A garden of birds
Once a poultry farm, this Wairarapa garden now hosts many feathered visitors.
By chance the Fairburns heard about a rundown poultry farm at the base of the Remutaka Hill in Featherston. Maria knew instantly this would be their place.
You can create something beautiful in all conditions,” says Maria Fairburn, who alongside her husband Miles has developed not only a garden of beautiful vistas, but also a haven for a variety of birds.
Now enjoying retirement, the Fairburns have more time to reflect. Both agree this is the “best phase” of their gardening journey. Having achieved their ultimate goal – to transform sloping, south-facing drought-prone paddocks on the side of a hill into a garden of beautiful vistas offering a safe home for winged visitors – it’s now a time of contemplation and satisfaction in knowing that they have indeed brought the birds back.
It’s been a journey of three distinct chapters, a fair amount of twists and turns, and as with most good stories, not without a few dramas. Returning to Wellington after a year feeling cooped up in a grey lifeless London, Miles and Maria craved open space, and a desire to connect with nature. Above all, they were determined to one day develop a garden of their own.
The year was 1972 and small pockets of land for sale were hard to come by. By chance they heard about a rundown poultry farm at the base of the Remutaka Hill in Featherston, Wairarapa. Maria knew instantly this would be their place.
Two things stood out – the way the 1906 villa “sat” in the landscape and, after a steep scramble up to the gorse-ridden top paddock, she glimpsed for the first time the glistening waters of Lake Wairarapa shining in the distance. She was sold, as was Miles when he saw it for the first time.
They bought the five-hectare property at once. Miles described it then as “in need of some TLC”. He paints a picture of dereliction – falling down sheds, scrap metal and old pieces of wood retrieved from Featherston tip (which in those days was across the road).
It took more than a year to clean up the property.
All but one of the sheds were removed (some fell down by themselves) and having no money, they had to rely on doing everything themselves. They balanced working lives; Maria as a primary school teacher, then later raising their two children, while Miles – a history lecturer – commuted to Victoria University in Wellington.
In those early years, “we were full of enthusiasm and blissfully ignorant. We didn’t know about the wind,” recalls Miles with a wry smile. When they first bought the property, he thought “there’s a hill there (gesturing to the Remutaka Hill behind him) that will protect us.”
Closer inspection led Miles to find a boundary planting of old pine trees bent over at right angles from the prevailing wind. “I’ll never forget the way the house used to shake from the northwesterly gales.”
Undeterred by the gales, and with youth on their side, Miles and Maria had two goals.
It was the era of the “whole earth movement” and with a hankering for “the good life”, they set a goal to be self-sufficient in veges, going on to become a regular supplier to Commonsense Organics in Wellington. Their other common goal was something they call The Waikato Effect – a longing to recreate the woodland gardens of their childhoods.
“We had grand visions of a woodland of azaleas, rhododendrons, English ash, Japanese maples and the American catalpa but our first plantings were blown to smithereens,” remembers Miles. Rhododendrons and azaleas also failed to thrive which they later realised was probably due to the increased alkalinity of the soil, resulting from many years of accumulated chook manure.
Then came the drought (October 1972 to May 1973), which they wondered might be the norm (as it was their first summer). Thankfully they had their own natural spring at the top of the property for watering and household use. “There were real moments of doubt where we wondered if anything would grow,” recalls Maria.
But she always took heart from several mature trees on the property – totara,¯ mata¯i, black beech and an old remnant of native bush. They told her that things would grow, but it would be a matter of finding the right plants.
Ever stoic, Miles re-thought his plan for a woodland. He changed his approach and experimented with planting thickly. He densely packed together nurse plants such as poplars and sycamores around the perimeter of the house, with a plan to cull when they reached 6m, so as not to take over. In between he planted oaks, sophora, olives,
Michelia doltsopa, black walnut, variegated elm, red beech, sorbus, arbutus, golden elms, box elder and later, small trees and shrubs were planted as understorey. On the western boundary, he planted karo, ngaio and a new row of pines that grew fast and provided much needed shelter.
