritual connection to their one-acre North Canterbury garden. They began to develop it from virtually a bare site in 1994. They regard the more than 700 plants they have planted here as almost human. Both believe that all living things are interconnected. “Vassilis literally does commune with his plants every day,” says Laura. “He walks around the garden for at least 45 minutes every morning.”
“Plants and trees emit a certain field of energy,” Vassilis adds. “It depends on how sensitive you are, whether you feel it. Those who haven’t ever experienced a garden in these terms before still feel it. People often spend up to three hours experiencing this garden.”
It’s easy to see why they would spend so long here. The couple call it the Garden of Secret Sanctuaries and each of the interconnected spaces within is designed to have its own unique character, invisible from the other spaces.
You enter the garden via the Prothalamus (an anteroom in Greek temples) with its radiating mosaic of beach and river stones, and a small bench for contemplation; from there through to the Oasis with its circle of cabbage trees; then a path via a wooden bridge into the Thalamus (inner room), an open area with a huge cedar and a strawberry tree (Arbutus), two of the few existing trees that were on the property when the couple arrived. As the journey continues, you pass through open and enclosed spaces, past ivy-covered pergolas, clusters of conifers, a maple forest and a stunning wave-like hedge of clipped privet with a brick path through its centre. Close to the house is a beautiful serene pond fringed with white-flowering viburnum (in the spring), Japanese maples and cloudpruned evergreens. Nearly every plant has been sculpted to either accentuate its graceful form or had its canopy lifted to allow lower layers and views beyond it.
Providing quiet places to pause are brick-paved patios and stone terraces while sculptures crafted by Vassilis from found objects such as stones, discarded metal, and fallen logs add to the contemplative atmosphere. None of the paths are straight because winding paths make the
None of the paths are straight because winding paths make the garden seem bigger, a design trick often used by the Japanese.
“The effect a garden has on someone is the most important part of it. I see that all the time with people who visit our garden. It’s the biggest compliment to me.”
garden seem bigger, a device often used by the Japanese.
Vassilis and Laura lived in Japan for five years and one of his biggest influences from that time was the design of footpaths, he says. “But this is not a Japanese garden. People see stones and Japanese maples and say this is a Zen garden. It’s a fusion of design inspirations. The stepping stones are actually inspired by those in Greece, and the Oasis was inspired by Moroccan gardens with their palm trees, but I used cabbage trees instead.”
Amid this spiritual serenity, it’s hard to conceive of the property as it was when the couple first saw it – a depot for the Hurunui District Council with bitumen, bulldozers and other heavy machinery its only adornment. They live in the 19th century cottage that was once the home of the council engineer and have converted the disused chamber building alongside into a gallery for their paintings, sculptures and designer garments.
Turning the council depot into a garden was their biggest task though. “There was virtually no topsoil and what was there was heavily compacted,” Vassilis says. “Beneath the soil was solid clay. It was covered with gravel, bitumen, stones and tar spills. Five truckloads of cement left the property before we started. Every single hole for planting had to be dug with a crowbar.”
During those early stages, the couple spent eight to 14 hours labouring in the garden every day. “It was hard work, but there was joy in it,” says Laura.
They had no budget at that point, so any planting or building depended on what they could find. They
“Everybody is an artist at heart. Whether they put it into practice is another issue. With the right trigger or catalyst, they can tap into it.”
gathered cabbage tree seedlings from a Christchurch cemetery and scoured the waste bins of a local nursery for rejected plants. “When the time came that we could purchase plants over one metre high we felt as if we were rich and famous,” jokes Vassilis.
Most of the bricks for the paths and terraces came from three fireplaces they took out of one of the buildings on the property. “The height and length of the pergola was determined by how far the timbers we rescued from an old bridge would stretch.
“Some of the sculptures in the garden are made from old water pumps left behind by our neighbour, the Hurunui District Council waterworks. Because we didn’t have any money for the sculptures, I used what we could find. There were seven enormous macrocarpas on the property and we cut them down but kept the stumps. I used some for sculpture, or to make seats or tables. We would go to the beach or river and find rocks. What we have gathered doesn’t require money, but it does require creativity and ingenuity to put them together.
“Everybody is an artist at heart. Whether they put it into practice is another issue. With the right trigger or catalyst, they can tap into it. That is my aim with this garden.”
Vassilis would like people to share his passion for trees too, and not just New Zealand natives. “The flora here has changed a lot since New Zealand was settled, due to man, the birds, the climate. To keep out certain trees is simply not on. If you love truly trees, you would not discriminate.” His particular passion is for conifers such as the Colorado blue spruce he found as a nursery reject and the fastigate form of the Mediterranean cypress ( Cupressus sempervirens) – “because it points towards heaven, that is, consciousness” – and the smooth Arizona cypress ( Cupressus arizonica ‘Blue Ice’). “Its incredible bluegrey foliage is one of my favourite accent colours in the garden. And the burgundies and reds of the claret ash, dogwoods and copper beech in autumn are spectacular.”
But he insists that colour in the garden be used in absolute moderation as it evokes emotions – and a garden should above all be relaxing. “This garden is very simple. Its luxury is in the variety of greens and textures. Like with clothes, colour is an accessory not the main event. Colour is very, very demanding. Flowers are exquisite, but they are even more demanding as far as maintenance goes. I don’t mind a certain amount of weeding but between flowering plants, it’s too much.”
His dislike of weeding has led Vassilis to start planting groundcovers under the trees. The one he uses most extensively is Epimedium x versicolor ‘Sulphureum’, a shade-loving plant with clusters of creamy yellow flowers and heart-shaped leaves that turn an exquisite red in autumn. He’s also planting other groundcovers and sweeps of grasses in place of the lawns that used to take him five hours to mow; he is now aiming to reduce this necessary labour to two hours.
“I am not a slave to this garden,” he declares. “I will keep the mown paths and some open spaces. This garden is very much about light and shade. I love the New Zealand light. It is more intense here than in Greece.”
Over the years, the planting has changed, with many natives lost to frost during the early stages. “We had three weeks of -10oC temperatures. It was awful. Now when plants depart, be it because of weather conditions or they decided to go, I am not sad any longer. I’m grateful because I can plant something else in its place.”
Indeed, his next project is to take one of the rooms off the back of the cottage so he can plant three t¯otara in its place. “Apparently there used to be a huge t¯otara forest in Canterbury. T¯otara are one of the best New Zealand trees for me with small foliage, and I also love the black beech ( Nothofagus solandri syn. Fuscospora solandri).
“What I have put into the garden is a lot less than what I have received and will be receiving. The gardener will never see the garden fully matured. I am planting for future generations. It is my contribution.
“Laura is my lover; the garden is my mistress and
I am blessed because Laura loves my mistress.” ✤
The garden is open to visitors ($30 per person) until May 2020, by appointment only. Call 03-314 4227 or email vassilis@interdependance.com.