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Gardening with Gael - A good place for the hot tub

 

Gaels autumn garden(copy)“I am pretty certain,” I said to Box, “that this is the last part of the garden.”

Box didn’t say anything. The last part is the hill that runs down to the right of the house. To the left are the terraces, in the front, a small lawn leading on to a steep bank. The hill from the house is too steep to mow and the paddock at the bottom is where the majority of the grapes will be planted. It seemed the best plan to plant it in deciduous trees so that we can see the grapes through the trees in the winter and space them for summer views. I already have a path, bordered by the abelia hedge, that leads through the garden down to where the grapes will be. The sweep around this hill will balance the liquidambers that skirt the bottom of the rest of the garden.

The ‘last part’ also includes an area between the deck steps and the path that runs down the left hand side of the house. I entertained the idea of a liriodendron at the back with meyer lemons in the front until I read the size a liriodendron grows to and it immediately was consigned to the hill. What to put behind the lemons? Although Barney is yet to realise his potential as a savage possum killing dog I think his presence and his joy at chasing possums up trees has had a positive effect on the roses. Ces Adams is back at the market every week with his splendid array of plants including climbing roses. Climbing roses seemed the perfect solution. They can be attached to the side of the steps and across the front of the verandah.

Ces has a great array of roses which I never can resist. I have chosen two in the apricot shades crepuscule and westerland and a red etoile de hollande. My landscaping friend Jan says that crepuscule is stunning in every way. On our way back from picking up some furniture from Tirau we filled the rest of the ute with bags of horse manure mixed with wood chip from Matamata. Perfect mulch.

For the hill I chose some big plants and last week Rick helped plant them. For colour we have planted more nyssa salvatica , another maple, the lirodendron, a plane tree and some poplar yunnanensis. Part of the hill is below the sewage treatment. Box has decided on a Worm Farm Waste System. Using gravity for the fertiliser distribution, the drainage field snakes down the hill below the house. We have planted deciduous magnolias near the spots where the fertiliser is emitted. I have chosen varieties of magnolia campbellii and magnolia soulangeana for their cup shaped blooms.

Just as I finished the garden in front of the house, Meyers planted, compost barrowed, plants fed, Box came to look at it and said “I just realised this might be a good place for the hot tub.” Then he looked at my face and said, “Possibly not.”

STRIKING: Beautiful autumn colour dominates the view of terraces from the verandah.

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