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landscaping.gif”>The yard of Rick and Terry Stone, 1803 E. Howard St., has been named the June 2008 Yard of the Month by the Beautification Committee of the Pontiac Area Chamber of Commerce.

The Stones have resided in the house they built 14 years ago and every year has led to a little more of their landscaping touches.

While not too much of the front yard can be seen because of a privacy hedge along Illinois 116, the open areas at both ends of the curved driveway give a glimpse of the beauty within.

“While the hedge does shut off a lot of view it also has its advantages in that it cuts down a lot of traffic noise from the roadway,” said Terry Stone.

One thing that cannot be overlooked is the unique driveway paving material chosen by the Stones. The off-red gravel-looking material is named “rotten granite” and gives the large curving driveway its own special soft color very different from routine run-of-the-mill white or gray gravel.

Knock-out roses in a deep red are repeated throughout the yard along the front, back and side.

“The roses have done so well and bloomed so profusely this year. I have lots of daffodils which did not bloom that well this year and I was afraid other perennials might follow the same course,” she said. “Instead what a pleasant surprise it has been with the roses and a few others, including the purple perennial salvia.”

“I have also been a little disappointed that more perennials like black-eyed Susans and purple coneflowers are so much later this year. I’m guessing the cold and wet spring has put everything a little behind,” she said.

Rick Stone’s project this spring has been starting some maple trees from maple “helicopter” seeds that blew into the yard.

“While the seedlings look good, they are still small, it’s too early to tell how they will do once set into the landscape as trees,” she said.

Tags: area chamber of commerce, beautification committee, black eyed susans, daffodils, front yard, glimpse, gravel, landscape, Landscaping, maple trees, open areas, paving material, perennials, pontiac area, privacy hedge, purple coneflowers, roadway, rotten granite, salvia, seedlings, traffic noise, wet spring
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When I moved to Grass Valley in 1992, I bought a house, which was surrounded by two acres of old overgrown manzanita. A fire trap to be sure. After hiring a brush-clearing firm, Hillside Landscaping I was left with an acre of bare red dirt and a few scattered oaks trees.

I immediately set to work transforming this barren landscape into a garden. I put up a deer fence and built a path system-all the while thinking about what I would plant in my new garden. Because I have a low output well, I was restricted to drought tolerant plants. And because I wanted to create an eco-friendly garden, I chose to plant California native plants.

I decided to experiment with as many different species of penstemon as possible. I had observed several spectacular species in the wild and hoped they would grow well in the garden. My research told me that wild penstemons are tricky to grow and can be short-lived in the garden. Their primary requirement is well draining soil and many of them require minimal irrigation. For those gardeners with poorly drained clay soil, one solution is to import a good sandy loam from a soil vendor and mound it up on top of the existing soil. Both Eaton’s penstemon (P. eatonii) and P. pseudospectabils have thrived in my garden on mounded sandy loam soil. They receive morning sun and are shaded by tall pines in the afternoon. Both these plants form sprawling clumps and have semi-upright stems with tubular flowers that attract hummingbirds. Eaton’s penstemon has red flowers and P. pseudospectabils has outrageous red/pink/pruple flowers that defy description. Both are native to mountainous areas of the southwestern states, but can flourish here in the foothills.

The trick when watering penstemons is to give them enough to keep them looking fresh through the summer, but not too much, otherwise you can kill them with kindness. Many of the penstemon species that inhabit dry desert and mountain habitat in the Southwest, can survive the summer without irrigation once they are established in the garden. But after a long dry summer without water they will look pretty ratty. A more practical solution is create a semi-dry border by combining penstemon species with wild buckwheats, monkey flowers, California poppies, salvias and other drought-tolerant native plants and drip irrigating once every ten days in the summer, beginning in May. This will keep your plants looking fresh and extend their bloom well into the summer. In the Sierra foothills of Nevada and Placer Counties, azure penstemon (P. azureus) and foothill penstemon (P. heterophyllus) are native wildflowers. A hybrid of these two species called Penstemon ‘Margarita BOP’ is one of the easiest penstemons for garden culture. This hybrid was discovered next to the back porch at Las Pilitas nursery in Santa Margarita, Calif-thus its name Penstemon ‘Margarita BOP.’ It forms an evergreen, 3-ft wide sprawling mound covered with masses of tubular blue and purple flowers. Dave Roberts, President of EcoLandscape California, a non-profit ecological landscaping organization, grows P. ‘Margarita BOP’ in his Sacramento garden. He grows it in sandy soil and waters it once a week during the summer, beginning in May, which keeps the plant blooming and looking fresh through the summer.

