Old Tablelands garden in Martinborough, part of this year’s tour. PHOTO/ SUPPLIED
CAL ROBERTS
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Nine years on, a garden tour of Wairarapa is still blooming.
Pukaha Mt Bruce’s ninth annual Wairarapa garden tour is on this November – its largest fundraiser for 2018 – but this year it’s branching out with some new types of gardens.
Garden lovers can rest their own green thumbs and check out creations across the region, ranging from traditional, to sustainable, and beyond.
Open to the public for the first time will be Tikara Country Gardens.
Perched on the eastern hills behind Carterton, owners Bruce and Mary McCallum have developed a stunning garden using minimal water.
Heavy mulching created ideal conditions for more than 200 roses to flourish.
Hundreds of Japanese maples, and a clever use of a 90m bank of colourful African daisies lift the prevailing wind up and over the garden’s more delicate blooms.
Pukaha general manager Emily Court said she was excited the new-concept gardens were going to be showcased.
“We’ve got a really loyal following of people who come every year, [but] we’d like to expand the breadth of the market, if you like.”
She said there would still be the traditional gardens to explore.
“But we’re expanding it – edible gardens and permaculture gardens and the like.”
Money raised through the garden tour would be put to Pukaha’s forest restoration fund.
“We spend an enormous amount of money each year protecting our wildlife from predators.”
Pukaha will be at Wellington’s Home and Interiors Expo this weekend with Carterton sculptor Tom Conwell.
Mr Conwell will be displaying his hand-crafted bird bath and garden pot creations.
At the expo, being held at the TSB Arena, attendees will have the chance to win one of Conwell’s one-of-a-kind pieces – valued at $200 – and a night’s accommodation in Wairarapa during the tour, on November 10 and 11.
