NORTHLAND

- A garden created on a site so steep you need abseiling gear!

This garden on a steep beachfront site is sandwiched between Chrissea’s house and a cliff of spectacular basalt columns. “When my ex-husband, Mike, and I fell in love with the place 11 years ago, the basalt columns were buried under weeds. We employed local gardener, Dean Fairfield, to clear the cliff face, and he removed 21 wool packs of weeds to reveal the rock columns,” she recalls. “They evoke a feeling of strength, and of being grounded and connected to nature as they stand tall at the back of the section and reach down under the terraced garden and house to the ocean. They are both a dramatic feature and a constant challenge, and dictate how this garden evolves.”

The garden had some mature trees and shrubs when they bought the house, and quite a few bromeliads. “Bromeliads are perfect here because they don’t need much soil and there are different varieties to suit the different conditions around the site. Mike even abseiled and dangled from ropes to plant them on top of the basalt pillars to stabilise the soil above.”

Chrissea has now added edibles, shrubs, succulents and cacti to her garden. “Mike extended the steps and pathways to give me safe access to more levels where I could poke plants into pockets of topsoil, and he created small tiered vege beds. I harvest celery, spinach, silverbeet, capsicums, zucchini, salad greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and strawberries, as well as bananas, avocados, tamarillos, figs, lemons, lemonades, mandarins, feijoas, macadamias and babacos. I’m gradually building up the food beds and I use a lot of pots, including three big concrete planters we brought up from our previous garden that once contained white carpet roses and now contain herbs.”

With careful plant placement and a huge amount of work, Chrissea has turned what is mostly a rock face with pockets of soil at its base, into a work of art. “The colour palette is around the red of the Alcantarea imperialis and bottlebrush, plus a treasured ‘Robyn Gordon’ grevillea that the previous owner said to make sure I kept. It’s a real tūī magnet. I’ve also added bougainvillea, aloes, hibiscus, frangipani, kalanchoe and cannas for colour.”

Chrissea is still finding out by trial and error what grows best here. “I’ve shifted the cannas, fig, lemons and tamarillo a few times, and got help to take down a couple of oversized trees. The rocks are a great heat sink and release warmth at night, so I can get things started here in early spring. Now I also have help with anything too steep or tricky, including checking on the bore water tank which is above the top of the pillars and only accessible by rope.”

The current theme is a hanging garden. “I still have lots of vertical wall space so I’m looking for plants that trail – pumpkins, some succulents and airplants.

“And I’m changing the way I look after the plants and myself. The vege beds and shadehouse have automatic watering and last year I began a new regime for nurturing the soil, using activated carbon, Nature’s Garden fertiliser which is a blend of phosphate rock, humic acid, seaweed, vermicast and paramagnetic rock dust, and Nano-Cal. I’ve already noticed a real difference in the health of the veges.”

This property is part of a coastal farm owned by a Ngāti Rehia Incorporation with several neighbouring long-term leasehold sections along the beach. “I have a deep feeling of gratitude being able to lease the land from the Ngāti Rehia owners. The fact that our houses are on leasehold land emphasises that we’re only ever kaitiaki (guardians) of the land. It’s satisfying to nurture a place being mindful of that role, and leave it in a better state, having passed this way.”

Abseiling gear and long extension ladders are not usually part of a gardener’s tool kit, but the garden that Chrissea Abrahams cares for isn’t on a usual site.