Several penstemon species have persisted and thrived in my garden without any special improvement of soil drainage. They are all planted in full sun on a west-facing slope. Beginning in May, they are drip irrigated once every two weeks through their first summer after being planted in the garden. During subsequent years, I water them sparingly through July and then cease watering for the rest of the summer.

My hand’s down favorite has been Penstemon incertus. I grew it from seed that I purchased from the Theodore Payne Foundation in southern California.

The plant is clump-forming with multiple 2-foot tall stems, grey green foliage and beautiful blue/purple tubular flowers. It is easy to propagate from cuttings and seed and is now abundant in my garden. My original plant is still thriving after four years. Royal penstemon (P. spectabilis) has also thrived in my garden without soil improvement. This is a gorgeous three-foot tall clump-forming plant. When in full bloom it is covered with blue, pink and purple flowers and buzzing with visiting honey bees. Grinnell’s beard tongue (P. grennellii) also grows on a hot,Hillside Landscaping rocky slope in my garden. It reaches about two feet in height and has multiple stems with coarsely-toothed shiny green leaves. It has puffy balloon-shaped flowers that are lightly scented and colored pink with delicate mauve tracings. This species is very sensitive to over-watering and should not be irrigated in summer. I recommend planting this plant in a sandy loam of decomposed granite soil if possible.

I have also experimented with several species of keckiella, which are the shrubby cousins of the perennial penstemons. They are sometimes called bush penstemons. My resident hummingbird loves the scarlet-colored tubular flowers heartleaf keckiella (K. cordifolia) in my garden. Bees favor the snapdragon-like flowers of yellow keckiella (K. antirrhinoides) in my garden.

All the penstemon species are very easy to propagate from cuttings or seed. I usually leave the spent blooms on some of the stems so that seed pods can develop. I harvest the seed and sow it in pots in the fall so that it is watered by winter rains. The seedlings germinate en masse in early spring. I transplant these directly into the garden or into 4 inch pots-in which case, I grow them through the summer and then plant them into the garden in fall.

Cuttings are easier. I usually wait until February and then cut year-old stems back to sprouting buds near the base of the stems. Then I cut the pruned off stems into 6-inch long sections, and stick these directly into the ground around the parent plants. With a little extra water, these cuttings root quickly and easily. In this way, as older plants die off, new young ones grow up to replace them.

All of these penstemon and bush penstemon species (plus many other California native trees, shrubs, perennials and grasses) will be available for purchase at the Spring Native Plant Sale and Wildflower Show at the Rocklin campus of Sierra College (Parking Lot S) on Saturday, May 3rd from 9:30 am to 1:30 pm.

Quantities of some of these are limited, so come early for the best selection. There will be a special presentation “Wildflowers of Placer and Nevada Counties - Where to See ‘em and How to Grow ‘em” before the sale at 9 am.

Tags: amp, blooms, drought, fence, grass, grasses, Hillside Landscaping, irrigation, landscape, Landscaping, Landscaping Rock, native plants, perennials, plants, poppies, porch, salvia, sandy soil, seedlings, shrub, shrubs, soil, soil and water
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Sometimes a garden is not merely a garden but is more like a work of folk art, unique and individualistic, expressing the interests and personality of its creator. The nautical tableau in Bob Schmengers front yard is that type of garden.

No one would guess that this cheerful scene had a sad beginning. In the late 1970s, Schmenger and his second wife bought a vacant lot in Los Osos and together designed their dream house, complete with a rooftop widows walk to reflect Bobs love of the sea. She selected all the interior furnishings and d%26#233;cor, but she died in 1982, before they could move in. The house still holds bittersweet memories, and Schmenger prefers being outdoors.

The outdoor spaces had been his territory from the planning stages. The backyard is devoted to fruit trees and vegetables, all grown organically.

The retired aerospace pattern-maker skillfully layed out the front yard with salvia and lavender in front of the porch, Hollywood junipers screening the windows and a free-form bed of African daisy ground cover, defined by pilings. The outermost half of the space was simply covered with truckloads of rock %26#8212; its expanse relieved by a street-side berm planted with bright gaillardias, salvias and penstemon.

One of Schmengers favorite pastimes has been beach walking%26#8212;collecting shells and interesting debris washed ashore by the surf. During the difficult emotional times following his wifes death, walking and gardening were therapeutic outlets.

Realizing that his rock-mulched area needed some kind of accent in scale with its dimensions, he acquired an old boat that had been abandoned near the Morro Bay landing. But when placed in the front yard, the boat looked empty and lonely.

As a result, he commissioned the standing sea captain that was carved from wood by an Oregon artist. Thus began this very personal garden that Schmengers daughter, Trisha, dubbed %26#8220;A Nautical Disneyland.%26#8221;

Before long, Schmenger had become an inveterate collector of all things nautical.

