Garden club visits the locals

HISTORY: The old Tara school house has been restored by Gayle and Ken Brown.

By Viv Martens

Our November Mangawhai Garden Club outing was not so much a road trip but a quick trip up the road – Tara Road to be exact.

In a field adjoining Tara Lodge, Benji and Laura Goodman grow the trees for their business, Forgotten Fruits Nursery. Benji met us out on Tara Road and immediately endeared himself to our members with his passion, enthusiasm and great personality. He gave us a quick history and explained how he got into his fruit tree business.

We then trooped through to his nursery and spent an entertaining and informative hour learning the intricacies of growing various root stock and grafting on cuttings from organic heirloom fruit trees. Benji collects cuttings and seeds from trees growing up here in the north so he knows they’re suited to our growing conditions. He has an online catalogue and couriers the trees to customers.

Another large part of Benji’s business is designing, planting and ongoing maintenance of orchards. With so much to do and such busy days, we really appreciated Benji taking time out to speak to us.

Our next stop was just across the road to Gayle and Ken Brown’s property and lunch at the old Tara school house. Originally built in 1872, the building has been shifted three times and had an addition built in the 1950s. The school finally closed in 1968 and has been used as a hay barn and fruit and flower packing shed. Thankfully it has now been restored as a school room. Gayle and Ken have collected old school desks and memorabilia and the walls are hung with photos of generations of Brown’s who have attended the school.

That’s not all there is to see at the Brown’s property – they also have a great garden. Over 25 years they’ve developed colour themed areas around spring-fed ponds. With beautiful irises, water lilies, day lilies, rambling roses and many shrubs, there’s loads of colour and interest.

We had our afternoon tea on the expansive deck at Marie Flavell and Earl Barnes’ beautiful home and garden at the Heads. This immaculate garden has been cleverly built on a steep site with various levels linked by three fish ponds and an interesting and colourful mix of plants. In brilliant sunshine (yes, really, no wind or rain!) we marvelled at the spectacular views of the estuary, spit and sea beyond. Each view is framed by huge pohutukawas, unfortunately not in bloom yet.

One of the most magical things about Mangawhai is that every garden we visit views the estuary from a totally different aspect. And whether it’s a garden up on the Tara with beautiful volcanic soil, the sandy soil of the Heads or the gluggy clay that some of us end up with, it’s possible to create a real paradise despite the soil type.