Harbour garden restored to former glory

The West Harbour Garden Trail returns this month.  Gillian Vine reports.

"We've been here 10 or 12 years and it’s slowly returning to how it used to be," Robin Sharma says.

People will get the chance to see their garden during the West Harbour garden trail on November 19.

When Robin and his wife, Sarah, bought the Port Chalmers property, her father looked around and said, "It’s a lot of work".

The problem was that, after great work by two earlier owners, the garden had then been largely left to its own devices.

"Our first job was undoing three years of neglect," Robin says.

That including stripping trees — including a large kowhai and walnut — of muehlenbeckia and replacing lost nutrients with numerous loads of manure.

An indication of how overgrown the garden was can be appreciated by Robin and Sarah’s surprise find of steps down the eastern side of the property.

As well as clearing this pathway, Robin developed other steps to lead from above the house to two flat areas — one now a lawn, the other the vegetable garden.

Although popular wisdom suggested growing vegetables near the house, Sarah observed conditions for a year then decided to site the edibles plots at the very top of the garden, as this was the sunniest area.

Raised beds were built and more are to come to contain the soft-fruit collection of raspberries, red and blackcurrants.

Elsewhere, they have apples, apricots, plums and feijoas, so fruit is plentiful in summer and autumn.

They added a greenhouse, which Robin says, "is big enough to experiment".

One of his trial plants is an avocado, which has yet to bear fruit, while the space is also used for a lime and, in season, tomatoes, capsicums, chillies and zucchini. Lettuces are grown in the greenhouse over winter.

Well aware of how many families are struggling at present, Robin says: "Having a vege garden is one way to help families make ends meet."

Although he claims, "Sarah is the gardener; I just lug things around", he has had some notable successes of his own.

Notable were the "sad cauliflower seedlings" Sarah was going to throw out. Robin planted them into five rows and they flourished.

"Seedlings are the way to go [to save most] if you can manage them."

Carrots do well, although they have tended to be "a bit spindly" but corn has proved "a tough one".

Up the top by the vegetables is the hen house with six chooks ("our girls"). That number gives plenty of eggs for the household’s needs, as well as the bonus of manure for the garden.

Moving down the steps, the next level incorporates the lawn Robin created to break up the solid shrubbery that is a mix of older rhododendrons, flowering cherries and natives.

Many of the natives were gathered as tiny seedlings when Sarah and Robin were walking around their neighbourhood. Others, including Chatham Island forget-me-not (Myosotidium hortensia) have been gifts from friends, while red and white kaka beaks (Clianthus) were bought in. Budget-conscious, the couple scours ads, looking for plant sales to source more.

"There’s not so much work now," Robin says, adding they have adopted a "no dig" approach.

There are still some things they’d rather not have, like the area’s rat problem.

"And we used to have a lot of possums but the Halo project has helped [reduce numbers]. Our fruit is now more abundant."

At weekends, Sarah and Robin head into the garden, an "awesome" place to spend time, they say.

 

See it

Sarah and Robin Sharma’s garden will be open on Saturday, November 19, from 10.30am to 4.30pm, as part of the West Harbour Garden Trail, run by the United Church of Port Chalmers. Tickets (with maps) cost $20 and include afternoon tea. 

They can be bought on the day at Emmanuel Church hall, Station Rd, Sawyers Bay, or by phoning Shirley on (03) 471-0690 or Sandra (03) 471-0705.

At the hall, there will be raffles and sales of baking, produce and plants, and a lunchtime barbecue ($2).