Gillian Vine visits a Dunedin garden that featured in The Wash's photo competition last year.
"We did it all ourselves - mad!'' Elizabeth Faithful says.
She is talking about the retaining walls and stonework she and her husband, Peter, constructed in their Dunedin garden.
Stunning views towards the sea attracted them to the Balaclava property, where they built a house 11 years ago, but the section was steep with clay soil and ‘‘a lot of rock''.
‘‘We really let the ground, the terrain, the view and the rocks dictate the shape of the garden,'' Elizabeth said.
‘‘And because it's a hill site, there are lots of retaining walls.''
The oldest part of the garden was established 10 years ago with trees taking priority, for apart from a native red beech there was almost nothing to build around. Compost-making was an important aspect of enriching the rotten rock of the property so plants, including those in a productive small vegetable garden, got the maximum nourishment.
Recently they added more rhododendrons to the glade below the house, bringing the total to more than 100. This could be dubbed Peter's Patch, as he chose varieties in almost every available colour to give a splendid display in spring.
Throughout the rest of the garden, red and white are the main colours, typified in the planting of red camellias and white Carpet roses along one side of the house, with Oriental lilies, white callas and dwarf agapanthus on the other, alongside more camellias. Blue agapanthus grows alongside the white, which Elizabeth prefers.
White-flowered cherries, evergreen Magnolia grandiflora - ‘‘They flower themselves silly despite catching the wind,'' Elizabeth said - and newer Little Gem magnolias continue the theme, as does a line of red roses, propagated by Elizabeth by taking cuttings from a single plant.
Under the deck, is a little hedge of Camellia transnokoensis, whose white flowers are lightly scented. For more intense perfume, there are numerous lilies, which bloom from Christmas through until March.
Although most of the rhododendrons are in Peter's Patch, a small group, including Cunningham's White, enliven an area above the house and I spotted a couple flowering in March, well outside the usual spring blossom period.
Autumn leaf colour shines in a liquidambar and the stunning little Acer truncatum Fire Dragon, which holds its leaves for a long period and is ‘‘quite a showpiece''.
The reddish bark and palest pink flowers of Prunus autumnalis just slip into the dominant colour scheme and the tree has the advantage of being deciduous so doesn't block the light in winter. ‘‘And what I really like about it is you have two flowerings,'' Elizabeth commented.
There are some departures from the red/white theme in the main garden, notably the rose Faithful Friend, most suitable for the Faithfuls' garden.
Elizabeth described this as primarily a spring garden but one in which she and Peter endeavoured to give colour at other times of the year, too.
I was lucky to see this garden, which had been in The Wash competition, as the Faithfuls had just sold the property and were planning a move to Mosgiel. There, they are building a new house at Heathfield, above the town. Although the site is elevated, they have chosen a flat section and Elizabeth is looking forward to creating another garden from scratch.
Asked if she would have a red and white colour scheme this time, she said: ‘‘I think I'll make it shades of pink but I will have white Carpet roses again.''
Perhaps we'll see that one in The Wash one day.
