A gardener never quits!

5 Jan '07 12:02 pm

Many of us start off with a large garden and then have to downsize as we get older. In my case it was because we had to leave the garden which we established at Lake Tarawera back in'97, when we moved to a Pensioner Block in Morrinsville and then here to Matamata in 2005. I miss my large garden because of the need to have beauty, peace and tranquility around me is part of who I am.I am lucky in that I have that here! I refuse to quit gardening and even if I end up with just a few pot plants I will still have that connection with Nature! So here goes...

Way back in 1997 we had the opportunity to establish ourselves on a family member's farm,high above Lake Tarawera out of Rotorua. We had first seen the site in 1991 and I knew then it could be turned into a beautiful area, never dreaming at the time I would get to do so!
Living in a barn to begin with, then later a caravan, we made a start on what ended up as a Garden of Eden. You will see a couple of pics that show what the section looked like before we started the garden.An aerial photo shows the section taken during the Winter after we moved there, with only the 'bones' of the garden outlined! We planted fruit trees below the high bank in the foreground, apples, pears, apricots. plums, gooseberries, black currants. Our pumpkins and potatoes were also grown down there!
The area,about a 3/4 acre in size and on 3 levels was cleared of waist high grass and weeds and the hard work began. The soil was heavy ash from the 1886 eruption of Mt Tarawera and needed many barrowfulls of humus,animal manure and compost to get things going.
Laury found me big stones from off the farm and I built drystone walls to retain and define the levels. I transplanted a lot of tree seedlings that were at the right time for transplanting and anything that looked like a tree seedling I moved! Laury spent many hours digging out banks by hand (no machinery) to make the area look better and to build our carport and parking bay. Meanwhile when all the retaining walls were finished I began to level off the lawn areas I wanted;long hot work as it was summer. I saw little of the inside of the caravan as every hour counted to get the area the I wanted it.
Laury dug all my flower beds and the vegetable garden and so we steadily made progress. I was lucky to be given a great many rose bushes,some were eaten right back by deer and sheep to nothing and I did not think they would survive;but a rose is a tenacious plant and with lots of TLC they all thrived and gave us beautiful blooms the following season. Next came more roses from other friends,some very old judging by their trunks and being summer and not the right time for transplanting I was dubious about their survival as well. Lots of water ensured their survival and they too gave us so much pleasure. Eventually we had 140 roses along with all the usual annuals,perennials,shrubs,bulbs that are required in a large garden.
The caravan was done away with and a new Portacom installed...none of the garden was damaged during this transition...amazing when one considers the tight space the men had to work in!
After 5 years the garden looked like it had been there forever and was breath taking to all visitors.
It was with regret we had to leave this Paradise in 2004 but I gave away all but 8 of my best loved roses for which I am eternally grateful for doing so .... the garden was returned to the cattle and deer...I never went back there, but got reports of the desolation later on....nothing remains now. No...it never pays to return to a garden that you once loved and cherished.
All the photos were taken with an ordinary camera, scanned into the PC and are not the best resolution due to my inexperience with the editing program at the time!
My scanner no longer works and so there are some photos of the stone walls missing.
Photos begin in next Post....

5 Jan '07 12:10 pm

Photos...

5 Jan '07 12:45 pm

All of the following photos were taken in no particular order of years....lol... but I have just noticed the File has the year in them!

5 Jan '07 12:57 pm

Looking back at these photos it's hard to believe how those trees and shrubs grew so fast! We had this great veiw of the Mountain and Lake which in time was nearly obscured! I love trees around me and the view became unimportant!
I'm having a wee problem with some of the attachments so will get them into Photobucket...easier in the long run!

5 Jan '07 2:12 pm

Just Beautiful. Applause

Welcome to the forum, thankyou for sharing with us.
Im so sorry you had to move on and no one took over your lovely creation. But as you say real gardeners never give up.
I look forward to seeing more pics soon.
BTW what do you mean by - so will get them into Photobucket Question

5 Jan '07 2:16 pm

Hi Goose! Photobucket is an online photo storage site...once there you can post the Image link to Forums like this... lol... but it does use a fair bit of bandwidth...it's a free site and you do have to register to be able to use it.

5 Jan '07 2:22 pm

More photos...

5 Jan '07 2:22 pm

Gosh that was a quick response.
Thanks for the info - I will have a look at it.
And more photos too! Lovely

5 Jan '07 2:29 pm

Up a few steps at the back of the garden I created a "green tunnel" using an Ash tree as a starting point. The Japanese Laurel grew huge as did a ceoanthus....gravel paths led to another rose garden and the vege garden which was fenced off from the rabbits. I planted "Birthday Present on the fence and it grew so rapidly it climbed into an Apricot tree!

5 Jan '07 2:36 pm

I don't know what the pink rose is named in the pic here...it was a climber and vigourous..I had a lot of "donated" roses with no names!

A gardener never quits!

A gardener never quits!

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