Visitors are greeted to a riot of Verbena bonariensis, white roses, potted pelargonium, a curved box hedge and scented wallflowers.
Photography: Sarah Rowlands.
Children, animals and a husband more devoted to motorbikes than motor mowers have all left their mark on Nell Palmer’s garden — not that she would have it any other way.
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“If you want your children to enjoy the garden, then you can’t be too precious about it,” believes the Christchurch Botanic Gardens-trained horticulturist.
“That’s why my garden isn’t a magazine garden. It’s designed around family life and kids. Another big thing for me is that I love plants, rather than chasing a cohesive look.”
Even so, she has managed to balance aesthetics with the needs of those she shares the 760 sqm garden with. The garden is in the Christchurch suburb of Woolston. She shares it with her husband, Ramon, their two children, Roland, eight, and Ottilie, five, and Ramon’s son, Ernest, 12, who lives with them part-time.
Front of house
The platform in the tree is a favourite perch for the homeowners’ children, with a grapevine currently being trained to provide shade. (Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
The changes that she has made to the garden since moving in 10 years ago have been gradual, she says. That is partly because until five years ago, the couple had been renting the 110-year-old villa from Ramon’s mother. And although she hadn’t lived in it for many years, Nell still felt it was tactful to show a degree of restraint rather than ripping into it. “Tentatively making my mark,” as she puts it.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
Starting young
Nell has planted citrus trees and New Zealand cranberries, which her daughter Ottilie and son Roland enjoy eating. The children also have their own garden patches, which were started with great enthusiasm and contained cucumber, tomatoes and a cabbage. (Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
Iceberg roses in the box-hedged bed in the front garden, which predated her mother-in-law, were dug out and replaced predominantly with perennials around mandarins, lemons and New Zealand cranberries (also known as Chilean guava, Ugni molinae).
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“They’re really good for children as they can just pick and eat them and there is really not much else you can do with them apart from eating them raw — as far as I know,” she says.
Getting rid of most of the Euphorbia wulfenii, apart from one plant, was made because the stems break easily and the milky sap is toxic and an irritant, particularly if it gets in your eye.
This opportunity to let the children eat fruit straight from a tree is one reason the stands of “sad” ribbonwoods and pittosporums down the drive were cut down and stone fruit planted. Blackcurrant bushes, too, are dotted about the garden.
“When I cut them back, I chop up the prunings and lay them around the garden as mulch. A lot of the sticks take root, which I then dig up and transplant,” she says.
Another aesthetic “must-go” in the front garden was the Japanese maple. Although its weeping branches created what would have been a fine hidey-hole for the children, the local cats, including the family’s own, Octopuss, tended to use it as a very private loo. It was replaced with a swathe of Verbena bonariensis, whose floating violet blooms last for months. Although the massed Euphorbia wulfenii in the front presented a dramatic spring display with their acid-yellow flowers, Nell removed all but one.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
“It was really lovely, but it snapped off easily and the milky sap is toxic, especially if it gets in your eye. I believe in teaching children what is poisonous, rather than removing every toxic plant from the garden. I left one plant, which they know not to touch, or to use in their potions.”
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Making creative concoctions is a popular pastime for the children.
“The kids love to make potions of flowers, petals, leaves, berries, dirt, stones and whatever else they can find — including once, when they were younger, their own wee and dog poo,” she adds.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
With Ottilie also keen on making fairy gardens of trails of petals and stick teepees, it has paid to have a garden full of flowers and to teach the children how and what to pick.
“They now know to pick to the next bud down and not just pull the heads off. I’m trying to teach Ottilie only to pick repeat flowers — not always successfully. Irises and lilies seem irresistible and once picked, that’s it for the season. We have heaps of flowering shrubs, which she can plunder at will.”
One of Nell’s earlier initiatives was to make the paths circumnavigate the house.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
“It’s not a huge garden and it’s good to have as many places for the kids to play as possible. They love running around the loop, chasing, especially when their friends or cousins come over.”
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Also well-used are smaller paths woven through the bed at the front of the deck to allow better access to the lawn; shrubs were taken out to allow a better view of it from the house. Here, in the dappled shade of an old kōwhai, giant-leafed ligularia, alstroemeria, Solomon’s seal, rengarenga and nasturtiums flourish.
“Nasturtiums are particularly good,” says Nell, “as they grow easily and are good for children to pick. Seemingly, you can’t kill them. They bounce back after being squashed by balls or feet.”
Take in the sights
Comfortable chairs have been placed in strategic spots, including the wisteria-covered pergola. (Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
Other hardy plants, such as bracken fern, are grown around the children’s playhouse and around their favourite and recently deceased climbing tree, in which Ramon has recently built a platform.
“Both the bracken and rengarenga provide a soft landing,” she says.
A grapevine growing over the deck is being trained through the tree’s branches to create a roof for the platform.
Comfortable chairs have been placed in strategic spots, under a cabbage tree. (Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
The back lawn is neither as big nor as well-groomed as Roland may wish. Last year, he asked his mother, “Can we have a nice lawn this year?”
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Grass grub and hydrocotyle (along with the toileting habits of the family dog, Rabbit) conspire against this, says Nell, who refuses to use any chemicals in the garden, not least for her children’s sake. Hydrocotyle is a small creeping plant that loves damp conditions, which the suburb’s high water table readily provides.
It thrives in winter and dies in hot summers, leaving brown patches. Grass grubs, meanwhile, eat the roots of grasses, killing them. Last year, the children dug a hole in the lawn.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
“I wasn’t thrilled,” says Nell, “but it kept them happy for so long. They filled it with water. It took months to get the lawn back to normal there.”
In the past, Nell considered decreasing the size of her beloved perennial beds to make way for more grass. However, they now intend to expand the lawn by removing most of the concrete pad outside the double garage. This will leave enough room for Ramon to work on his engines, while the kids can draw with chalk and play games such as hopscotch and four square.
Growing flowers is her enduring passion. Her plants are hardy enough to survive all the family’s marauding rabbits, hens, lambs, dog, and even balls thrown at them.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
“I mainly grow plants that do well here, rather than struggling to get ones going that need extra care.”
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Combined with a living willow trellis fence, the mainly tall perennials help hide one of the garden’s several sheds. They also create an inviting alleyway. This leads to the family’s main vegetable garden and the hen run at the back of the garden.
Both Roland and Ottilie have their own veggie patches where they’re currently growing sweet peas, cucumbers, tomatoes and a cabbage each.
(Credit: Sarah Rowlands.)
“They loved it in the early days, sowing and waiting and watching for the seeds to germinate and push up through the soil. They watered and weeded it and really like picking the produce, but they are not so keen on maintenance.”
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