People who saw his garden passed on tips about fishing apparatus that was being discarded. He discovered some fishing gear in unlikely places, like the fishnet found in the desert.

Schmenger and his brother, Carlos, took boards from a pier that was being dismantled and reconfigured them into a landlocked, zig-zag mini pier.

Carlos, a retired house painter, also painted all the signs and the model lighthouse. The lobster traps on the pier are not real; Schmenger crafted them of scrap wood. Among his other acquisitions was a second boat, with a fisher-mannequin dressed in thrift-shop clothing.

Schmenger still enjoys playing around with his small nautical accents, periodically rearranging shells and a %26#8220;snake pit%26#8221; of appropriately shaped driftwood among some succulents.

He wishes he could replace the deteriorating plaster gulls; they were inexpensive when purchased years ago in Mexico. However, the only birds Schmenger has found locally are wooden, carved by artists.

Now in his early 90s, he declares that he doesnt have enough years left to enjoy $50 sea gulls, so hell just enjoy the garden as it is.

Everyone who sees it enjoys it, too. And thats what folk art is all about.

Tags: front yard, fruit tree, junipers, mulch, outdoor spaces, porch, salvia, vegetables
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DESPITE HER BEST efforts at thatching and irrigation, Shelagh Tucker’s lawn turned a discouraging brown in summer. Her front garden faces south and slopes down to the street, so water ran off, and the sun baked both rhododendrons and grass.

Despite the common belief that our climate is akin to rainy England’s, in reality our skies are mostly dry from July through September. So Tucker decided to go whole hog: She hired landscape architect Phil Wood to design a drought-proof Mediterranean garden in front of her Carkeek Park home. While the backyard remains as green and flowery as an English countryside, the front landscape is a stylish expanse of stone, gravel and abundant plantings that get by just fine without any supplemental water.

The lawn went first, tilled under and topped off with a foot of compost. Wood designed a round, stone terrace softened with a carpeting of thyme. Handsome, low, rock walls define gradual elevation changes. Tucker worked with Wade Bartlett of Rock Solid Landscaping to lay paths and place each boulder.

“Because I’m from England I’m fond of light-colored gravel,” says Tucker of the pale pathways. “Everyone there uses limestone and has gravel driveways.” The cream-colored gravel warms up gray days while setting off the plants happily seeding themselves in it. The larger rocks are Montana sandstone in the same buff color.

Planting was left to Tucker, and she went to work with a whole new palette of plants, many with gray or silvery leaves like Russian olives and eucalyptus. Tucker installed an irrigation system to get the garden off to a good start, but has found that months go by without her needing to turn it on. “I do have a little drip on the Styrax japonicas,” she points out, noting that these trees evolved in Japan where rainfall is more evenly distributed throughout the year than it is here.

For dry spots, these will do

Since planting her new front garden in the spring of 2003, Shelagh Tucker has lost few, if any, plants. Australia and New Zealand natives have been particularly successful. All the plants listed have thrived in full sun with very little or no supplemental water, once established:

Perennials: Penstemons love these droughty conditions, says Tucker. Just leave them alone, and they do well. Other arid-tolerant perennials include yarrow, nepeta, salvias, artemisia, sages, coneflowers, phlomis, cardoons, Russian sage, sedum, euphorbia and ornamental grasses.

Bulbs: Fox tail lilies and tulips.

Shrubs: Rosa glauca, rugosa roses, rock roses (Cistus species), hebes, ceanothus, manzanitas, osmanthus, rosemary.

Trees: Eucalyptus gunni, weeping willow-leaved pear (Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’) Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia).

Beth Chatto’s “Gravel Garden: Drought-Resistant Planting Through the Year” (Viking Studio, $35) is Tucker’s bible for this new style of arid gardening. “Chatto says just to pull plants out if they don’t do well,” Tucker advises. Because the sloped garden drains so freely, most of her new plants have wintered over successfully, and she hasn’t needed to put that advice into practice. Plants are seeding and growing so prolifically that all too soon Tucker will be spending her time cutting back and pulling out.

Tucker has learned to leave plants alone in autumn when they’re drought-stressed. “I’ve found the less you cut things back in the fall, the better they do,” she says. She doesn’t fertilize, leaving old foliage to melt into the gravel to enrich the soil.

A gravel pathway leads beneath a rose-laced arbor into a back garden that seems a world away. A glass conservatory adds elegance, and a fountain bubbles in the round fish pond, designed by Wood to echo the shape of the front patio. Curvaceous beds filled with clematis, roses, peonies, hostas and hydrangeas complement the 1930s house in a very different manner than the less conventional front garden.

“The new garden is so much less labor-intensive than the traditional borders in the back,” says Tucker. She’s been pleased to find there is no dead season in her Mediterranean-style garden, and last June she realized she hadn’t watered out front in 18 months.

