OUR IDEAL GARDEN
Reuse, reduce and recycle is the mantra for a New Plymouth family. Virginia Winder discovers a house and garden built on generosity and hard graft.
This extraordinary lifestyle story begins with a feat of human engineering. Standing at the top of the drive leading down to the home of Seton Pennell and Hayley Marsh, visitors shake their head, wondering how on earth the
85-year-old house got there. Way down there.
The couple found their dream house when they were renting No
7 Bulkeley Tce in New Plymouth. They fell in love with the house next door, No 9, owned by Ra¯ hotu farmers, who planned to move it off the site.
With promise of a new-old home, Pennell sold his rentals in the Hawke’s Bay, and in January
2017, he and Marsh bought a block of land beside the Herekawe Walkway, which leads to Back Beach. ‘‘Seton saw the beauty in this property, where I just saw hard work, six-foot gorse and fennel,’’ Marsh says.
But it did have something that was an absolute must for her – a view of Mt Taranaki. ‘‘I lived in the Gold Coast for nearly 13 years and came back here nearly four years ago and to have that view of the mountain – that’s home,’’ says the mother of Taya, 6, and Fletcher, 5 months.
Pennell’s deal breaker was having easy access to the beach and the Hobart Drive section gets a big tick on that point. He’s also an avid learner surfer and tries to swim in the sea as much as possible. ‘‘I’ve sailed all my life, I’m connected to the ocean.’’
They share their story while sitting at a picnic table and chairs they got for free, under a $20 shade cloth held up by giant telephone poles (another bargain) and beside a claw-foot bath that will be plumbed in for outside luxury.
Around us, the once-weedy land is mostly clear and the transported home looms large and strong. The house was officially moved on to the site on April 27 last year. About
7pm that night Central House Movers started the intricate job of manoeuvring the three-bedroom wooden house into place. ‘‘The trailer has eight axels and each one can lift independently off the ground and rotate about 30 degrees, so they can spin on a dime,’’ Pennell says.
Finally, the house was shifted into its permanent position, where it was initially held up by 12 threemetre-tall metal posts, which Pennell describes as ‘‘toothpicks’’.
‘‘It’s still a pinch me moment,’’ Marsh says, looking at the house, now on solid foundations.
‘‘I huff and puff to get the recycling bin up there, let alone get a house down.’’
As well as being a little sceptical about the property, she was also scared the whole housebuying plan would fall through and they would be left with land they couldn’t afford to develop.
But Marsh, a cautious perfectionist, has the perfect foil – Pennell, who is as excitable as Winnie the Pooh’s mate Tigger.
‘‘I’m an eternal optimist – nothing can get in the way with hard work and grit,’’ he says, holding his son, who looks remarkably like the Buddha statue by their front door.
The senior instructor at the TSB Topec outdoor education centre says that after they bought the property, he spent one day raking up weeds, and many evenings exploring the land. One night they even had dinner on the cleared section.
‘‘For me it was a dream to own my own house, my own bit of dirt, to do what I wanted with it,’’ Pennell says. ‘‘I see opportunities as doors and don’t often let a door get slammed in my face.’’
From day one, he hasn’t stopped working on the property and Marsh is proud of him.
‘‘He did all the plans himself – everything. He blew me away.’’
Once the house was in place, they say the hard work began in earnest – with a great deal of support from family and friends.
Pennell’s brother, a builder in Tauranga, helped with the foundations. ‘‘We had to build those foundations while the house was above us on toothpicks that swayed in the wind.’’
So many friends and extended family did things to help, especially Pennell’s mum, a plant expert, who Marsh turns to for garden advice.
But even the supporters weren’t certain the couple had done the right thing. ‘‘There were a lot of doubters to start off with,’’ he says. ‘‘Now they all love it and are stoked that we persisted. My dad was a big doubter, but he helped
He did all the plans himself – everything. He blew me away." Hayley Marsh
with the finishing work.’’
After the move, not one of the doors shut properly, so his father fixed the lot.
And, finally we are on to the garden, fed with comfrey tea, worm juice and compost made with help from the neighbours, who drop off bags for his bins.
Everything on this property has been planted to feed the family and support the birds and the bees.
The hedges are titoki, there are lavenders everywhere to please Marsh and the bees. They have planted yacons, avocados and kumara, let pumpkins go wild, and dotted the land with hebes, ko¯ whai, lancewoods and native grasses, which Pennell grows in pots to share with neighbour Sue Kelly.
A grapevine grows in a sun trap beside a retaining wall that looks so sturdy, it would hold back a dam.
The ‘‘piece de resistance’’ is the orchard, planted on a slope close to the house.
In this spot, gifted weed matting from Kelly is used as shelter for young trees, including feijoas, lemons, mandarins and a blood red grapefruit. Pennell’s mum gave him the latter as a cautionary tale.
He lived in Australia for a while and when returning to New Zealand on a late-night flight, he forgot what he was carrying. ‘‘Accidentally, I had a blood red grapefruit in the bottom of my bag and it cost me $200. Mum then bought me that to remind me of that for the rest of my life.’’
Beneath a satsuma, they buried Fletcher’s placenta. ‘‘This little man’s essence is growing in that tree.’’
Everywhere we turn, the bones of the garden have been laid using building materials picked up on Trade Me or found for free or bought cheaply from a neverending list of sources.
A mate suggested buying old telephone poles, ‘‘hey bro, you could use these’’ and so the couple bought 20. Two hold up the shade cloth, and more were cut up and used by Pennell to make a long set of steps so solid they could probably support a herd of elephants.
An old rectangular trampoline acts as a windbreak on the south side of the house, and another round one has been built into the ground.
‘‘Being sustainable is a big thing – I’m an absolute greenie – reduce, reuse, recycle,’’ he says. Old shower doors create sun traps for gardens filled with basil, marigolds and strawberry plants, rainwater collected in a big blue drum goes on to the garden, and in a glasshouse up the top of the section, they have a worm farm and a shelf filled with worm juice.
‘‘Hard graft doesn’t bother me as long as we get to live the life we love now – I will replace things later.’’