The garden which became a bush

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 12

The garden which became a bush

(By

ELIZABETH H. WOODS

Although Christchurch is well known for its trees, native bush is scarce and each small patch is precious. One such pocket is the Ashbrove Reserve, near The Princess Margaret Hospital on the banks of the Heathcote River.

This miniature bush area is not a remnant, but the result of careful planting by man. The City Council took it over as a reserve in 1963, thus saving it from the destruction which would have been caused by subdivision.

The European interest in this general area of land began in August, 1850, when Earl Spencer and Conway Rose, then in England, paid the Canterbury Association £2lOO for a section of 700 acres. The land was to be selected by Rose anywhere within the Canterbury block between the Ashburton and Waipara rivers. In early 1851 he chose land between the Heathcote and Lower Lincoln Road; this became Rural Section No. 76. Within its boundaries lay the tiny piece of land on which the Ashgrove bush now stands. Conway Rose was an articulate, often outspoken settler who wrote in his •‘Letters from Canterbury, 1852-53,” of disappointing conditions in the bare and dusty Christchurch, and of the non-existent Cathedral . . . “my bull is tethered in the nave.” In 1855 Rose and Spencer divided their section. Rose retaining 200 acres bordering the Heathcote. About the turn of the century a fragment of Rose’s land just over seven acres was sold to Albert

Hulston for £631 2s 6d. Elizabeth Phelps bought it from him for £BO5, and for that sum she eventually sold it to Alfred Thomas Smart — the man who planted the garden which is now the Ashgrove Reserve. Shingle pits The Smart family had run shingle pits from the 1860 s. The house in which the Smart family lived was built of red pine by Robert Lister in 1906. An early photograph shows a pleasant rural scene of draught horses and tip drays drawn up before ponds, behind them the house with its tankstand and a backdrop of growing trees. Fringing it on the north were later some of the Smart shingle pits. Alfred Thomas Smart began planting his bush. After his retirement at 45 it became an absorbing hobby for him. Petrified wood He gathered seedlings himself from the West Coast and Mt. Grey and he bought truckloads of ferns from the Toplass family in Aitkens. He established an efficient watering system. A ram pump allowed water to flow naturally from one pond to another within the bush. Interested in curiosities as well as plants, Smart

collected petrified wood at Whiterock and lined the paths with this and with shells. A vegetable sheep was growing on the property, and there were mountain daisies too. Thomas Smart’s son, Mr L. S. Smart, lived on the property for some years with his wife and family. A faithful pair of native pigeons are remembered to have returned to nest each year. Kingfishers were interested in the ponds which were teeming with fish. Whenever the lakes in Hagley Park were cleaned the fish were brought to the Smart’s ponds. When the property was sold 5000 goldfish were a separate item. In 1947 the garden was sold to Professor Ivan Sutherland who bought Lots 7 and 8 of Rural Section No. 76 — about 8| acres. At that time photographs show a luxuriant growth of ferns and creepers in the garden and a much greater leafiness than is evident today. The Sutherland estate came up for sale in 1963, and the bush was for the first time in danger of being destroyed. Campaign begun With time running out, and many people unaware of what was going on, a campaign was begun by a Christchurch City Coun-

cillor, Mr P. J. Skellerup, to save the bush. Mr Skellerup was chairman of the Reserves Committee. The sum of £6OOO was needed for the Sutherland property. Mr Skellerup secured an option on the land for two weeks, and offered to give £5OO towards the price if 11 others would do the same. Mrs Sutherland had already, lowered the pricq by £lOOO provided the bush was bought for the city. Today the 3 roods and 21 perches would be worth perhaps $75,000. Bulldozers were due to move into the bush during the first week of December. Immediately following the appeal donations and letters began to arrive. By November 30, the fund had reached £2746. An offer came from the Lands and Survey Department to recommend that £lOOO from the sale of revoked reserves be made available. On December 3, a Golden Kiwi Lottery grant of £3OOO was announced, and the purchase of the bush was assured. The purchase was conditional on the City Council accepting responsiblity for the area under the Reserves and Domains Act. The bush was tidied, and plantings were made of shrubs merging into the trees from lawns. The old house was demolished. A rock was placed at the entrance with a bronze plaque.

From the botanical point of view the Ashgrove Reserve is a mixed podocarphardwood forest on a minute scale. It represents the

two great groups of trees, conifers or softwoods, flowering trees or hardwoods.

The vegetation of the reserve consists of mostly indigenous • trees, shrubs, lianes or creepers, and ground cover plants of local origin together with introductions from the West Coast and elsewhere. Some regeneration is evident and encouraging, as is the lack of weeds. Some exotics Noticeable exotic introductions include camellias near the gate, tree lucerne, the umbrella-like Melanoselinum from Madeira, Ajuga, and the Wandering Jew. The podocarps are represented by the kauri, totara, rimu and kahikatea. The hardwoods include titoki, rewarewa, ngaio, tarata, kohuhu, karo, manatu or lowland ribbonwood — one of our few deciduous trees — the Clinker beech and Solander’s or black beech, and the juvenile form of the kaikomako, and the broadleaf, kapuka. Of the shrubs, the for-ever-and-ever tree, or ake ake is familiar. The reserve has makomako and i olearias. and coprosmas,■ taupata — the mirror bush! — mahoe or cow-leaf, the! five-finger or hou hou,! lancewood or horoeka, the, ramarama, and several! species of cabbage tree. There is - flax, or hara-l keke, the renga lily, tarangahape with seeds sug-’ gestive of the honesty! plant, and one type of as-j telia. Several species of kow-j hai are growing and many

of Hebe; one Senecio is abundant.

Ferns noticed recently include the wheki; the widespread hard tree fem; the ponga, or silver tree fern; kiokio, the hardy little red-tinted fern of streams and cuttings; the shiny Asplenium, huruhuru; the hound’s tongue fern; and the prickly shield fem, or tutoke. Creepers or lianes are thinly represented by the New Zealand passion flower, or kohia; the smallflowered clematis; pohuehue; and Maori jasmine. The bush today is in need of continuing care. Particularly it appears to need water. Thomas Smart’s pools and miniature streams have largely dried.