In all the transformations, Tucker’s husband asked for just a bit of front lawn. Two little strips of grass near the house afford a pleasant place to sit and look out over a textural array of Mediterranean plants grown luxuriant on a Northwest hillside.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Barry Wong is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. He can be reached at barrywongphoto@earthlink.net.

Tags: compost, drought, grass, grasses, gravel, irrigation, irrigation system, landscape, landscape architect, Landscaping, ornamental grasses, perennials, plantings, plants, s south, salvia, shrub, shrubs, soil
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NZ Gardener editor Lynda Hallinan takes her pick of the best New Zealand gardens to visit.

MY HOUSE, MY CASTLE

You don%26#39;t need a flash house to have a flash garden, but it helps. More important, though, are good taste and green thumbs. At Dunedin%26#39;s Larnach Castle (145 Camp Rd, Otago Peninsula, www.larnachcastle.co.nz), Margaret Barker could have played it safe with traditional English-style grounds. Instead she empowered her gardeners to experiment with innovative planting ideas, including a new South Seas garden that pushes the climatic boundaries. The Barker family captured the castle in 1967 and unveil a new bronze sculpture in the garden this weekend to mark their 40th year of ownership.

COUNTRY GIRLS

I have a theory that sheep farmers%26#39; wives create the best gardens. It%26#39;s hardly scientific, and I%26#39;d hate to imply that dairy or deer farmers%26#39; wives are somehow deficient, but sheep farmers%26#39; wives have an edge. Perhaps their husbands are more flexible about fencing, as it seems they%26#39;re forever letting out their green belts, swallowing bare paddocks.

Carolyn Ferraby%26#39;s magnificent Marlborough garden, Barewood, (140 Barewood Rd, Awatere Valley) is the pick of the bunch. Ferraby put in an ornamental French-style potager years before the rest of us even knew how to spell it. Husband Joe is a handy accomplice, welding metal frames to support espaliered pears and apples. Barewood is open by appointment, ph (03) 575-7432.

Still in Marlborough, Sue and Dave Monaghan%26#39;s expansive garden at Upton Oaks (33 Hammerichs Rd, Blenheim) includes glamorous perennial borders and fulsome roses. The front paddock has been transformed into an immaculate parterre of clipped buxus hedges laid out in geometric patterns (mind you, Dave isn%26#39;t a farmer. He%26#39;s a furniture maker). Upton Oaks is open by appointment, ph (03) 579-3316.

In North Canterbury, Penny Zino%26#39;s inspirational country garden Flaxmere (128 Westenra%26#39;s Rd, Hawarden) has it all. Rated a garden of national significance, Flaxmere has evolved over 40 years and is artfully designed with gracious vistas, plus a waterlily pond that Monet would have been proud of. Penny also hosts an annual sculpture exhibition in October (www.artinagarden.co.nz).

STALK YOUR QUARRY

Gardeners don%26#39;t just like to dig big holes, they also like to fill them and holes don%26#39;t come much bigger than an abandoned quarry. At Patumahoe, south of Auckland, Malcolm and Dael Wright have planted thousands of tropical waterlilies and lotuses to transform their rocky reservoir into an aquatic paradise (128 Mauku Rd, www.wrightswatergardens.co.nz). The garden is best in late summer. Don%26#39;t miss the lotus festival in February.

Derelict quarries also lure volunteers like bees to borage flowers to create community gardens on a grand scale. Check out the orchids climbing the walls at the subtropical Whangarei Quarry Gardens (www.whangareiquarrygardens.co.nz); the bromeliads at Te Puna Quarry Park in Bay of Plenty (www.quarrypark.org.nz); and the art exhibitions at Waikato%26#39;s Waitakaruru Arboretum and Sculpture Park (www.sculpturepark.co.nz). Auckland%26#39;s Eden Garden (www.edengarden.co.nz) has one of the country%26#39;s finest collections of camellias and vireya rhododendrons, not to mention the best scones south of the Puhoi Cottage Tea Rooms.

GO BUSH

It takes flair to create a bush garden that%26#39;s better than the real thing, but David Clarkson and Valda Poletti have pulled it off. Their Taranaki garden Te Kainga Marire (15 Spencer Pl, New Plymouth) meaning %26quot;peaceful encampment%26quot; is a slice of bush-clad serenity in the %26#39;burbs. What makes it unique is that they started with the clearing, then added the bush. Rare treats include North Island edelweiss and vegetable sheep ask to borrow their magnifying glass to admire the latter%26#39;s tiny flowers. Not only is Te Kainga Marire (www.tekaingamarire) one of the few private backyards accorded garden of national significance status by the New Zealand Gardens Trust, English gardening celebrity Monty Don rates it as one of the world%26#39;s best in his latest TV series, Around the World in 80 Gardens. (I%26#39;d peacefully encamp anywhere Monty recommended. Imagine Simon Dallow in tweed: he%26#39;s the thinking gardener%26#39;s crumpet.)

