Visitors will find a soothing woodland, tinkling stream and three bridges at Beechwoods. Photo/ Jane Dove Juneau
Visitors will find a soothing woodland, tinkling stream and three bridges at Beechwoods. Photo/ Jane Dove Juneau
Three new entries in the Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival offer tales from the past, bridges to cross, handcrafts and hard work.
Beechwoods at Tariki, Stratford’s King Edward Park and the Christiansen Garden at Hāwera are the Central and South Taranaki newbies in the 37th Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival, on from November 1 to 10. The other fresh faces are The Vicarage in New Plymouth and Ngā Pātiki in Ōakura.
Beechwoods, owned by Yvonne King and Adrian McLeod, is set on a former horse-breeding farm.
The one-hectare country garden features a woodland area and rushing stream crossed by three bridges. There is a Japanese garden by the house, a strip of road-front planting called The Esplanade, clipped balls of pittosporum, and mass plantings of hostas, ligularias, hellebores and more.
There are also rhododendrons and magnolias with a past, and the garden’s namesakes – two ancient native beech trees that are rare to Taranaki.
Adrian, who used to own Fairfields Garden Centre, is a horticulturist with over 52 years’ experience and an eye for design and rare plants he finds online.
Yvonne also has an eye for design, particularly when she finds an idea sitting on the side of the road.
One of three featured bridges across the unnamed stream is a miniature of a well-known coastal walkway structure, which she spied up Egmont Rd.
“Parked on the side of the road was this miniature Te Rewa Rewa bridge and I was so excited and it had a big sign on it for sale.”
It had been built as a fundraiser for the children’s ward at Taranaki Base Hospital, so Yvonne was doubly delighted – to support the cause and get the iconic structure.
Visitors to the garden will have many places to rest throughout Beechwoods because, in preparation for being in the festival, Yvonne and Adrian added many seats, all with their own garden vistas.
In Stratfords King Edward Park, one of the crossings over the Patea River is a bouncy suspension bridge, loved by children and adults alike. Photo / Virginia Winder
Further north, King Edward Park in Stratford is joining the festival for the first time – King Edward Park in Hāwera has been part of the spring event for many years.
This historic Stratford park begins with the Malone Memorial Gates, which honours Lieutenant Colonel William George Malone, considered a New Zealand hero of the WWI campaign in Gallipoli, where he lost his life in 1915.
The park’s groundwork goes back even further, to July 10, 1902, when a variety of trees were planted to commemorate the coronation of King Edward VII, and a suspension bridge was built to link the Page Street Reserves with the town side of the Pātea River.
Like at Beechwoods, visitors will be able to wander leafy paths and cross three bridges, although those in the public park are bigger.
During the festival, and a week after, there will be a scarecrow trail for kids to enjoy – maps are available at the Stratford Library and Information Centre on Miranda St.
One of the most popular parts of the park is the McCullough Rhododendron Dell, which includes a peaceful pond, lush lawns and selections of rhododendron hybrids, azaleas, hydrangeas and native and exotic shrubs and trees.
On the last day of the garden festival, the dell will be alive with the sound of music. Visitors will be able to enjoy the French café-style music from La Mer, led by vocalist Dominque Blatti.
People will be amazed at the creative hedges and edges, artwork and birdhouses at the semi-formal Christiansen Garden in rural Hawera. Photo/ Jane Dove Juneau
In Hāwera, Kerry and Steve Christiansen have transformed a bare paddock into a strongly designed garden with repeated patterns using fast-growing teucrium, espaliered trees, buxus hedges, eucalyptus and lovely lawns.
This is the couple’s third and final home, and they have developed the garden over the past five years.
Both are artfully creative. Kerry makes quirky birdhouses using recycled materials to entice feathered friends away from the gutters of the house.
Steve makes metal sculptures – often at the request of his wife – and has constructed all the outbuildings, including a glass house and Kerry’s craft cabin.
Kerry, who likes the garden to be super-tidy, mows the lawns in perfect straight lines, trims the bushes and hedges and is the chief weeder. She’s also the designer because of her ability to envisage what could be.
Both are excited about fulfilling a long-held dream of being in the garden festival.
