WORTH THE WAIT
A Bay of Plenty couple dreamed of owning this harbourside garden for years
Ducks and flowering dogwoods in a Bay of Plenty paradise.
Decades of wistfully watching a particular property finally paid off for Sue Poananga. “I admired this house and location for a long time – about 20 or 30 years,” she says, of the Te Puna property she and husband Kim now call home. The waiting ended eight years ago when the 1.2ha site bordering Tauranga Harbour finally became theirs. After the years of hankering, Sue could finally put her own stamp on the property. She’d had plenty of time to dream up plans for the garden, which came with established trees, citrus and feijoas planted in clusters, and a few small garden beds mainly planted with agapanthus and roses.
Sue has always been a keen gardener, and says developing the property has been therapeutic, after unexpected ill health saw her retire early from the fashion industry. Kim has a horticultural background and manages kiwifruit orchards, so he adds plant health and nutrition know-how. “He’s a natural compost and organic kind of guy,” Sue says.
Sue and Kim’s gardening endeavours have involved a lot of planting, but they’ve also removed trees. Plenty of now-towering beauties remain, however, including a silk tree close to the house, flame trees, plum, ginkgo, ‘Awanui’ cherry, magnolia, plus tōtara, rimu and a huge black walnut believed to be about 50 years old. The Poanangas have added green and red maples, lilacs and wattles.
Sue and Kim felt the property’s “big, wide openness” was an asset, so it was farewell to all but a couple of 20 tangelos, which had been planted in a line, partially impeding the water view. Many feijoas were also felled, replaced by a row of dogwood trees. Sue’s a big fan of dogwoods for their profusion of white flowers, and she’s created a grove of eight, as well as planting four others close to the house.
Their home’s elevated position and its large deck makes the most of the view of the gardens, the expansive lawn and the harbour that ebbs and flows beyond a big stream-fed pond. The pond is loved by the team of white ducks that waddle across from next door with great regularity.
Planting flanks the lawn and either side of the house, as well as at the front where their land meets the quiet country lane. Gardens are allowed to meander, as Sue confesses little has really been planned. She simply started in one corner and went from there, and the garden’s always evolving.
“One day I may decide a little garden is needed around some of the trees. A week later I may feel another path should be added to mirror the first, as symmetry is important to me. Then we’ll make the call to fashion old timber into a bridge over the stream by the pond,” she says.