Wellington friends came to visit and help but would usually end up scratching their heads and remarking, “Gosh they’re dreamers aren’t they?”
Miles quietly explains, “we were simply determined to succeed.”
Not wanting to bite off more than they could chew though, they left the top paddock in gorse which nursed the regeneration of natives.
As their family grew, Maria’s interest in perennials blossomed. She offered to weed for Carterton iris enthusiast and plantswoman Frances Love, in return for learning how to propagate irises and perennials.
The smaller perennials and shrubs are Maria’s domain, and the trees are Miles’ passion. It reflects their physiques well; Miles stands tall and steadfast, and Maria is small and nimble. While Maria’s gardening style leans more towards order, colour, form and foliage – for example a stunning array of hostas and ligularia – Miles likes a more wilding approach and draws inspiration from the diversity of tree species at Eastwood Hill Arboretum in Gisborne. Together, they have woven the tall and the small together for a harmonious balance in the garden.
By the time the 1990s rolled round, the shelter trees had grown, the veges were abundant and it was time to extend the garden up the hill to enjoy the distant view of Lake Wairarapa. At the top of the hill, they dug out
By the time the 1990s rolled round, the shelter trees had grown, the veges were abundant and it was time to extend the garden up the hill.
The final chapter of the garden is now in full swing: renovating and remodelling. Maria’s desire for order has created new areas by clearing blocks of older growth.
a pond. The coldest, wettest summer followed and the 1991 eruption of Mt Pinatubo in the Philippines brought unseasonal rain to New Zealand, and kept the pond full and the garden watered all season. It gave the sloping garden a good head start, as it is not watered and contains plants which have to rely only on an annual rainfall of 1500mm, supported by a healthy covering of mulch and lawn clippings to retain moisture.
During an eight-year hiatus as the Fairburns moved to Christchurch for work, the garden was tended to every six weeks, until they returned for good in 2007 when
Miles retired. “We were too old to start again,” says Miles, “and wanted to enjoy what we’d started, and achieve a garden of substance.”
Plenty of research (pre-internet), reading and planning happened during these years to help the evolving design. Miles describes a lightbulb moment when visiting Te Whanga Garden in Gladstone, a well-known, mature rural garden developed on the site of a steep hill. The design is based on a cross shape with the centre at the highest point of the land and vistas falling away to each quadrant. “It gave us the idea of vistas in the landscape.”
One of the final chapters of this garden’s story (and usually something that comes at the beginning) is its name. It wasn’t until 2012 when it became known officially as Mara Manu – mara for garden and manu, bird. Maria was having breakfast outside and was suddenly taken by the chorus of birdsong, and realised in that moment that, “suddenly the birds were here. We had brought them back!”
Birds are now an integral part of Mara Manu and will help shape its future form, as they bring plentiful seedlings of n¯ikau and pigeonwood, and the blackbirds take care of slugs and snails round the hostas.
Maria and Miles have an infectious passion for the wonderment of plants in all their diversity. The couple is drawn to unusual specimens, including the Australian
Doryanthes excelsa that took 20 years to flower. They also favour dry-loving perennials such as Californian tree poppy ( Romneya coulteri), with its big poached egg-like flowers. It prefers dry conditions as does its relative
Romneya trichocalyx which also thrives in Mara Manu. Only the hardiest of roses were chosen, such as Rosa glauca which is cold hardy. Reliable sources of colour through winter come from a variety of salvias, especially the tall red Salvia confertiflora, Salvia mexicana ‘Limelight’, Michelia
doltsopa, Kniphofia ‘Winter Cheer’, Tahitian pohutukawa,¯ sasanqua camellias, tree dahlias and hellebores. Being relatively frost free provides benefits for growing tamarillos, macadamia, avocado and pomegranates.
Miles likens having a big garden to “living in a landscape painting that creates itself”. Inevitably, there’s a sense that there is still more painting to come, not only for Miles and Maria but also for the birds that now call Mara Manu home. How to visit: Mara Manu is open by appointment only. Email miles.fairburn@gmail.com.