Sharing the love
ALL AROUND THE COUNTRY DEDICATED KIWI GARDENERS ARE PREPARING TO WELCOME THIS SPRING’S ROUND OF FESTIVAL VISITORS. SARAH THORNTON INVESTIGATES.
Every spring, thousands don their walking shoes, grab a couple of friends, and head off to experience the joy that is a garden festival.
Festivals are a chance for enthusiastic gardeners to find inspiration, to bring home ideas for their own patches. Differing in theme, scope and size, festivals are as varied as the gardens they feature. Mostly the gardens are private, not open to the public except at festival time. Many of the festivals are self-drive, but guided bus tours are also on offer. Some happen every year; others every second year. But they all have one thing in common – the shared love of gardening.
Serial garden rambler, Auckland city dweller Cheryl Cameron says festivals, while being a lovely social outing with friends, are also an opportunity to experience large, landscaped gardens.
“For those of us who live in an urban area with a small garden, it’s inspiring to see what people have created in both large and small spaces, and it’s interesting to see plants that you might be having trouble with in your own garden thriving in other situations.
“I liken going to visit gardens to going to a concert. It’s an uplifting experience.”
Jenny Oakley is a Taranaki gardener whose garden has featured in the region’s festival for three decades. Over the years she’s noticed a change in pace of festival-goers.
“In the early days it was all about seeing as many gardens as you could in a day, whereas now it is more relaxed. Visitors have learned to slow down and enjoy the gardens more.”
Jenny and her husband Guy own a four-hectare property in Manaia on the south side of Mt Taranaki. Preparations for next year begin “the day the festival stops”, says Jenny.
“As well as the garden, I hold hanging basket demonstrations so it’s a lot of planning. If you’re renovating an area of garden you need to give it time to settle in. Things naturally die or blow over, so we breathe new life into those areas. It’s organic really.”
Being only two kilometres from the west coast, the large country garden was designed with the wind in mind.
“It’s a very exposed site and we wanted to create somewhere you can be outdoors and feel comfortable in the elements. Among the shrubs we grow self-seeding perennials and annuals – aquilegia, mignonette, honesty and hollyhocks. I love the old fashioned plants that you don’t see so often.
“Showing your garden in a festival is all-consuming. But it brings rewards. Visitors are happy – they’re on holiday with no pressure on them and they’re seeing gorgeous gardens. A visitor told me ‘you’ve achieved this beautiful garden and you’ve made so many people happy’. We do it for the joy.”
Taranaki is home to two spring garden festivals: Taranaki Garden Festival and the Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival. Held concurrently over ten days from 30 October, the two have quite different offerings.
The Taranaki Garden Festival has been a regular fixture on the region’s event calendar for the past 33 years. Forty private gardens are on display and for the first time, the 2020 Festival is partnering with the Taranaki Arts Trail, with visitors able to meet artists in their studios. Several events run alongside the Festival, including Garden to Plate, a Q&A session with Lynda Hallinan.
The Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival offers the opportunity to visit gardens, artisans’ studios and places of interest spread throughout the region. Nine gardens are new to the Festival this year or returning after a break for rejuvenation. The gardens range from small urban havens to expansive rural gardens with lakes, bridges and an abundance of spring colour.
In Marlborough, the 2020 Rapaura Springs Bloom in the Bloom festival, opening on November 5, will again delight the crowds as it has done for the past 27 years.
Bloom in the Bloom is a ‘bus only’ festival, which Marketing and Sponsorship Manager Julia Brown says offers a more personal experience for visitors, many of whom travel from outside of the region.
“Each bus has a guide who offers insights into the region and at each stop is greeted by the garden owner. Travelling by bus takes the pressure off having to navigate an unfamiliar region to find its hidden garden gems. We take care of everything so our visitors can sit back and enjoy the gardens.”
Full day and half-day tours take in gardens of all sizes from compact urban sections to country estates. There are also workshops and presentations from keynote speakers.
Later in spring, the Garden and Arts Festival in Bay of Plenty will appeal to gardeners and artists alike. For four days commencing November 19, the Festival will showcase over 70 gardens and works from 100 local artists on a trail around Tauranga and Western Bay of Plenty. Drive yourself, or if you’re feeling energetic, there are electric bikes to hire. The festival hub ‘Bloom in the Bay’ at the Tauranga race-course will feature exhibitors, live music and an art gallery.
Bronwyn and Neil Towersey are preparing their Bay of Plenty garden for a second Festival opening. Their large sprawling garden is distinctive in that it spans 1.5 acres smack bang in the middle of suburbia.
The Towersey’s garden wows visitors with its park-like lawns and mature trees, including oaks and ornamental cherry trees under-planted with perennials and flowers Bronwyn grows from seeds. There are two ponds that attract ducks and birds. “It’s a very unique property – often you’ll see ducks scooting across the lawn!”
Bronwyn and Neil love opening their garden to the public during the Festival and to garden clubs at other times of the year. Bronwyn says the feedback from visitors has been overwhelming.
“We’ve done all the planting ourselves. It’s a home garden and we’re just a couple of keen gardeners. We work hard and part of the enjoyment is sharing it with other people. We’re proud of what we’ve done and people love it.”
Like Jenny, Bronwyn says preparing for the Festival takes a year. During autumn and winter she and Neil prune, mulch, divide, shift and feed, so by the time spring arrives, the garden is “ready to go”.
“The weeks leading up to the festival is really just grooming – keeping everything tidy and in check,” says Bronwyn. “Lots of liquid feeding and dead heading, plus poking some potted colour into any holes – there’s often a mad dash to the garden centre!”
The Bay of Plenty festival attracts many Aucklanders, but those needing their fix of Auckland city gardens will need to wait until November 2021 when the Auckland Garden Design Fest will be on again. Meanwhile, the Waiheke Garden Safari features some of the island’s most interesting gardens and, further north there is Mangawhai Garden Ramble – a community based fundraiser now in its seventeenth year.
Julia sums it up. “The more people we can encourage into the lifetime passion - some might say obsession - with gardening, the better!”