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A nine-hole golf course in the back garden? It’s all par for the course for this adventurous Taranaki couple

WORDS VIRGINIA WINDER / PHOTOGRAPHS JANE DOVE JUNEAU

A nine-hole golf course in the garden? Why not, say this Taranaki couple.

Family festivities, friendly rivalry and abundant wildlife are all par for the course at Annette and Shane Rowe’s garden of greens in Hāwera. The South Taranaki couple have created a nine-hole golf course, complete with a water hazard that’s a haven for birds, amphibians and a spiny native. “It was originally going to be a flag over the other side of the lake,” says Shane. But when the first one was planted, he decided to make the surrounds look like a proper golf green. Then he picked out two more spots for flags and worked out how and where to place nine tee blocks. “That’s how it grew. We now have a nine-hole, three-par golf course,” he says.

There’s even a practice putting green by the house. “The sons-in-law, the boyfriends and our four grandsons just constantly hit balls,” says Annette.

The couple have six daughters between them: Two from Annette’s first marriage, Adine and Leah; two from Shane’s, Rachel and Toni, and together they have Ellie and Lani.

Adine (nee Harper), a former Silver Fern, is married to former New Zealand rugby and cricket rep Jeff Wilson, who was the first of eight players to score a hole-in-one on the course.

The garden, called 49 on Rata, has been the scene of many family ambrose golf tournaments at Christmas, weekly skinners golf contests with Shane and his mates during summer, a couple of weddings, a string of significant birthday parties and the stag do for All Black Beauden Barrett, who had a swim in the lake.

While golf is the No 1 sport, the lawns are the stars. Shane is the lawn artiste in charge of mowing the grass and sculpting it to hug the contours of the land. Annette is the head gardener, master of mass planting and chief weeder. Gardening is both her gym and her solo sanctuary. “It’s my solace,” she says.

Shane finds peace mowing stripes that radiate out from the greens. Because the garden covers 8093m² of the 4.45ha property, Shane cuts his blades of glory in stages. “There’s so much lawn there, if it was a chore, I wouldn’t enjoy it.”

His mowing efforts earned rave reviews from visitors during the Rowes’ first time opening for the 2022 Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival. “People were taking their shoes off to walk on the carpet-like lawn by the house,” says Annette.

To prepare for the annual spring event, the Rowes left the grass beyond the lawns to grow taller and softer, to contrast with the super-trimmed areas.

Not only did the long grass wave in the wind, it was also awash with dandelions. “People thought we had planted them,” says Shane. “It tied in with the daisies growing on the edge of the driveway up to the courtyard,” says Annette.

To match the strength of the house, designed by architect Paul Rust, Annette has massplanted about 4000 bronze-coloured carex. “To me it combined the two elements – the structure and the natural garden – and I love the look of the grass moving in the wind.”

Other strong plantings include stretches of bird of paradise ( Strelitzia juncea), dragon trees in pools of star jasmine, hillsides of ivy, shapely native plantings, a grove of Washingtonian palms and a feijoa hedge. Beyond the latter is a mini orchard bursting with vitamin C from trees laden with limes, lemons and oranges.

The garden is anchored by the house, which they moved into back in 2012. “Nothing is as it seems – it looks natural, but it’s not,” says Annette, of their place, which nestles into a hillside. Instead, the landscape was created with cranes, diggers and dirt.

It all began with a rough piece of land and a need for a view. “We had to decide on the height of the house, because we wanted to see the mountain and the [volcanic] ring plain,” she says. They stood on a scissor lift to decide the right elevation and used a sundial to find the best angles to capture “the morning sun and the G&T sun”.

The builders cut into a bank to get the right position for their home. “That left the house hanging, so we had to bring in a hill from the father-in-law’s farm next door to wrap around the house,” she says. “If we had built on the hill we would have been blown away by the north-westerly wind,” says Shane.

From their dream home, the retired real estate business owners start each day with a view of Taranaki Maunga in the distance. “I couldn’t imagine not having a view of the mountain which changes daily in its moods and colour,” says Annette.

Then their focus lands closer to home. “The lake is a lot more interesting than I thought with the wildlife it brings,” she says of the manufactured water feature. “When I wake up, I look down and go ‘Oh so and so’s in today’.”

There are five breeds of duck, but only five Peking ducks have been introduced by the Rowes – the rest have just appeared, along with swans, pūkeko, shags, blue-grey herons and once a kōtuku, the white heron found on a $2 coin.

Along with the birds, they have also seen kōura (freshwater crayfish), and heard a soundtrack performed by an army of frogs. “They are deafening – I love them.”

The Rowes also have cats, two alpacas, a sheep and a goat but they believe their resort-like golf garden and house of art needs more than pets and wildlife. “It’s just a house until people come along,” says Shane. So, when friends and family do trundle in, the Rowes’ home becomes their slice of heaven.

‘I couldn’t imagine not having a view of the mountain which changes daily in its mood and colour’

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2023-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-06-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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