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MAGIC MOMENTS

Special memories are tucked away amid the structure and simplicity of this Tauranga garden

Agarden fork permanently lodged into the soil is an indication that beyond the clipped perfection of Tony and Bernice Wright’s garden, family connections are what really matter. The garden fork belonged to Bernice’s mother, Shirley Screech, and lives in a garden bed alongside hellebores, hostas, violets, maidenhair ferns and vibrant pink hydrangeas. “All of those – plus buxus spirals she began and gave to me – were plants from her garden,” says Bernice. “She was a really keen gardener and floral artist, and I love having that family connection thriving in the garden.”

There’s also an ancient wooden wheelbarrow propped up beside the vegetable patch, made by Bernice’s granddad in 1938 for carting cream cans to the farm gate.

And there are five kauri trees, the first of which was planted, with permission, on a council-owned clay bank abutting the Wrights’ driveway and rises above ponga, pūriri, karaka, five finger and hydrangeas. The next three kauri arrived after each of Tony and Bernice’s daughters – Grace, Holly and Anna – left home. Kauri number five was added recently, marking Bernice’s 60th birthday.

Bernice and Tony have grown their family here. They built their home and over the years have extended it, changed the landscaping and added a swimming pool.

The pool, a metre from the home’s main living area, provides on-going family fun as well as being a design focal point. “I sometimes call it my expensive pond,” says Bernice, who has started her own landscaping business with Anna, Wright Landcapes (wrightlandscapes.co.nz). “It’s very restful, and the way the light plays on the water – the shadows cast and the twinkling thanks to the sun – adds huge beauty to the garden.”

Books by Australian landscape designer Paul Bangay, within easy reach on the living room coffee table, have provided inspiration for the poolside planting. “This area is very close to the house so we look at it all the time. As well as lush green and white planting choices, I wanted a tidy form that maintains its structure through the seasons,” says Bernice.

She has all of that, thanks to tiered planting behind the pool, where a low razor-sharp buxus hedge contains port wine magnolias (Michelia figo) shaped into loose balls and a row of standardised china doll trees (Radermachera sinica) which Bernice trims rigorously every spring. Creeping fig (Ficus pumila) grows behind all this, stretching along the boundary wall.

“I’ve got more cognisant of design principles over the years,” says Bernice, who now appreciates how the tiered look creates a sense of depth of space – perfect for a small area – and how the repetition of colour and planting is easy on the eye.

Now-retired architect Rob Benge, who the Wrights used to design the house extension, also created the concepts for the pool and the outdoor seating area. “I am forever grateful for his expertise,” Bernice says. “He came up with the two circles. One

‘As well as lush green and white planting choices, I wanted a tidy form that maintains its structure through the seasons’

is for entry to the pool, the other for the seating area. It certainly solved the issue of boundaries with varying, odd angles.”

The Wrights modified the design slightly by dropping the level of the seating area to create privacy.

Their property borders an estuary with a public walkway, so while people can’t see into the garden, the outdoor seating is at the right height to look out at views of the estuary.

While the garden is densely planted, the plant range is not huge. Rather, there’s repetition of a set number of plants (not counting those in the bountiful vege beds). Other than the china doll trees, buxus, and port wine magnolia, there are towering bangalow palms for height, Ficus ‘Tuffy’, star jasmine (used as a ground cover and to climb up the pillars of the house), and ‘Blue Sapphire’, and ‘Snow Showers’ wisterias.

The views from many rooms of the house also take full advantage of the garden. Tony (who works in pharmaceuticals) has an office that looks out at the pool, his mother-in-law’s memorial garden, and a narrow tiered plot featuring buxus, orange jasmine (Murraya paniculata) and Ficus ‘Tuffy’.

The view into the house from the pool area is also eye-catching, as the main living area features large pieces of art, including one by daughter Grace.

There’s creativity aplenty in this family. Anna is an architectural graduate, Holly is a structural engineer and musician (she’s just written a musical) and Bernice, a recently retired teacher, has written a children’s book, Just Bananas, under her maiden name, Screech. She used some of the book sale proceeds to buy a swing chair that sits at one end of the garden’s lemon and lime walk. This walk, along the property’s estuary frontage, links the pool area to the vege gardens.

Providing year-round bounty, these plots are a lesson in how practical plants can also be beautiful. Non-edibles, such as a white dahlia and sweet pea, share this area. The latter is entwined with a passionfruit, both clambering up a bamboo trellis that Tony made.

“We’d be lost without our homegrown veges,” says Bernice. “My ideal time is having a family dinner outside in our beautiful setting on the stillest evening, with candles plus food and flowers from the garden on the table.

“Life doesn’t get much better than that.”

GARDENS / TAUMARUNUI

en-nz

2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-08-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmagazines.pressreader.com/article/283162907313073

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