Crowning Napier’s best gardener
More come to see city’s top gardens
The number of people stopping by to see last year’s Napier Garden Competition overall winner hasn’t slowed — if anything, it’s grown.
Entries to the Napier Garden Competition, which is run annually by the Spirit of Napier Lions Club in conjunction with Napier City Council, are open from now until October 31.
The 2017 winner Gloria Mauloni, who isn’t entering this year’s competition, modestly puts some of the continued interest down to being in a prominent location, on the corner of Kennedy and Wellesley Roads.
“We’ve constantly had people saying how lovely it is, and we always invite them in to take photos.”
While no one can predict what the judges will be looking for, lots of colour and garden art has worked for Gloria and husband Bob, she says.
The couple bought the property four years ago and it has undergone a major transformation. It has been a great spot to grow a variety of roses and colourful plants, she says, and to display Gloria’s collection of garden art, some of it upcycled from previous lives as, for example, a balustrade and bedhead. The experienced gardener has lived in Hawke’s Bay for eight years, first at Waipukurau, where she learned how to create a garden to cope with frosts, and Awatoto, where salt spray was the challenge.
There are 11 categories in the competition, including best first time entry, best vegetable garden, best outdoor entertainment area and “dob in a garden” — to nominate a garden they admire that’s not their own. There are also two children’s categories — school gardens, and pre-school gardens.
■ Entries for the Napier Garden Competition 2018 close on October 31. Judging takes place on November 5 and 6, and the prizegiving will be held on November 16. For more information, or to enter, go to www.napier.govt.nz #gardencompetition, or telephone the Spirit of Napier Lions Club on 844 0439.