REAL GARDENER
Making a career out of what we love to do is something many of us wonder about but never quite get around to. SUE LINN meets a gardener who made the mid-career leap and has never looked back.
Mark Boyd
After nearly twenty years as a pharmacist, Mark Boyd made the switch to professional gardening. Like many keen gardeners, his interest in gardens was sparked early in life. “I grew up on a farm in the King Country. My parents were pretty keen gardeners. My grandfather was also a very keen gardener and planted hundreds of deciduous trees on our farm. We had friends and neighbours with large country gardens, which I always loved. In particular, our friends the Lethbridges had a beautiful farm and garden at Korakonui, which was established at the beginning of last century. Dale Lethbridge, now living in Hamilton, has always been an inspiration to me. Now in her 80s she’s still creating beautiful gardens.”
By the time he sold his pharmacy, Mark and his partner had established their first garden on a previously blank canvas around their urban Auckland home. It was while developing their next garden on a much larger blank canvas in Waiuku that they decided Mark should turn his love of gardening into a career. It was a move he has never regretted.
A recent project that Mark is particularly proud of is a large garden in Ramarama, owned by Peter and Jane Tayler of Rainbow Park Nurseries. The garden, though still in its infancy, featured recently in the Franklin Hospice Garden Ramble. “We’re a great team,” says Mark of the close alliance he enjoys with the Taylers. “Getting ready for the Festival, we all helped each other out - Peter is great on lawns and Jane on hedges.”