As far as garden trends go in New Zealand, a few roses, a lemon tree, a ground cover of red scoria chip, concrete edging and a rotary clothesline were quintessential features of a classic 1970s section.
This was the relatively untouched state of things when Joanna Mason and her mother Kay Anderson moved into their 1949 brick bungalow on the slopes of Maungakiekie/One Tree Hill 17 years ago. Out the back, the 320 sqm subdivided section also had a small vegetable garden, a patch of a lawn and a few heavily trimmed magnolias.
The cutting edge
Coming from a long line of gardeners – “I always say there’s no choice in our family,” jokes Joanna – there was no way the existing space wasn’t about to undergo a radical transformation.
However, rather than giving it a modern makeover, Joanna and Kay wanted to grow all their favourite plants while retaining elements of the original hard landscaping, such as the cross-hatched stone terracing, which honours the era of the house and is part and parcel of the nostalgic Kiwiana charm.
A key original feature they’ve repurposed is a circular concrete-edged bed in the front garden which was formerly home to an old lemon tree.
After buying the house, they had little money for new plants. As a solution, they grew a lot of cuttings in it instead. Next, they grew a buxus hedge around the edge with roses in the centre. However, then the roses grew too large and the hedge succumbed to blight.
Today, the circular garden is a living tapestry of flowering perennials. It displays pastel-coloured achilleas, sunset-toned dahlias, bold rudbeckias, white scabiosa and cosmos.
While it’s a flower-lover’s delight that feels full and naturalistic, Joanna and Kay have a clever hack for keeping chaos at bay. Each plant has been assigned its own designated growing space within a string grid that spans the garden, attached to the sides with nails.
Joanna manages the rose garden at Auckland Botanic Gardens and felt inspired to try this method after seeing it in practice at the Plant Library, a collection of stock plants at the Barn Garden in the UK.
If a plant starts to encroach into the next grid over, it’s easy to see where to cut it back. “It sounds like it would be quite restrictive but it isn’t. It’s freeing because it means that you don’t have to think about exactly where to grow something. That’s actually decided,” says Joanna.
This method also allows Joanna and Kay to designate some squares in the grid to bulbs and tubers. In late autumn, after the dahlias die down, they lift the tubers and store them in the garage. Then, they plant tulip bulbs in the vacated space.
“It’s easy to lift the bulbs when you’ve got a specific area to pull them out from. Whereas if you just dot them in the garden, it’s hard to remember where they all are,” says Kay.
On the wall
Two levels of terracing leading up to the house provide space for block planting of even more perennials. However, with 1m retaining walls to clamber up and down, Joanna and Kay learnt over time to grow plants here that don’t require so much deadheading and care, such as daylilies.
Larger plants, such as a mānuka that flowers almost all year round and a couple of three-metre-high tree dahlias, which come into bloom from late autumn, create privacy by screening the garden from the street as well as making the garden feel fuller.
“I think the mistake a lot of people make is that they think if you’ve got a small section, you’ve got to have small plants. You don’t,” says Joanna. “By putting big plants in, it makes it feel bigger because, in your mind, your eye thinks, ‘If there’s a big thing, there must be a big space’.”
The small backyard is a masterclass in how to maximise space. It’s packed with edibles and more than 50 potted plants, including a collection of cacti and other types of succulents, including some from Kay’s own mum’s treasured collection. The plants that like it hot are nurtured in a small glasshouse. Joanna also raises flower and vegetable seedlings in the same glasshouse.
The original vegetable garden has been extended and Kay and Joanna grow a wide range of edibles including kale, sorrel and silver beet. Then, there’s usually asparagus in spring and eggplants and tomatoes in summer. Kay and Joanna are keen bottlers and make a lot of tomato sauce.
Two Black Doris plums, which Joanna reckons is the only plum to grow, have been espaliered against a back wall. They produce more fruit than Kay and Joanna can process during the busy summer months. So, they destone them and freeze them on trays before putting them in bags in the freezer for bottling later.
In the pink
A coral-pink salvia was responsible for setting a colour theme among the potted plants. “Because it’s such a bright coral, I couldn’t figure out how to make it work in the front garden. So we had it out here in a pot, and then I noticed it looks good with lilacs and purples. So, I thought why don’t we go full-on pinks, reds and corals and go a bit crazy.”
Other plants in these hot colours include a vibrant Gloriosa lily, which is winding its way up a willow obelisk that Joanna wove at a weaving workshop at Garden Marlborough and somehow managed to fit in the overhead locker on the flight home.
When they’re not gardening or sewing their own clothes (another passion), the pair love visiting other gardens and attending horticultural workshops.
A favourite garden is Great Dixter in the UK. There, Joanna and Kay have attended a week-long symposium run by legendary gardener Fergus Garrett, whose philosophy on gardening they love. “His approach is amazing because he encourages you to do what you want in your garden rather than conforming to what everyone else says is good taste,” says Joanna.
Joanna and Kay enjoyed sharing their garden with the public. They showed what you can achieve within a small space. The Heroic Garden Festival even featured them twice, which ran from 1997 until 2019.
The festival was renowned for showcasing lush tropical gardens. It was unlike Kay and Joanna’s, with a lot of bromeliads and foliage feature plants. “People were surprised and would look around and say, ‘You’ve got flowers’,” says Kay.
Kay, who volunteers as a Friend at Auckland Botanic Gardens, says they sometimes hanker after more growing space. “But it’s actually quite a lot of work. When you look at a lot of the new sub-developments, we’ve actually got a big garden.”
She’s concerned that new housing developments don’t include enough permeable surfaces that allow water to flow through them and that they don’t include gardens. “People need to have growing spaces.”
Tips
- The garden has fertile volcanic soil but still benefits from regular applications of compost. By cutting their garden waste into 20cm lengths, and then putting it through a shredder, Joanna and Kay have compost ready in six weeks.
- Joanna says that while it’s taken for granted, green is the most important colour. “Because if you don’t have that, there’s not really a lot in the garden.” Create year-round interest by opting for plants with different textures and leaf shape. “For example, I’ll put a dahlia next to a sedum for two different kinds of leaves. Then I’ll have some irises because that’s a nice strappy upright plant with bluer foliage. It makes it more interesting.”
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