Garden Guru: Beauty by stealth

`Abu Hassan', a tulip with blood-red flowers, paired with tall green yucca. Photo / Supplied

On a Christchurch cliff top Martin Wilkie is beautifying by stealth.

Called in to clip the hedges of this half-acre garden owned by a retired professional couple, he didn't merely get out the shears and put his head down, but looked first and suggested sculpting them into roller coaster waves to echo the view out to the sea.

Thankfully his employers picked up on this plantsman's enthusiasm and had the courage to allow him to spread his wings.

In these days when having a gardener is not an elite luxury, but often a necessity for time-strapped Kiwis, there is no shortage of cheap and willing hands. Yet employing a retired neighbour or cash-strapped student to trim the lawns and hack a wayward pittosporum is a far cry from employing a professional horticulturist who will not only care for your plants, but also have ideas about how you can develop and improve your plot.

The best gardeners cost more, but in effect you are getting a plant lover, a designer, an engineer, a craftsman and sometimes even a friend into the bargain.

The owners of this particular garden are special clients, for though they are not instinctive gardeners, they are passionate both about their home, modelled on American Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture, and the landscape beyond.

Though they employ regular maintenance gardeners part-time, Martin has proved invaluable for tweaking details - advising on planting, disorders and disease, and generally moving things along creatively.

With a word-of-mouth reputation, he's lucky enough to be able to choose where he works.

Spring is a busy time, with Martin rushing about putting final touches to several of the gardens he tends that are open for festivals and safaris.

Martin feels that a big part of the job is tuning into the wavelength of each client and not trying to push his own preferences and tastes.

Good owners are as valued as the gardens they keep.

"Some of my clients are not so interested in plants, but they do appreciate it when everything is crisp and tidy. But my favourite clients are those keen enough to come out and get involved - that way we can work shoulder to shoulder and develop new ideas together," says Martin

Sensitive pruning is an undervalued art and is now second-nature to Martin, who explains how the simplest of snips here and there can affect the whole personality of a place.

"I have three gardens where I'm called in twice each year to tackle their weeping silver pears (Pyrus salicifolia 'Pendula') and everyone likes a different effect. While one will want a wide, flat umbrella for shade, another has a cave they can walk into, while the third enjoys loose dangling tresses - willow-pattern plate style."

It's a far cry from a rough cut-back; and in the Christchurch property with its cliff-top panorama, the difference a bit of careful limbing-up and thinning has made to the prospect has been profound. "People don't always see the work and thought that goes in but they do appreciate the effect at the end," says Martin.

With a degree in horticultural science, Martin continued with a postgraduate diploma in landscape architecture, and had a spell working in the design industry full-time, but he enjoyed the hands-on nature of gardening, too.

He still does some design work each year to keep his hand in, but often a sketch, a conversation and a few sprigs of live plant material brought to clients are often all that's needed to bring a creative solution to a problem corner of a garden. And with his intimate knowledge of the best specialist nurseries, Martin doesn't find it hard to maintain the "low hum of additional planting" that he says is key to keeping any garden fresh and exciting.

In Christchurch, the main view from the house towards the Canterbury coastline was under-utilised and spoilt by raised vegetable beds. The owners took kindly to the suggestions to give the vege plot its marching orders, and it was relocated to a utility area behind the scenes.

In its place, Martin's elegant solution has been a set of simple, curvaceous grass terraces stepping away from the house, which can be used to display art work, as and when it is acquired. Overlaying this is a geometrical grid of Amelanchier lamarckii (syn. A. canadensis) chosen for its characterful outline, flowers and autumn colour.

The lens-shaped purple lawn in the centre was carpeted with native Acaena inermis 'Purpurea' at the owners suggestion and Martin's thrilled that his clients have been an integral part of the organic design process.

The best gardens, it seems, are not always planned in an office, but seem to germinate and grow up over the years on site, like the healthy and impeccably clipped plants in Martin Wilkie's care.

Tweaking the design

* Dark, narrow spaces down the sides of houses are always a planting challenge. Martin is particularly pleased with a recent combination he has established of evergreen Magnolia 'Little Gem' espaliered flat against a wall with a simple drift of neat epimediums at their feet.

* Revamp containers prior to Christmas for some stylish summer colour. Martin values feathery cosmos for large planters, combined with colourful petunias, and heucheras for a strong foliage punch.

* Rhododendrons are traditionally not brilliant in warmer, drier gardens, but Martin is a big fan of some modern, tough R. maddenii/polyandrum hybrids, many of which were bred here in New Zealand. With narrower willowy leaves, most have loose clusters of large flowers with the added advantage of terrific scent. Look out for recommended varieties such as 'Felicity Fair', 'Barbara Jury' and 'Moon Orchid'. His clients on the clifftop are now hooked and more plantings are on the way.