We are a large garden in North Canterbury, New Zealand.
Size: 4600 m2, which is over an acre.
Soil: mostly very free draining sandy loam. We have heavy clay along the creek which we mulch heavily and do not dig.
Do we Irrigate?
Most of our garden is ‘summer dry’, or rain watered. Every year we try to increase the number of summer dry beds, and reduce the number of beds which require irrigation. This is a real challenge as North Canterbury summers get longer, hotter and drier.
Our productive and shade gardens do require summer irrigation. We have no fixed irrigation but we drag hoses.
Amberley has a classic ‘Mediterranean’ climate with high sunshine hours, frequent days above 35 degrees in summer, and frosts in winter.
Average rainfall is 650 mm, although we have been as high as 950, and as low as 350mm, with regular summer dry for 3 months of the year. Most of our rain falls in winter.
How old is the Garden?
We bought the land in 2013 as a bare paddock and we began the garden before we designed the house.
What about the House?
The house is a wooden weatherboard airtight home with Intello building wrap, passive heating and cooling, extra insulation and 100% wooden joinery.
Initially we gardened in the traditional way, hand turning the soil, working in mountains of compost, watering, fertilizing and staking.
This lead to a traditional lush garden, which could not cope with our high winds especially the spring nor’westers.
What led to the change gardening style?
To be honest I was worn out with the constant deadheading, chopping and staking, and could only see the problem getting worse as the garden grew.
So I went on a journey to try to save my love of gardening, and cut down on the work.
I began this research in 2018, and I have learnt more in the last 5 years, than in all my previous 40 years of gardening.
My garden practice has completely changed, my sanity improved, and my love of gardening is intact.
Read in more detail about the unique solutions I found in
Media Links:
Kiwigardener April 2024 ‘From Bare to Beautiful’ by Gillian Vine.
NZ House and Garden Magazine September 2021: Blue House Amberley
Gardens to Visit NZ: Blue House Amberley
Stuff Article about Blue House
Latitude Magazine: Bringing Balance to the Land
Go Gardening Magazine: The evolution of a gardener
Late Bloomer article on the Hurunui Garden Festival.