A HEALING PLACE
Creating a grand Waikato garden from scratch helped a couple cope with the heartbreak of the Christchurch quakes
When Jon and Shirley Warring moved to rural Mātangi, near Hamilton, their 2ha property was very short on plants. There was a solitary palm tree at the front entrance, a few fledgling magnolias, a string of boundary shelter trees and the rest was a blank landscape.
Shirley said to Jon that the place deserved a garden, and Jon warned that it would have to be a big one if he pulled out the post-and-rail fence that encircled the house. He did this and they watched the rabbits frolicking in their paddocks and talked about what to do next.
Shirley and Jon hadn’t ever developed a garden from scratch, but they were tempted by the challenge of a new project after their previous home, Hadleigh, in St Albans, Christchurch, was irreparably damaged in the 2011 earthquake.
The arts and crafts style house had a Heritage New Zealand Category 1 listing and a ready
made garden, and the couple had cared for the Christchurch gem for 12 years.
The property they bought at Mātangi had a handsome house clad in Otago schist, designed by Aaron Haddock of Aesthetics Architecture. The property was reminiscent of a tranquil area north of central Christchurch, The Groynes, where they had gone for walks after the city’s first earthquake in September 2010. Following the heartbreaking loss of their home in the February quake, they decided to return to the North Island where they were originally from. They named their purchase Hadleigh, in memory of their Christchurch home.
Jon, a professional engineer, and Shirley, a qualitative researcher, were both retired when they reinvented themselves as gardeners. Shirley envisaged a woodland garden with some formal areas, “nothing too fussy”, and she wanted generous swathes of lawn – prompting Jon to buy a super-duper ride-on mower.
They made it up as they went along: “There was no grand design,” says Shirley. “It was small steps.” The first design idea came from visitors Duncan and Helen Parker, who had a large rural garden near Te Awamutu. They suggested a tree-lined avenue leading from the verandah of the north-facing house.
So Shirley and Jon planted an avenue of cherry trees and they all failed. They were quickly replaced by 12 maples (Acer x freemanii ‘Jeffersred’), six on each side.
These responded beautifully and the broad avenue now anchors the sweeping 1ha garden, ending in an eye-catching square feature planted with camellias, daphne, buxus hedging and hellebores.
Jon and Shirley’s outdoor dining table is perfectly positioned under a pergola to enjoy the full pleasure of their rapidly maturing maples. The pergola – a striking feature in itself – is covered in Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus tricuspidata ‘Beverley Brook’). It is kept in trim by Shirley, the “keeper of the creeper”.
Shirley sought more early advice from Graeme Burton, of Rukuhia Homestead Landscaping. He suggested key trees such as pin oaks, liquidambars, wedding cake trees and others, and he outlined where they should be planted.
Jon dug the holes and Shirley held the stakes while he banged them in with a mallet. “I never missed,” he says. Using this system, they’ve planted 2500 trees and shrubs at Hadleigh, including extensive hedging of camellias and buxus. Jon and Shirley say the rich Waikato soil has been a blessing; they marvel at the growth that has been achieved in nine years.
Shirley also found inspiration at the awardwinning Hamilton Gardens, where she liked the underplanting amid grand trees.
She took photographs, then visited Wairere Nursery at Gordonton and asked, “What are these?” The plants were identified, and the beds under Hadleigh’s western boundary trees now have many of the ground covers, small shrubs, bulbs and succulents that she admired at Hamilton Gardens.
At Wairere Nursery, Shirley met landscape designer Anthony Skinner, of Garden Graphix, and he proved a useful contact, designing two new feature areas for Hadleigh. They complement the square at the end of the
‘I did not know that I liked gardening’
avenue. There is a circular feature to the east and a four-pergola feature to the west. All three have a massive signature urn.
Jon and Shirley built and planted each feature. There has been similar teamwork in developing a pond and surrounding informal garden, and landscaping the lap pool they installed. The pool is flanked by standard lime trees, and sculptural pompom trees (Juniperus chinensis ‘Kaizuka’) provide a touch of whimsy on the wall at the rear of the pool.
Shirley has kept meticulous records of her plants and has copious notes on seasonal todo jobs. She spent hours researching on the internet as she learned her new calling, and she has become adept at topiary and other essential skills. A small battery-powered hedge trimmer and a long-handled Cyclone weeder are never far from her hands.
Nowadays, you enter the Waikato Hadleigh through stately steel gates salvaged from the Christchurch Hadleigh, then you wind your way up a tree-lined driveway and find yourself in a peaceful green oasis that is entirely the handiwork of the hard-working Warrings.
Says Shirley: “I did not know that I liked gardening. It’s been healing, too, having all this to do, and learning at the same time.”