Gardening is for life

BY CATHERINE GROENESTEIN

Downsizing from a suburban garden to life in a shared village needn't mean hanging up your spade and trowel.

New Plymouth Horticultural Society president Janet Clark and her husband, Des, moved from their Bell Block home to a villa in Wanaka Bay Village on the edge of Bell Block last May, but it hasn't slowed Janet's gardening efforts.

This weekend, the society holds its summer show and Janet will have her share of entries.

It's hard to believe Janet's garden at the end of a row of compact new villas is only nine months old.

Already she's got espaliered dwarf plum, pear and apple trees stretched along the fence and the little trees are surrounded by a floral forest, including clumps of tiger lilies, Asiatic lilies and effusively ruffled dahlias. Behind the house, potted plants fill corners and even the washing line has flowers at its feet. Woe betide anyone picking the lovely lettuces growing in a row alongside the house near Janet's back door - they're for show, not salads.

Janet says she and Des (who was out playing bowls when we visited) decided to downsize their property for health reasons.

"Des doesn't have to mow lawns, cut hedges and that sort of thing here, but I'd go mad if I didn't have my garden," she says.

"It was part of my stipulation on coming here that I could have my own space to grow things."

She's not alone, it seems. Many of the residents at the developing complex share a love of gardening, says managing director Heather Marshall. The residents are a real little community, she says.

That expertise and enthusiasm have blossomed into comradeship and a communal vegetable garden, as well as being great for the appearance of the village.

A lot of people considering moving into a lifestyle village are afraid they can't have a garden or that they won't have room to maintain their interests, she says.

"When we build a unit, we put a garden in so the residents can take ownership of it if they want to, then they add their personal touches."

The official plantings include camellias, box hedges and a few bush roses. Around these, most of the little patches outside the tidy villas are full of colour.

The residents have proved valuable in developing the grounds, she says.

"They're very generous with their wealth of experience. We've had plenty of advice, we have great consultations and discussions, and we're keeping everything up to a really neat standard."

She's thrilled with the range of gardens.

"There's nothing like coming into a village and seeing all the flowers," she says

As well as the colourful (and immaculate) plots outside the units, there are the lovingly tended vegetables, too, thanks to Janet and several other green-thumbed residents.

Out behind the office we find five raised timber-edged beds planted up with salad-veg seedlings. These are the original, official vege beds, but they are in quite an exposed position. The property is near the coast, so the garden crew constantly battle wind.

"You haven't seen it all yet," says Janet as we pass the beds and discover a row of thriving tomatoes, laden with fruit, tucked up against a wall out of the wind. Several patches of potatoes and rows of tomatoes have been popped into little nooks out of the wind. At the end of the section is the garden proper, sheltered by solid fences and windbreak trees. It is looking lush.

The residents divide their vegetable garden labour among the several plots.

Tomatoes, capsicums and rhubarb are snug beside the fence. Janet's turf is a patch in the middle awash with green - thriving pumpkins, zucchinis, carrots, leeks and cabbages - while runner beans blaze scarlet over a bean frame nearby. Baskets of freshly picked beans are taken around the villas every couple of days for residents and staff who want them, she says.

"We all have an area - there are vegetable gardens for those who want them and if an area is empty for long, someone will plant it up. If we can't find any room, we dig some more," she adds.

The produce is shared around everyone in the village.

"The ones who can't do it [gardening], we ask them what they want and we'll try to put it in for them." Janet says.

The village is on former farmland and the gardeners have been building up the soil with compost, Heather says. A glasshouse is on the wish list.

It's easy to find Janet and Des Clark's villa: Janet's garden has escaped on to the verge. A splash of floral colour draws the eye off a dull green power transformer in a garden bed outside their fence. Bright everlasting flowers sit at its feet, contrasting prettily with scarlet dahlias, inky blue delphiniums and red gladiolus.

"I wasn't supposed to go in there, but I've trespassed," Janet says.

"We planted around the transformer with the view of hiding it eventually, but Janet's enhanced it," Heather says.

This is Janet's second year at the helm of the Horticultural Society and she's enjoying it.

"We're starting to see the changes with the young ones wanting to grow their own vegetables."

She urges budding and beginner gardeners to visit the show at the Pukekura Raceway complex this weekend.

As well as displays of the best vegetables, flowers and fruit the society's members have to show, there will be at least 20 sales stalls. Another highlight is the ever- popular potato-growing competition, where 55 entrants have grown a potato plant in a black polythene bag.

The show is open from 12.30 to 4pm on Saturday and 9.30 to 4pm on Sunday.

- © Fairfax NZ News