Spacious town garden in city south

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 11

Spacious town garden in city south

Thelma Strongman

People and their gardens

Carole and Jim Anderton find their big, informal garden in Spreydon ideally suited to their lifestyle.

Carole Anderton’s lifetime absorption with plants and gardens probably began with the bouquets of cut flowers her grandmother grew and which Carole carried to school with great pride. Years later, she owned and managed nurseries in the North Island, especially enjoying the combination of contact between nature and people.

Now one of Carole’s special aims is to help foster in others an interest in plants and gardens which she feels is so beneficial for people. Working in her own garden, Carole particularly enjoys the solitude and contact with the soil which she finds a great antidote to the pressures of a busy life.

When the Andertons came to Christchurch more than five years ago, they were delighted to find a house with a large garden tucked in amongst the heart of Jim Anderton’s Sydenham electorate. The house was of less

importance to her, but the garden, planted round the edges with willows, gums, and photinias gave her scope to design the stimulating yet restful place she and the family wanted.

Carole Anderton’s gardening philosophy is essentially a practical one. She believes that a garden should be beautiful, unpretentious, and relaxed. It should also reflect the real lifestyle of the person to whom it belongs. If, among the flowers and vegetables, the garden owner also gets a sense of satisfaction from seeing washing blowing in the wind, then the garden should contain a washing line. Her own garden, with its extensive lawn, reflects the fun of family cricket and the need for plenty of space for entertaining.

Part of Carole’s practical attitude to garden design also includes the provision of sentiment in the garden. It is the odd, small, treasured plant, garden ornament, or urn the family and friends

have given which gives additional warmth to her garden.

Carole’s personal gardening interests revolve around the pleasure of raising plants. Surplus plants are potted up and given to charities for sale, or simply given away to friends. Contact with living plants is entirely necessary to her.

She has no real favourites, except, when pressed, she will admit to a weakness for Japanese maples, enjoying particularly their fresh opening colours and the beautiful patterns of their fretted leaves.

She also finds the pink leaves of the cedrela beautiful, recalling the unforgettable sight of these massed plants in an Auckland park. Growing these and other sub-tropi-cal plants in Christchurch is a challenge she especially enjoys. These are mostly grown in pots, and include frost tender ferns and palms grown under cover.

Carole’s other notable challenge is developing areas of garden under trees. She finds that regular watering is essential in this situation, with the addition of sheep manure and humus.

One of her favourite areas of the garden lies beneath a willow tree, professionally pruned every two years to restrict its growth and maintain as much of its natural shape as possible.

Not far away, backed by a large elm tree, is a Robinia pseudoacacia frisia aurea, its beautiful pinnate leaves remaining

a delicate greenish-yellow in the shade of the elm. Two beautiful shade plants here are Hydrangea paniculata and a mass of purple honesty with variegated white and greyish leaves. Jim Anderton enjoys looking after the many roses in the garden, and cutting the lawns. In one area he has established a number of fruit trees underplanted with cabbages. . Nearby, under the canopy of one of the remaining gum trees, is a neat potting shed which also doubles as a shade house for ferns.

Carole’s favourite area of the garden is the planting in front of the pergola which she and her Son-in-law made. This planting is gathered around a small ornamental pond and consists of dwarf rhododenrons,. maples, and small herbaceous plants together with peonies and lilies.

The Anderton’s garden in Spreydon is an important part of their lives. It is an essential place to which members of the family return to recharge their energy and imagination. It is also a place where they can entertain their friends.

Jim Anderton enjoys looking at the roses, and cutting the lawns.