Last Saturday Louise and I went on the Te Henga Garden Ramble, which was raising money for West Auckland Hospice. We saw five of the eight beautiful gardens who all had the fortune of being sited in the wonderful ridges overlooking the West Coast out to Bethell's Beach.
This is where the cabbage trees come into their own!
Of all the gardens, my special favourite was the Butterfly Garden on Bethells Road, surrounding an old farm cottage/villa where the flowers were left to bloom and make food for the honey bees on a north facing, sheltered slope. It looked like a magical fairy land in the midst of an enchanted native forest. The gardener kindly let me have a tuber of yellow astromeria - they had plants and books for sale as well.
Another garden named Kokako Grove had a chook house called 'Cluckingham Palace' and had set their own house on the ridge overlooking the wetland and hills. I was impressed with their groundcover which I have been trying to source - anyone got Silver Carpet dymondia margaretae? And their native clematis, which had lovely furry seedheads. They had a fenced off vege garden, many of the vege gardens out at Bethell had to be walled/enclosed to keep out the chickens and pukekos, or dogs and possums, and netted. Because Bethells is out near the West Coast near the bush, it is not on town water supply and cellphone coverage can be patchy because of the hills. And since there is only one road, out if it's blocked or the weather is bad it can be quite remote. It's not like the shops are within walking distance! Many of the properties were up steep, windy long driveways too, and the prevailing wind and rain can be ferocious. Try mowing the grass on a steep slope with a ride on!
However for those who can afford it, they wouldn't live anywhere else. It is their little patch of paradise. One retired expat American built his dream earth brick home nestled on top of the ridge, it really felt like he was King of the Castle. For a valley dweller like me, with no views of anything but the neighbours and whatever I grow in my own garden, its another world, and a taste of the high life!
He had built two summer cabins overlooking the valley for his friends and family to come stay. He even had a rocking chair bench to take in the views and seemed very chuff to show off his bounty to everyone. His dogs were very happy to run around his garden - he was an ex-Texan rancher, so I can imagine that living in a green land like Aotearoa was quite a sea change.
All in all we had a wonderful day out and I now have my coveted tall yellow astromerias. Perhaps next year we can go visit the other gardens we missed.
