A big two days for gardeners
A dozen keen gardeners will open their properties to fellow enthusiasts over the weekend of November 3-4, for the 2018 Kaitaia Riding for the Disabled Garden Safari.
The properties, from Kaimaumau Rd, just north of Waiharara, to Pukenui, vary from well established to continually evolving, and from very easy to mostly gentle contour, only one being described as not for the disabled or faint of heart.
What they had in common was that they were all well loved and beautifully tended, Irene Knowler said.
Judy Wright’s garden at Pukenui is described as a garden lover’s paradise, with lawns around the house and long paths leading to a large, colourful collection of shrubs, trees, perennials, succulents, palms and bromeliads, and a neat and tidy vegetable plot.
A local artist will be there for the weekend as an added attraction.
Margaret and Lloyd Matthews’ garden at Pukenui is in two parts, a terraced lawn area surrounded by a variety of flowering shrubs and perennials (and a clever idea for a smokehouse), with a white wisteria-covered archway leading to a lower level featuring a vegetable garden overlooked by another display of colour.
Judy Wright’s garden lover’s paradise.
The garden is home to a selection of ligularia, vireya, lilliums, bromeliads, azalias, camelias and ‘you name its,’ along with orchids, daphnes and blood lilies.
Behind the house are a large frangipani and bead tree, and what the family call their Pearly Garden, marked out with driftwood and planted in memory of a much loved labrador.
Darren and Rowena Critchley’s garden on Houhora Heads Rd is one that continues to evolve, featuring a great variety of fruit and nut trees for yearround picking, tropical shrubs and palms. The results of Darren’s passion for chainsaw carving are also dotted around the property, while a butterfly and succulent garden will be of special interest to many.