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Home and Garden
Gardening is a must for one Blenheim resident who is constantly fine-tuning her plantings, with spectacular results, Lynda Papesch found.
When she's not out bowling, Val Tringham is mostly likely to be found in her garden. One of five gardens in this year's Hunter's Garden Marlborough Urban Tour, Leithwood has been developed by Val with husband Arthur ("call me the gopher") over almost three decades.
The couple bought the property 28 years ago, built their dream home and then set about creating a garden. Since then, the garden has changed many times; the most recent being a complete redesign over the past four years. Val is the gardener while Arthur takes reluctant credit for helping her.
Leithwood is named after Val's grandmother. The road verge and entrance to the property is dominated by a 100-year-old redwood tree, underplanted with red and pink hydrangeas and a large collection of hostas. It is the garden Val is most proud of. It was also the hardest to develop, needing five truckloads of topsoil and constant attention. "I even received a truckload of topsoil for my birthday one year to put on it," she laughs.
Further down the drive, the couple's home is surrounded by lush green lawns and bordered gardens full of rhododendrons, camellias, peonies and various shade-loving plants, while surrounding fences are covered with roses, clematis and other creepers. On the far side of the house is Val's new orchard.
A special feature of the various garden rooms are the rock edgings, with different types of stones collected on travels around New Zealand, and Val's collection of hellebores. "I love them; I think I've got one of every variety there is. It's a big collection."
She also likes hostas and has several hundred in various shady spots. Arthur's favourites are trilliums, and he's managed to slip a few of those among the underplantings, too.
The garden is currently clad in its spring colours, and Val has a busy planting schedule in the lead-up to Hunter's Garden Marlborough, adding summer annuals to the mix. "A lot of the spring flowers are almost done, so it's time to get new annuals in," she says.
That won't be difficult for the self-confessed plantaholic who readily admits to going on holidays and bring back car boot loads of plants. "We travel from nursery to nursery," jokes Arthur.
- The Marlborough Express
