Making presence felt
Gardening
By CATHERINE GROENESTEIN - Taranaki Daily News
Relevant offers
Gardening & Lifestyle
If Pukekura Park is the gem of New Plymouth city, then curator Chris Connolly has been quietly polishing it over past months.
Since he took over two-and-a-half years ago as the park's first dedicated curator for 13 years, he's been making small improvements and changes. It's more a renewal than a revamp.
"A lot of things have been done, but it's quite subtle, done with the aim of maintaining the park's tamed wilderness feel," he says.
"It's like any garden: the more you see, the more you want to do."
Altogether, the park is looking smarter as scruffy edges and corners are tidied. Chris says he's really enjoying his more hands-on role after years in parks management.
His enthusiasm shows. A wander around to see the changes took two hours (one of the features of Pukekura is its large size so close to a city centre).
We meet at the Bellringer Pavilion, where pavers have replaced the worn grass strip alongside the parked cars. The old drum rubbish bin has been replaced with a smart wrought- iron number and the historic ticket box has been repainted.
Chris leads the way to the palm lawn beside the lower lake.
"One of the things abut this park is the way you pass through a lot of green and then come upon these little views. We have enlarged the lawn and pulled the planting back."
Vireya rhododendrons add colour in the garden bed, but it's the palms - fishtail and some others - you notice first.
Over the past few months, he's been focusing work on the various park entrances. Gates have been repainted, new plants installed and a general tidy-up doled out to make the park's "doorways" welcoming.
Staff are already at work installing lights for the coming Festival of Lights, which begins on December 19 and runs to February 7, after which they'll be switched on for special weekend events up until Womad in March.
This year's display will take in the bottom end of the park up to the Poet's Bridge and the fernery.
There will be a few surprises, but many of the regular features, including the snoring giant, will be returning in new settings.
Another project going on quietly behind the scenes is the water monitoring. Ten bores were drilled recently so the groundwater can be tested.
"We're doing measurements in four locations in the park. The water catchment is fairly limited - it's primarily restricted to the city area. We're monitoring the amount and quality of the water coming in. We're trying to find out as much as we can so we can manage the park in future."
The wet spring weather hindered a couple of big projects in the park - the new access track between the bowl and the racecourse, and the refurbishment of the two red bridges - but these are both nearly complete. Beside the kiosk, the new frame to support a centenarian wisteria (it was planted in 1908) has just been installed by Tenex Robert Stone Ltd, which designed and funded the project. Improved lighting underneath the blossom-laden boughs and seating will make this a special place to rest during a trip around the lights. An official opening is planned for the first week of December.
We follow the path up into a jungle of greenery heading towards the dell.
"This is a part of the park I really like. You're going through bush that's pretty dense, it's all shades of green, then you come out into the open," he says as we pop out beside the fernery.
The gardens around the fernery entrance are looking spic and span. There's plenty of colour everywhere and interesting plants, including an impressive Strelitzia nicolai, a giant relative of the more common bird of paradise plant. The fernery is being readied for its role in the Festival of Lights.
"I think the fernery is going to be pretty spectacular this year," says Chris, "but I'm not going to give away any secrets."
Off we go, across the lawn and into the woodland area beyond. Chris says the area around Stainton Dell is his favourite part of the park. It's been refreshed by more than spring growth. Careful maintenance and some removal of selected trees has brought light into areas like the Primula Dell. New primulas are being planted and the beds will become a mass of colour over time.
The past winter was harsh and a few plants were lost. Despite the cold, the banana trees at one end of the dell are still growing, thanks to the shelter of huge trees behind them.
A new openness allows views of water-edge plants. Across the lily ponds and beyond that were screened before by a wall of old hydrangeas.
We head back towards the lake and then along to the first red bridge. Here and there, plants from the fernery have escaped. Keep a look-out for orchids popped into punga trunks here and there, plants that were surplus to the fernery's needs which are being given another chance outdoors. Chris says he was contacted by a concerned visitor who had seen one and was worried the park was not caring for its orchids properly.
The Poet's Bridge has been refurbished - contractors renewed the steel framework and timber decking, then repainted the structure. Work is under way on the boatshed bridge. It will be completed in early December.
The views across the lake are glorious: rhododendrons in flower, bright maple foliage and new growth on all the trees..
Heading past the boatshed and towards the Bowl, there are some rosellas nesting to watch for.
Up at the Bowl, a raised bed has been built around the dawn redwood tree to protect the roots and lots of tidying is being done. It's all going to look polished for this summer's music events.
Up top, the genteel lawns at Brooklands Park have been undergoing a few alterations. The undergrowth has been thinned and some garden boundaries adjusted to allow better views around and under the trees. The public toilets are now fenced into the zoo area, providing more security for families at the zoo and playground.
Chris says he had to juggle the competing needs of the lavish beds of annuals the park is known for with the trampling feet of thousands at the annual Womad festival. The colourful beds have been shifted.
"The public particularly like the annual beds up here, but with Womad, the beds just don't work. We're retaining some bedding, though. Bedding flowers are part of the features of this park."
At the Gables, an area of the garden has been refurbished by the Friends of the Park, a group of expert gardeners who are relishing having their own area to develop and care for, he says.
We turn back to wander back downhill, admire the views out over the park from Brooklands Drive, pass a crew from the Justice Department at work weeding in a sea of spring blossom, and head back through the Goodwin Dell, bright with azaleas in crazy colour backed by lush hostas. There's sand on one well trodden portion of the path, recycled from a local kindy's sandpit, which provided a temporary solution to mud.
Back past the waterfall, one of the park's most photographed features, our visit ends.