The capital also has two native spots of note: Te Papa%26#39;s bush garden (www.tepapa.govt.nz) and Otari-Wilton%26#39;s Bush (www.otariwiltonsbush.org.nz), a century-old botanical reserve, 5km from downtown.

SCULPTURE VULTURES

Combine a dash of culture with your daily constitutional set off on a stroll around the 27 sculptures installed at the Auckland Botanic Gardens this summer for Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens. As if hosting the Ellerslie International Flower Show wasn%26#39;t enough to keep the ground staff busy, Jack Hobbs and his team have installed artworks to the tune of $1.5 million along a 1.8km trail around the park. Give Barry Lett%26#39;s Big Rock Dog, the $25,000 Supreme Award winner, a pat, but keep your own pet on a leash. Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens runs until the end of January and sure beats traipsing around a fusty art gallery on a fine day.

TASTE OF THE TROPICS

Skip Fiji and head for Whenuapai. Peter and Jocelyn Coyle%26#39;s spectacular subtropical garden, Totara Waters (89 Totara Rd) is a paradise of palms, bromeliads and exotic birds. Peter used to be a car parts dealer; now he scours the country to haggle over special plants instead. The harbourside garden (www.totarawaters.co.nz) is less than 10 years old, but has made precocious progress, as no expense has been spared. I defy you to leave without buying a boot-load of choice plants.

If West Auckland is an unlikely location for a subtropical oasis, try Wanganui. Clive Higgie%26#39;s garden Paloma (Pohutukawa Lane, Fordell; www.paloma.co.nz) has to be seen to be believed. From the arboretum to the amphitheatre-like valley of aloes, agaves and other exotics, the landscape has an extra-terrestrial quality.

FORMAL DRESS

If you salivate over symmetry and sharply clipped hedges, add Richmond to your list. This impressive Wairarapa garden (40 Wakelin St, Carterton; www.boxwood.co.nz/richmond) is just plain posh. Inspired by 16th- and 17th-century European gardens, the owners have installed a sophisticated formal garden including a reflecting pool long enough for Olympic qualifying laps. Next weekend they%26#39;re hosting a garden party as part of Carterton%26#39;s 150th jubilee celebrations. Tickets at the gate.

Formality also reigns at renowned Christchurch architect Sir Miles Warren%26#39;s garden Ohinetahi, Teddington Rd, Governor%26#39;s Bay. Sir Miles%26#39; historic house nestles into English-style gardens with a Kiwi flavour. It%26#39;s utterly gorgeous. Ohinetahi is open by appointment, ph (03) 329-9852.

SEASON TO TASTE

You%26#39;d think that seasonality was a swear word in this era of low-maintenance landscaping, but there%26#39;s much to be said for gardens that shamelessly celebrate spring or autumn.

Pukeiti in Taranaki (2290 Carrington Rd; www.pukeiti.org.nz) has a stunning collection of rhododendrons in flower now. Or plan a trip in August, when the flamboyant large-flowered species have the stage to themselves.

For autumn colour in the North Island, the Eastwoodhill Arboretum (2392 Wharekopae Rd; Ngatapa: www.east woodhill.org.nz) is worthy of the long trek to Gisborne, or take the NapierTaupo road to Trelinnoe Park (www.trelinnoepark.co.nz) in the heartland of Hawke%26#39;s Bay.

In the South Island, autumn colour is easy to access: just look out of your window.

SOUTHERN CHARM

Gardeners are smarter in the deep south. They plant in harmony with the climate instead of constantly trying to conquer it. At Maple Glen in Wyndham, Southland (www.mapleglen.co.nz), cold-hardy plants are celebrated in all their diversity.

Geoff Genge%26#39;s Invercargill garden Marshwood (Leonard Rd, West Plains; www.marshwoodgardens.co.nz) is home to the New Zealand salvia collection, as well all those perennials no longer deemed fashionable enough to compete with flaxes and cordylines in garden centres. Take your chequebook.

Actually, rent a van and stop at award-winning landscaper Arne Cleland%26#39;s nursery while you%26#39;re in the region. Arne specialises in stalwart native plants, but his private garden near Gore, attached to Pukerau Nursery (34 Pukerau St, Gore), innovatively combines our local flora with English-style perennials with panache. Ph (03) 205-3801.

Win $5000 of garden vouchers. See Escape E12 for details.

