NATURAL HIGH

Fertile soil and fab views make this King Country garden special.

On a clear day you really can see forever when you visit the rural garden of Liz and Evan Cowan. Their property, Kāmahi, sits high on a ridge at Rewarewa, near Ōtorohanga. It has a rippling green tapestry of King Country farmland spread before it, and the clearest of views to Pirongia and Kakepuku mountains. It is a magnificent display.

Liz says nothing gets in the way of this vista. A few years ago, some fast-growing trees threatened to shield the mountains. The offending items were removed, chipped and they now serve the landscape as excellent mulch.

The garden began 40 years ago when Liz and Evan built a house on a 6ha block adjacent to the family farm where Evan’s late parents, Arthur and Pat Cowan, nurtured stands of native trees along with sheep and cattle.

Arthur was known nationwide as a legendary conservationist. His efforts began on his own doorstep and large tracts of bush on the 450ha Cowan farm are protected by QEII National Trust covenants.

Liz and Evan joined Arthur and Pat on the land. They moved into their new home on Christmas Day in 1981, and the only vegetation on the raw site was a line of hardy kāmahi trees. They named the place after them. “We really knew nothing about gardening when we started,” Liz says. “We thought, if it’s native it must grow here.”

So they quickly added more. Liz found a good deal – native seedlings at $1 a pop – at the long-gone Burtons Garden Centre in Hamilton, and she created a belt of trees to protect the house from southerly winds. These bargains – including karaka, rimu, kahikatea and more – now form a towering green backdrop to the house.

Liz says it was wonderful how quickly the trees did the job. “It is a fertile volcanic ash area, it is free-draining and the land had been planted in lucerne hay for 15 years before we built. The soil is incredibly rich. I’m not a fussy gardener and if things self-seed, then they must be happy, and they have a place here.”

She says she didn’t start out to develop a grand garden; it was more about blending seamlessly with the landscape. “The surroundings have dictated the form.” And part of the design principle was that the lawns had to be accessible for Evan’s rideon mower. “We sometimes reshaped things for the mower.”

The garden covers about 1ha, rolling down from the house almost concentrically, following the lie of the land. The different levels are defined by hedges, pathways, stone walls and borders.

Pathways often lead to surprise elements such as rustic seats or collections of pots and urns – things that draw the eye, make you pause for a bit. Liz particularly admires the designs of the great British gardeners: “They do surprises really well.”

Early on, she introduced exotic trees and flowers for greater colour and texture. The elevated property is relatively frost-free. Liz says it has its own little microclimate, and she has been able to plant rhododendrons and other frost-tender shrubs and trees. There are also colourful collections of alstroemeria, dahlias, agapanthus, lilies, roses, lavender, and hydrangeas. Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’, with its large creamy heads fading to mint green, is a favourite.

In spring the landscape is vibrant with hundreds, possibly thousands, of daffodils. Liz and Evan patiently planted 400 more daffodil bulbs during the national Covid-19 lockdown in autumn 2020. Evan dug the divots, Liz tamped in the bulbs. They were quickly rewarded; the daffodils flowered in early winter, rather than waiting for spring. “They got confused,” says Evan.

The garden is alive with birds, and Liz and Evan have watched numbers and species grow as food sources developed. As well as feasting on native seeds and berries, Liz says the tūī, bellbirds, fantails and waxeyes enjoy nectar from succulents, red hot pokers, camellias and other plants. Majestic kererū also swoosh into the trees for fodder, and Liz and Evan think they’re nesting in rimu at the rear of the house.

Liz runs Kāmahi Cottage on the property, a luxury farmstay, and she has a reputation for feeding her guests well, using fruit from the extensive orchard in the likes of lemon cake, plum flan and lemon tart. Evan also makes schnapps with the plums; Liz says it’s very good.

But above all, this is a family garden, the place where Liz and Evan have raised their three children and celebrated the weddings of two of them on the lower lawn. In recent years, they have stepped back from farm management and daughter Danielle and her husband Jarrod Hawkins now run the property. They live nearby with their children, expanding the generations on this cherished land.

Liz, who was born in Switzerland, says her mother was an accomplished cook and gardener, and these were not necessarily skills she had at the beginning of her time on the farm.

She looks at the beautiful garden she has created, and says, “I’ve loved it more and more.”

LEFT The copper fountain purchase was inspired by the agapanthus plantings in Evan and Liz Cowan’s garden and was made from an old hot water cylinder by an Oamaru artist; it was broken in transit so Evan painstakingly repaired it. THIS PAGE The Waipā River valley vista is framed by Marlborough rock daisies (Pachystegia insignis), at left, and ‘Iceberg’ roses, right; the giant eucalypts (Eucalyptus regnans) were planted in 1985 at the entrance to the property; concrete pavers inserted in the lawn form a casual path to the front door.

RIGHT Views from the upper lawn look towards Mt Kakepuku; the lawn is edged with buxus with shapely Thuja occidentalis ‘Fastigiata’ at left, and eucalypts at right; plants in the foreground include Asiatic lilies and silverygrey Grevillea victoriae.

LEFT, FROM TOP Evan and Liz Cowan. This loquat tree at the edge of a grassy path is a special cultivar supplied by Waikato plantsman Peter Cave, with an exceptionally large fruit-to-seed ratio. Succulents trail from a ceramic pot alongside a potted variegated agapanthus. ABOVE This mid-level area of the garden has lemon trees, maples, shaped buxus and large-leafed tractor seat (Ligularia reniformis) in the left foreground.

LEFT Kāmahi homestead and its sheltering native trees as viewed from the lower lawn; the raised garden bed – bright with lilies – is flanked by Italian cypresses; the seat was made by a local handyman from recycled tōtara posts and the stone wall was built from King Country limestone.

ABOVE The kitchen path is bordered by potted hydrangeas, fuchsia and roses, with golden hakone grass (Hakonechloa macra ‘All Gold’) and climbing star jasmine, at right; purple-flowered Petrea volubilis entwines the rustic pergola. RIGHT, FROM TOP A sign leads the way to the self-contained farmstay Kāmahi Cottage, next to the main garden. A woodland path behind the homestead is edged with mondo grass; soaring native trees include ribbonwood, tītoki, lacebark, lancewood, rimu and kahikatea. The view from Liz and Evan’s guest cottage looks towards the woodland garden.

ABOVE A snakebark maple, dwarf mondo grass and buxus grow at the entrance to the guest cottage, which was built in the style of the old schoolhouse at Rewarewa.