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LEVIN HAVEN IN FULL BLOOM

Linda Parker hasn’t always been a gardener, but she’s made up for lost time, throwing her passion, creativity and energy into this spectacular haven.

STORY: RACHAEL DELL • PHOTOS: PAUL MCCREDIE

- She hasn’t always been a gardener, though you wouldn’t know it now.

For all the roads Linda Parker could have travelled in life, it was fittingly the lesser-trod garden path that she eventually took. Over time, it led her to a fulfilling livelihood, but also ultimately to her happy place – outside in her rural garden in Levin. It’s a treasured space tucked under the foothills of the Tararuas shared with her partner Warren Twigden.

Ngarere, as it’s known, has been in Warren’s family for three generations. The 2.4 acres border the family sheep farm dating back to 1916. Linda says, “It’s wonderful to have the bonus of living on a farm without having to do any of the hard work.”

Linda had long felt the desire to work outside but it wasn’t until she landed in Levin that she dipped her toes in the water. “If I was to live my life over again, I would have studied horticulture,” she muses.

Her foray into gardening coincided with building a house in 1980, in Auckland. When her then-husband suggested laying concrete all around it, Linda rushed outside to create her first garden – finding she absolutely loved it.

Some years later, still in Auckland, Linda had met Warren. Linda worked in the skies – 15 years as a flight attendant. When Warren’s parents died, he asked Linda to join him at Ngarere as chief gardener.

At a crossroads, Linda pondered her future. Her friends didn’t understand at all, questioning “why she’d want to go down there?!” They gave her four months.

Nineteen years on, Linda shows little sign of slowing down or stepping away as chief gardener. While she admits she’s had a lot of fun getting the garden to this point, she’s also quick to add she hasn’t finished by any means.

Moving south brought new possibilities. Linda didn’t have a plan but had always dreamed of working in a nursery. Calling in to Pukehou Nursery down the road, she met owner Mary Robertson who offered her a job on the spot. Mary mentored Linda over the next couple of years; she remembers this fondly as a rich and fascinating time filled with new learning.

During her nursery days, Linda gained a better understanding of Levin’s climate – sometimes learning the hard way. On one occasion she was quietly pulled aside for enthusiastically recommending frost tender plants – perfect for Auckland, not so much Levin – to a customer.

In Auckland, she’d paid no mind to wind or weather. Here, she found the weather ruled her life.

Over almost two decades, the garden suffered its fair share of setbacks – largely fierce easterlies that rolled off the Tararuas, dumping their full force onto the garden.

While Linda Parker has had a lot of fun getting the garden to this point, she’s also quick to add she hasn’t finished by any means.

In July 2008, a once-in-100-year storm nearly ruined it all: It flattened 40-odd trees in its wake. Giant Lawsonianas fell like dominoes. Century-old gums were uprooted. A beautiful golden elm planted by Warren’s mother was ripped from the ground. Liquidambars fell along with a great many small treasures that couldn’t be saved.

At that terrible time, a friend said to Linda, “One day you’ll see today’s destruction as tomorrow’s opportunity.” It’s a sentiment she says has come to pass.

Ever the problem-solver, Linda looked for ways to protect the garden from future storms. She asked Mary if a tall boundary hedge might be the answer?

Instead, Mary recommended staggered blocks of plantings to disperse the wind and slow it down. Linda planted griselinias, bottlebrushes and camellias, and these continue to absorb the wind to great effect.

Armed with her newfound plant knowledge, and now acclimatised to Levin’s temperatures, Linda started her own gardening business, Gardeningcats.

She had a little red truck, complete with all the gear. The name was always a talking point. She explains that ever since her first garden in Auckland, she’s had cats as garden companions. Heading outside, she’d ask them, “Come on, do you want to be a gardening cat?” For 10 years, it was a full-time job and a solo business. It was physical, as many of her clients were elderly. Linda says she became a garden therapist of sorts – her clients entrusted the care of their precious gardens to her.

Though she never became “gardened out” Linda started to tire physically. “Mary had warned me in the early days – you’ll wear yourself out.”

Finally heeding Mary’s advice, Linda wound up the business three years ago and sold her little red truck. Now, her gardening gloves are just for her. Satisfaction comes these days from opening the garden for local fundraisers and gardening groups. She loves sharing it with the public and says it keeps her on her toes.

Linda’s greatest gardening joy is taking pleasure from nature’s surprises – the wow factor of self-seeded forget-menots and marigolds growing as wild companions that she had no hand in arranging.

Her potting shed perennial garden is her favourite area. Each morning she enjoys freshly brewed coffee here – a restful, sheltered spot where colourful layers dance delicately like a living painting.

She’s keenly aware she is one of several gardeners just passing through. Linda can sometimes sense Warren’s mum Jean tapping her on the shoulder – reminding her others have gardened here before her. Jean’s copper sign

Ngarere, made as a schoolgirl in the 1930s, still greets visitors at the driveway entrance.

When Linda arrived, the property was largely bare, apart from a few mature trees. Though she longed for a professional to develop a plan, she couldn’t justify the expense. So she planted in her mind. “The biggest thing is just starting.”

She started by pushing the fences out. She expanded the beds, moving the edges out three or four times to realise her vision. Her catchcry to Warren during the early days, “I’m afraid I’m going to have to dig up more lawn”. This is why her advice to new gardeners these days is to “decide on your border width, then double it”.

Levin is considered one of the best growing climates in New Zealand and Linda was excited by the range of deciduous trees on offer, especially acers.

To shape the garden, Linda took to books to spark her imagination for the look she wanted to create. Essential reading in those early days included an annual catalogue of Pukehou Nursery’s Sumptuous Roses & Deciduous Trees for Town & Country circa 2005.

She was also realistic about changing her mind as she went, taking heart from the wise words of another gardener who said, “One is not a real gardener until you’ve moved most plants in the garden at least three times.”

Levin is considered one of the best growing climates in New Zealand and Linda was excited by the range of deciduous trees on offer, especially acers.

Linda favours a spray-free approach, feeds regularly with Bio-boost and generally mulches instead of watering (save for the perennials).

Despite heartbreaking destruction from possums, Linda has never given up on her love of roses, especially David Austins. Her deep crimson ‘Darcey Bussell’ stops people in their tracks; she pairs it with an unusual weeping Cercis canadensis ‘Ruby Falls’, with dark glossy heart-shaped leaves. ‘Gertrude Jekyll’ features too – a favourite scent with repeat flowering. Old roses ‘Jean Ducher’, with beautiful peach tones and the blush pink of ‘Stanwell Perpetual’ were recommendations from the late Barbara Lea Taylor,

NZ Gardener’s rose expert and columnist.

Linda favours a spray-free approach, feeds regularly with Bio-boost and generally mulches instead of watering (save for the perennials). A Hansa chipper and Iseki tractor are valued gifts from Warren, allowing Linda to create mulch onsite and distribute each spring and autumn.

While visitors to Ngarere often remark what a lot of work the garden must be, she doesn’t see it this way. For Linda, gardening has never been a chore. She puts it simply, “I garden because that’s who I am.”

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