Tags: amp, arboretum, backyards, exhibition, green thumbs, landscape, landscaper, Landscaping, native plants, perennials, plants, pool, rta, s south, salvia, sculpture park, sculptures, tedd
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NZ Gardener editor Lynda Hallinan takes her pick of the best New Zealand gardens to visit.

MY HOUSE, MY CASTLE

You don’t need a flash house to have a flash garden, but it

helps. More important, though, are good taste and green thumbs. At Dunedin’s Larnach Castle, Margaret Barker

could have played it safe with traditional English-style grounds. Instead she empowered

her gardeners to experiment with innovative planting ideas, including a new South Seas

garden that pushes the climatic boundaries. The Barker family captured the castle in 1967

and unveil a new bronze sculpture in the garden this weekend to mark their 40th year of

ownership.

COUNTRY GIRLS

I have a theory that sheep farmers’ wives create the best

gardens. It’s hardly scientific, and I’d hate to imply that dairy or deer farmers’ wives

are somehow deficient, but sheep farmers’ wives have an edge. Perhaps their husbands are

more flexible about fencing, as it seems they’re forever letting out their green belts,

swallowing bare paddocks.

Carolyn Ferraby’s magnificent Marlborough garden, Barewood,

(140 Barewood Rd, Awatere Valley) is the pick of the bunch. Ferraby put in an ornamental

French-style potager years before the rest of us even knew how to spell it. Husband Joe is

a handy accomplice, welding metal frames to support espaliered pears and apples. Barewood

is open by appointment, ph (03) 575-7432.

Still in Marlborough, Sue and Dave

Monaghan’s expansive garden at Upton Oaks (33 Hammerichs Rd, Blenheim) includes glamorous

perennial borders and fulsome roses. The front paddock has been transformed into an

immaculate parterre of clipped buxus hedges laid out in geometric patterns (mind you, Dave

isn’t a farmer. He’s a furniture maker). Upton Oaks is open by appointment, ph (03)

579-3316.

In North Canterbury, Penny Zino’s inspirational country garden Flaxmere (128

Westenra’s Rd, Hawarden) has it all. Rated a garden of national significance, Flaxmere has

evolved over 40 years and is artfully designed with gracious vistas, plus a waterlily pond

that Monet would have been proud of. Penny also hosts an annual sculpture exhibition in

October.

STALK YOUR QUARRY

Gardeners don’t just like to dig big holes, they also like

to fill them and holes don’t come much bigger than an abandoned quarry. At Patumahoe, south of

Auckland, Malcolm and Dael Wright have planted thousands of tropical waterlilies and

lotuses to transform their rocky reservoir into an aquatic paradise. The garden is best in

late summer. Don’t miss the lotus festival in February.

Derelict quarries also lure

volunteers like bees to borage flowers to create community gardens on a grand scale. Check

out the orchids climbing the walls at the subtropical Whangarei Quarry Gardens; the

bromeliads at Te Puna Quarry Park

in Bay of Plenty ; and the art exhibitions at Waikato’s Waitakaruru Arboretum and

Sculpture Park. Auckland’s Eden Garden has one of the country’s finest collections of camellias

and vireya rhododendrons, not to mention the best scones south of the Puhoi Cottage Tea

Rooms.

GO BUSH

It takes flair to create a bush garden that’s better than the real

thing, but David Clarkson and Valda Poletti have pulled it off. Their Taranaki garden Te Kainga Marire (15 Spencer Pl, New

Plymouth) meaning “peaceful encampment” is a slice of bush-clad serenity in the ‘burbs.

What makes it unique is that they started with the clearing, then added the bush. Rare

treats include North Island edelweiss and vegetable sheep ask to borrow their magnifying

glass to admire the latter’s tiny flowers. Not only is Te Kainga Marire one of the few

private backyards accorded garden of national significance status by the New Zealand

Gardens Trust, English gardening celebrity Monty Don rates it as one of the world’s best

in his latest TV series, Around the World in 80 Gardens. (I’d peacefully encamp anywhere

Monty recommended. Imagine Simon Dallow in tweed: he’s the thinking gardener’s crumpet.)

The capital also has two native spots of note: Te Papa’s bush garden

and Otari-Wilton’s Bush, a century-old

botanical reserve, 5km from downtown.

SCULPTURE VULTURES

Combine a dash of culture with your daily constitutional

set off on a stroll around the 27 sculptures installed at the Auckland Botanic Gardens

this summer for Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens. As if hosting the Ellerslie

International Flower Show wasn’t enough to keep the ground staff busy, Jack Hobbs and his

team have installed artworks to the tune of $1.5 million along a 1.8km trail around the

park. Give Barry Lett’s Big Rock Dog, the $25,000 Supreme Award winner, a pat, but keep

your own pet on a leash. Stoneleigh Sculpture in the Gardens runs until the end of January

and sure beats traipsing around a fusty art gallery on a fine day.

