When the Christchurch City Council entered into a joint venture with a restaurateur, it was seen as an exciting way to use the Curator's House, in the grounds of the city's botanic gardens. More than a decade later, the partnership continues to be an outstanding success, as Gillian Vine discovers.
In 1920, James Young, curator of the Christchurch Botanic Gardens, moved into the house the city had built for him.
Perfectly situated at the edge of the gardens, with the Avon running behind it, the house was designed by local architects Collins and Harman and built of volcanic basalt from the Port Hills.
Successive curators lived on site but in 1982, a newly appointed curator chose to live on his own away from the gardens and the house was rented while the city council dithered and debated over its future.
Finally, in 1998, the building and its garden were advertised for lease.
The Friends of the Botanic Gardens wanted to create a demonstration fruit and vegetable garden, while a family company headed by Javier Garcia Perea saw an opportunity to have a restaurant focusing on Spanish-style cooking using olive oil instead of fat.
The two ideas complemented one another perfectly, as it meant some of the produce from the garden could be used in the restaurant.
In the Curator's House restaurant, paella is a house speciality and reflects the garden freshness, sun and colour that epitomise Spanish food, while other main-course options include mouth-watering seafood dishes and Canterbury lamb cooked in a Spanish style.
The Curator's House garden was designed by Dennis Preston, landscape architect for the Christchurch City Council, and is in five parts - fruit, berry fruit, herb garden, potager and formal vegetable garden.
There is also a composting area.
The aim is to give people with small gardens ideas on how best to use their space, so instead of tall fruit trees, apples and pears are espaliered.
Putting the pears on arches across the paths not only shades the paths on hot days and makes the garden attractive to walk through but also means, in effect, the paths are productive thanks to the fruit above them.
The orchard area is the most popular with visitors, as many believe fruit needs more space than they have.
Seeing espaliered and dwarf trees, double and tripled-grafted stone fruit, hedges of feijoas and Chilean guavas, and citrus in pots opens people's eyes to what they could apply at home.
A lover of camellias, I doubt I would take the advice to replace them with fruit trees but for those lukewarm about these decorative shrubs, it could be an alternative.
The potager follows tradition, blending vegetables, herbs and flowers.
The result is cheerful, with sweet peas as a backdrop - they are popular for vases on the restaurant tables - and edible nasturtiums, calendula and borage, which are ideal as garnishes for food, as well as Phacelia and alyssum to attract hover flies (which eat aphids) and bees.
In the formal raised vegetable beds, the focus is not only to provide some of the produce for the restaurant but to suggest suitable crops for home gardeners, with ideas for extending what they grow.
For instance, few would recognise the leaves of the vegetable oysters, salsify and Scorzonera (or black salsify), but they are hardy vegetables for winter use and much milder in flavour than parsnips.
Botanic gardens and restaurant staff jointly plan what crops to grow each season.
The basics (lettuce, carrots and beans) are grown every year and there is a commitment to focusing on a particular family each year.
When it was the turn of the Solanaceae (potato and tomato) family, each shaw of potatoes was weighed and taste-tested.
Top producer was Agria (5.2kg), with Liseta also a heavy cropper.
While Cliff's Kidney trailed the field (2.5kg), it was voted the tastiest.
The berry fruit garden is tiny, just 3m by 3m, but the gardeners have squeezed in strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackcurrants, as well as loganberries and the thornless blackberry Black Satin on the fences, plus a grapevine over an arch.
The ideas are inspiring, not just for the novice but for the experienced gardener, and an added attraction to the Christchurch Botanic Gardens that other councils could emulate.
Go there
The Curator's House restaurant is at 7 Rolleston Ave, Christchurch, phone (03) 379-2252. It is open seven days from 11am.
In Canterbury, Gillian Vine was hosted by Christchurch & Canterbury Tourism, www.christchurchnz.com
