Tag Archives: gardening on a flat section

Shirley in her garden

I remembered the adage that old gardeners never die, they just turn into compost. All I could think was ‘not with our modern burial techniques, they don’t, especially if they have been embalmed’ and I wondered if my memory was correct. I typed in ‘old gardeners never die’ and Google gave me several variations.

‘Old gardeners never die, they just run out of thyme’ – a bit twee or naff, I thought.

‘Old gardeners never die. They just spade away and then throw in the trowel.’ This seemed a bit wittier.

‘Old gardeners never die; they just very slowly turn into the most magnificent compost. But what a marvellous, active brew it is!’ That is the full quote I was thinking of.

Mark says he thought old gardeners never die, they just turn into garden gnomes. This is a family joke because, as his father became older and older, he did indeed start to remind us of a gnome. As we grow older, I have reflected more on how we made it possible for Felix to stay in his home and garden until he shuffled off the mortal coils well into his 80s.

We do not see a Ryman Healthcare Village beckoning to us in our future, even though I see many advertisements targeting our demographic with what are meant to be enticing visions of a care-free ‘village’ lifestyle with folks of a similar age bracket. Not too many of them look like gardeners to me.

How to manage a completely flat area surrounded by neighbour’s fences and to give an illusion of space and distance. On the left is a bold planting of simply splendid red astelias by the house.
I need to ask Shirley which red astelia her magnificent four plants are. Mark and his father spent years working on breeding red astelias – one of our native plants – and, despite all their efforts, Shirley’s plants are better and more of a statement than any we have growing here.

No, if I am lucky enough to live long, I want to be like Stratford gardener, Shirley Greenhill. I called in to see Shirley and her garden during the garden festival yesterday and she is indomitable. Shirley has been a stalwart of the Taranaki garden scene for more decades than many of us can remember. Her previous large garden is still cited as being particularly lovely, cool climate gardening on varied terrain managed with skill and charm. As an ageing widow, she reluctantly decided to move to something more sensible, more manageable, on a town section that has largely flat terrain with an easy-care modern home.

A river of rhodohypoxis is no mean feat to keep going. I should have asked what takes over from the rhodohypoxis in this area after they have peaked, because I am sure there will be something.

Shirley set about turning this ‘sensible choice’ into her own and she has certainly not taken the low maintenance option to her retirement garden. She loves plants and she loves gardening, even though she has had to scale down to a much smaller area. It is not that small though, by retirement standards. She has a lifetime of experience in active gardening and she loves many different plants and a high level of interest in her garden. I imagine there is something of interest to look at in every week of the year. If I lived a little closer, I would ask to visit to see and track it through the seasons.

Making use of every piece of available space with just a pocket handkerchief of lawn remaining
It is not the best coloured wisteria I have seen, being neither blue nor white, but it is a very good example of managing to keep one of the word’s more rampant plants confined to a small space and still keep it flowering abundantly.

I didn’t want to embarrass Shirley by asking to photograph her but there is a charming clip of her on prime time TV show, Seven Sharp, from October 26. It is available online  here for another 20 days  and she features from 17.10 minutes on.   If I reach the age of 88 and am still active, effervescent, and clearly in full possession of all my mental faculties, I will feel blessed indeed. What a role model for those of us who are now entering that stage of being aware that we have more years behind us than we have ahead.

No space for lawn but the considered placement of clipped shrubs and some moderately bold choices of larger trees and shrubs gives presence to the low underplantings of assorted treasures.

I bought the very last copy of her self-published book, “I am in the garden” – a charming memoir which I felt deserved a place in our bookcase. Shirley tells me she is working on a second book in a similar vein because she just loves writing. My latest visit to her garden is a memory that I want to hold on to.

Shirley’s outdoor dining set amused me because it is a clear example of what so many of us have found in this climate of regular rainfall and high humidity – if you leave your furniture outside all year round, the lichen takes over. I always console myself with the thought that lichen growth is apparently a sign of good air quality.