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HEART & SOUL

A Bay of Plenty garden serves up a special kind of nourishment for its longtime owners

WORDS MONIQUE BALVERT-O’CONNOR PHOTOGRAPHS AMANDA AITKEN

Relaxation is at the centre of this Tauranga garden.

Ask Lynette Lochhead to sum up her garden in one sentence and she’ll say: “It feeds our souls.” There was little to wax lyrical about, however, when Lynette and her husband Peter moved to their Te Puna property near Tauranga four decades ago as newlyweds – it was essentially a sheep paddock. The house they built then has grown with their family, as has the garden they have established.

“The garden has been 41 years in the making and the interest hasn’t waned. It’s seen many transformations in that time. You can say it’s evolved organically into an established and nurturing garden,” says Lynette.

“In the early days we got trailer-loads of plants from my dad’s nursery – then Burtons Garden Centre in Hamilton – with not a lot of thought to their placement. And we got lots of plants from catalogues, which were my saving grace when at home with pre-schoolers.”

In its infancy the garden on this 4ha property was cottagethemed, full of David Austin roses (only one rose remains today), delphiniums, foxgloves, granny’s bonnets, gypsophila and lavender.

Over time, the Lochheads realised that they prefer a garden that needs less work, and also one that looks good year round. So the focus switched to textural and structural plants, and drifts of the same species.

“I wanted a garden that would hold its own for nine to 10 months of the year. Now we’ve got it and it’s a total joy,” says Lynette. She still loves dreaming up interesting plant combinations and enjoys the garden’s multi-layered look as plants have grown over the years.

She has created interesting views of the garden from the house, such as Peter’s impressively productive vegetable garden which can be seen from the back of the house, and the white garden viewed from the master bedroom. This “romantic” patch features a marriage of Michelia ‘Fairy Cream’, lamb’s ears, gaura, hellebores, daphne and Hydrangea ‘Limelight’. Aesthetic beauty is a big part of Lynette and Peter’s lives. He’s an architectural designer while Lynette owns interior design company Design on James. Her studio is on the property… reached by ambling down the garden path and through the pool enclosure.

It’s a short stroll that packs a big visual punch. While the gardens around the house are informal with meandering paths, the pool and studio areas are more structured. Griselinia hedges contribute a linear element and focal points include queen palms and a native area featuring ferns and 11 kōwhai which were recently planted to attract tūī.

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2022-01-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-01T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://stuffmagazines.pressreader.com/article/282978223317771

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