TASTE OF THE TROPICS

Skip Fiji and head for Whenuapai. Peter and Jocelyn

Coyle’s spectacular subtropical garden, Totara Waters (89 Totara Rd) is a paradise of palms, bromeliads and

exotic birds. Peter used to be a car parts dealer; now he scours the country to haggle

over special plants instead. The harbourside garden is less than 10 years old, but has

made precocious progress, as no expense has been spared. I defy you to leave without

buying a boot-load of choice plants.

If West Auckland is an unlikely location for a

subtropical oasis, try Wanganui. Clive Higgie’s garden Paloma has to be seen to be believed. From the arboretum to the

amphitheatre-like valley of aloes, agaves and other exotics, the landscape has an

extra-terrestrial quality.

FORMAL DRESS

If you salivate over symmetry and sharply

clipped hedges, add Richmond

to your list. This impressive Wairarapa garden (40 Wakelin St, Carterton) is just

plain posh. Inspired by 16th- and 17th-century European gardens, the owners have installed

a sophisticated formal garden including a reflecting pool long enough for Olympic

qualifying laps. Next weekend they’re hosting a garden party as part of Carterton’s 150th

jubilee celebrations. Tickets at the gate.

Formality also reigns at renowned

Christchurch architect Sir Miles Warren’s garden Ohinetahi, Teddington Rd, Governor’s Bay.

Sir Miles’ historic house nestles into English-style gardens with a Kiwi flavour. It’s

utterly gorgeous. Ohinetahi is open by appointment, ph (03) 329-9852.

SEASON TO

TASTE

You’d think that seasonality was a swear word in this era of low-maintenance

landscaping, but there’s much to be said for gardens that shamelessly celebrate spring or

autumn.

Pukeiti in Taranaki

(2290 Carrington Rd) has a stunning collection of rhododendrons in flower now. Or plan a

trip in August, when the flamboyant large-flowered species have the stage to themselves.

For autumn colour in the North Island, the Eastwoodhill Arboretum (2392 Wharekopae Rd; Ngatapa) is worthy of the

long trek to Gisborne, or take the NapierTaupo road to Trelinnoe Park n the heartland of

Hawke’s Bay.

In the South Island, autumn colour is easy to access: just look out of

your window.

SOUTHERN CHARM

Gardeners are smarter in the deep south. They

plant in harmony with the climate instead of constantly trying to conquer it. At a

href=”http://www.mapleglen.co.nz” _target=blank>Maple Glen in Wyndham, Southland ,

cold-hardy plants are celebrated in all their diversity.

Geoff Genge’s Invercargill

garden Marshwood (Leonard

Rd, West Plains) is home to the New Zealand salvia collection, as well all those

perennials no longer deemed fashionable enough to compete with flaxes and cordylines in

garden centres. Take your chequebook.

Actually, rent a van and stop at award-winning

landscaper Arne Cleland’s nursery while you’re in the region. Arne specialises in stalwart

native plants, but his private garden near Gore, attached to Pukerau Nursery (34 Pukerau

St, Gore), innovatively combines our local flora with English-style perennials with

panache. Ph (03) 205-3801.

Tags: amp, arboretum, backyards, exhibition, green thumbs, landscape, landscaper, Landscaping, native plants, perennials, plants, pool, rta, s south, salvia, sculpture park, sculptures, target, tedd
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One of the innovations includes this view from the edge of the cottage garden, which shows how exotic perennials can intermingle harmoniously with wild flowers which creep in from the meadow beyond. This is no accident, but a carefully cultivated naturalistic style inspired by the wild flowers of Crete. Promiscuous aquilegia, Salvia sclarea, Anthemis tinctoria, scabious and centura are among the species that add to the natural feel.

Despite the carefree appearance, however, this area is high maintenance. Getting the right balance is harder than it looks, because some plants are tougher and reproduce more freely than others: hawkbit, for example, was part of the original planting but started to take over so was removed.

A common idea in landscaping design is to include an object in the distance as a ‘vista closer’, which helps the eye concentrate on the scene immediately before it. Here the vista closer is a church.

Verbena bonariensis is ideal because it is tall and easily seen over other plants. This self-seeds easily enough, but many other plants (such as Lychnis coronaria) are grown from seed or cuttings before being planted out.

Yellow rattle, in the meadow beyond the flowers, is a parasitic plant that attaches itself to the roots of perennial grass and inhibits its growth. This allows less robust wild flowers to flourish.

Annual field poppies and Californian poppies have had to be reintroduced because, as the planting has become denser, they have found less space to reproduce.

Wild carrot, Daucus carota, is a big, white umbellifer. It shows how some wild flowers are as attractive as exotic perennials.

