‘It’s tremendously exciting’: castle garden lauded
THE Larnach Castle garden has gained a wider overseas profile by being featured in prestigious British magazine Country Life.
‘‘It’s tremendously exciting. I’m absolutely thrilled to get the international recognition,’’ Larnach Castle owner Margaret Barker said yesterday.
Mrs Barker was delighted the magazine had devoted a sixpage article to the castle’s garden, which she had spent the past 53 years redeveloping and improving.
The magazine article had vindicated the hard work which she and a wider team had put into the garden over a long period, she said.
The article, titled ‘‘Fortified planting’’, was written by English garden designer and author Noel Kingsbury, and referred to Mrs Barker as ‘‘the maker of a remarkable coastal garden that combines use of native species with more familiar garden plants to great effect’’.
‘‘Spectacular location always helps and this particular garden, some 1000ft above the fiordlike waterbody of Otago Harbour as it quests its way inland on New Zealand’s South Island, certainly has that,’’ Dr Kingsbury wrote.
The article noted the redevelopment moved the garden ‘‘away from a colonial European model to something more located in its wider region’’.
❛ I’m absolutely thrilled to get the international recognition