When Cherie and Waka Kennedy bought their property near Makikihi, South Canterbury, three years ago, they had no idea of its significance.
Once part of a farm, Tenbury Homestead now stands on 2ha, which is part - if not all - of the original Buxton garden.
When the couple bought the property, it was very run down and overgrown, so people assumed they would demolish the house and rebuild.
"You just can't believe how bad it was," Cherie says.
Parts of the house had no floor or ceiling.
"And the rats," she adds with a shudder.
She "didn't know a rose from a daffodil" and might not have embarked on the restoration of the garden had it not been for a friend who, after battling through the jungle reappeared an hour later, very dishevelled, and announced: "You've something very special here".
An elderly neighbour confirmed the garden was a Buxton one and the work to save it began.
Tenbury's garden, laid for J. W. Armstrong, was among the commissions Buxton listed in a 1926 brochure promoting his landscaping company, giving a loose indication of its age.
Unfortunately, no plans or photographs of the garden's early days have surfaced.
At an open day in February was Rupert Tipples, who wrote a biography of Alfred Buxton, published in 1989.
"It's great to see a Buxton garden being renewed," Dr Tipples wrote in Cherie's copy of the book.
In the three years leading up to the open day, the Kennedys slogged to clear the overgrown area around the house.
In one spot, grass had spread like a mat over a path and could be rolled up and taken away, but other places were much more difficult to tackle.
Their dog helped: it found the pond by falling through foliage obscuring it.
The first priority was to identify trees and shrubs from the early days.
Tape was tied to the branches of those to be saved, then "miles" of Muehlenbeckia that engulfed them ripped away.
Among the finds were apple, plum and pear trees (probably original), three Magnolia grandiflora and a venerable grapevine by the swimming pool may also date back to Buxton's day.
Once the Muehlenbeckia was pulled away, not only did the magnolias flower, but so did the garden's 100 or more rhododendrons and camellias.
Buxton gardens frequently featured both shrubs, so it is likely some are as old as the garden.
A big thrill was unveiling a Ginkgo biloba.
"Alfred Buxton got seeds of Ginkgo and an elderly local man believes the tree was the original one he played under as a boy," Cherie says.
Buxton's trademarks included extensive use of specimen trees, including weeping elms, of which Tenbury has a fine specimen.
Another thrill was to have an unusual glossy-leaved climber identified as Burmese honeysuckle (Lonicera hildebrandiana), which has the largest blooms of any honeysuckle.
Despite the amount of work still to be done, Cherie says: "I'm the luckiest person in the world."
Now she wants to locate old photographs of the garden to help her plan the next stage.
