Witness the revival of an intergenerational Gisborne garden.
An intergenerational garden near Gisborne is given new life and shape
The Queen may not be sending the traditional telegram but Linda Vette, owner of Kaiariki, will certainly be marking the grand old homestead’s 100th birthday next year. Kaiariki was originally a 92ha dairy farm in Manutūkē, south of Gisborne, and has been at the centre of the Vette family for decades. So when most of the farm was sold in 2007, Linda kept the homestead and 3ha of land.
You would be forgiven for thinking that this clever garden is the work of an aficionado, but Linda says that the grounds and their upkeep were driven by necessity not passion.
Her career began at aged nine, under the tutelage of her mother Mary, mowing the lawn by the kitchen
and progressed to assuming responsibility for most of the maintenance of this large country garden. This set the scene for a lifetime interest in gardening.
In 1958, local landscaper Bill Giles established the garden and began with a shrubbery. This joined original plantings of specimen chestnut, macrocarpa and tōtara trees. These magnificent specimens still stand and one of the chestnuts is renowned for its enormous girth.
The garden began to decline in the late 1990s and when Mary moved into a rest home in Gisborne, it lay untouched for six years. That’s until Linda returned to her childhood home, seeking a project to embrace. The house had no running water or power but undeterred, Linda set the tradies to work while she tackled the grounds.
Her mother hadn’t always been an avid gardener and would say to Linda: “There must be more to life than cutting grass”; over the years though she grew to love it. Linda says her own love of gardening was initially born out of need. “We were seven farm dogs, gumboots and a working dairy farm and I wanted to be like my tidy town cousins.”
Hedgerows had appealed to Linda even as a young girl and she had an eye for spotting patterns in everything from knitting to countryside landscapes. She began in earnest by planting 140 griselinia to form a hedge and perimeter.
Linda has never let the scale of an undertaking determine whether she took it on or not. Many an evening spent gazing over the garden from the second storey of the homestead has resulted in wondrous garden features.
Loving the shape and concept of a lap pool,
Linda ingeniously created the dimensions of one with clipped buxus. Then came a large “boat”, fully sculptured through plantings.
“Early on in the clearing phase of the grounds’ development, I asked a man if he could come and wield a chainsaw for two weeks,” says Linda. Graeme was his name, and he continued to come four days a week for four years.
“We shared hundreds of lunches on the porch and many laughs.” Like others before him, he has left his mark on the garden with lamp posts erected, summer houses built and nearly burning down the 100-year-old sheds with an over-enthusiastic bonfire.
Discovering Teucrium fruticans many years ago sparked a consuming love affair only surpassed by Linda’s collection of old gates.
“I took a trip to Hawke’s Bay and just carried on down central Hawke’s Bay stripping the region of its teucrium supplies.” Likewise, 11 antique gates found their way into the back of Linda’s small car and are now placed throughout the garden.
A pragmatic approach to life has seen her dispense with any area deemed troublesome; she then covers these spots in river stones and a feature of one type or another. Poor performance is met with sharp action at Kaiariki.
The garden has evolved from the 1990s plantings of roses and floriferous masses to one of structure and calm but Linda’s appreciation of quirkiness and tongue-in-cheek isn’t hard to miss. She takes all the supposed rules around garden design in her stride, and adopts what suits.
Linda has enjoyed watching the layers of the garden build up over the years. She often takes a moment in the evenings to reflect on the progress, but you can’t help thinking her mind has sprung to the next creation on her agenda.