%26#183; The Garden House is open seven days a week, 01822 854769 (thegardenhouse.org.uk).

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DESPITE HER BEST efforts at thatching and irrigation, Shelagh Tucker’s lawn turned a discouraging brown in summer. Her front garden faces south and slopes down to the street, so water ran off, and the sun baked both rhododendrons and grass.

Despite the common belief that our climate is akin to rainy England’s, in reality our skies are mostly dry from July through September. So Tucker decided to go whole hog: She hired landscape architect Phil Wood to design a drought-proof Mediterranean garden in front of her Carkeek Park home. While the backyard remains as green and flowery as an English countryside, the front landscape is a stylish expanse of stone, gravel and abundant plantings that get by just fine without any supplemental water.

The lawn went first, tilled under and topped off with a foot of compost. Wood designed a round, stone terrace softened with a carpeting of thyme. Handsome, low, rock walls define gradual elevation changes. Tucker worked with Wade Bartlett of Rock Solid Landscaping to lay paths and place each boulder.

“Because I’m from England I’m fond of light-colored gravel,” says Tucker of the pale pathways. “Everyone there uses limestone and has gravel driveways.” The cream-colored gravel warms up gray days while setting off the plants happily seeding themselves in it. The larger rocks are Montana sandstone in the same buff color.

Planting was left to Tucker, and she went to work with a whole new palette of plants, many with gray or silvery leaves like Russian olives and eucalyptus. Tucker installed an irrigation system to get the garden off to a good start, but has found that months go by without her needing to turn it on. “I do have a little drip on the Styrax japonicas,” she points out, noting that these trees evolved in Japan where rainfall is more evenly distributed throughout the year than it is here.

For dry spots, these will do

Since planting her new front garden in the spring of 2003, Shelagh Tucker has lost few, if any, plants. Australia and New Zealand natives have been particularly successful. All the plants listed have thrived in full sun with very little or no supplemental water, once established:

Perennials: Penstemons love these droughty conditions, says Tucker. Just leave them alone, and they do well. Other arid-tolerant perennials include yarrow, nepeta, salvias, artemisia, sages, coneflowers, phlomis, cardoons, Russian sage, sedum, euphorbia and ornamental grasses.

Bulbs: Fox tail lilies and tulips.

Shrubs: Rosa glauca, rugosa roses, rock roses (Cistus species), hebes, ceanothus, manzanitas, osmanthus, rosemary.

Trees: Eucalyptus gunni, weeping willow-leaved pear (Pyrus salicifolia ‘Pendula’) Russian olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia).

Beth Chatto’s “Gravel Garden: Drought-Resistant Planting Through the Year” (Viking Studio, $35) is Tucker’s bible for this new style of arid gardening. “Chatto says just to pull plants out if they don’t do well,” Tucker advises. Because the sloped garden drains so freely, most of her new plants have wintered over successfully, and she hasn’t needed to put that advice into practice. Plants are seeding and growing so prolifically that all too soon Tucker will be spending her time cutting back and pulling out.

Tucker has learned to leave plants alone in autumn when they’re drought-stressed. “I’ve found the less you cut things back in the fall, the better they do,” she says. She doesn’t fertilize, leaving old foliage to melt into the gravel to enrich the soil.

A gravel pathway leads beneath a rose-laced arbor into a back garden that seems a world away. A glass conservatory adds elegance, and a fountain bubbles in the round fish pond, designed by Wood to echo the shape of the front patio. Curvaceous beds filled with clematis, roses, peonies, hostas and hydrangeas complement the 1930s house in a very different manner than the less conventional front garden.

“The new garden is so much less labor-intensive than the traditional borders in the back,” says Tucker. She’s been pleased to find there is no dead season in her Mediterranean-style garden, and last June she realized she hadn’t watered out front in 18 months.

In all the transformations, Tucker’s husband asked for just a bit of front lawn. Two little strips of grass near the house afford a pleasant place to sit and look out over a textural array of Mediterranean plants grown luxuriant on a Northwest hillside.

Valerie Easton is a Seattle freelance writer and contributing editor for Horticulture magazine. Her e-mail address is valeaston@comcast.net. Barry Wong is a Seattle-based freelance photographer. He can be reached at barrywongphoto@earthlink.net.

Tags: compost, drought, grass, grasses, gravel, irrigation, irrigation system, landscape, landscape architect, Landscaping, ornamental grasses, perennials, plantings, plants, s south, salvia, shrub, shrubs, soil
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The house itself is fire-resistant Yard Landscaping, built in a rammed earth process known as pisé with 18-inch walls and concrete shingles Yard Landscaping. Erik Jones of Garden Escapes designed the landscaping with input from the Strubles.

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