Your Garden at it’s Best: The Inside Secrets to Showcasing a Garden

December 2022

Sharing our home garden in the Tauranga Garden and Art Festivals has been truly rewarding. Our garden design, seen through visitors’ fresh eyes, sparks new appreciation. We fall in love with our garden and landscape design all over again. Inspiration fires, I dream more wonderful ideas to delight the eye (and wear out my gardening husband) and tuck them away for future days. If you have a beautiful garden (or aspire to one), I encourage you to share it.

So what are the inside secrets you could use to maximise your gardens potential?

Timing

Choose the best time. Ideally your garden landscape needs to have maturity, but before areas may have outgrown themselves. Use those peak years to show it off.

Plan well ahead. Gardeners involved in a biannual event can sometimes begin two years prior, making little changes and ensuring those “things I have been meaning to do” get done. Although I initially rebel against the rigidity of a spread sheet, it is invaluable in the months leading up to an opening.  Finishing early tasks that can be completed ahead of the spring demands keeps everyone calm at our place. It is also useful in planting annuals and vegetable seedlings to peak during show time.

Plants should look their best

In the early autumn prior to the spring festival, prune, feed extensively and repot planters for optimum growth and health. We use Tui Seaweed tonics in spray and solution form, sheep pellets and compost. If you have persevered with a sick plant that has not responded perhaps remind yourself ‘your garden is not a hospital’ and say goodbye. In early spring, feed again and keep an early and regular vigil on pests to avoid slugs tearing holes in your hostas and aphids sucking the life from your citrus, especially if the weather is unseasonably warm towards the end of winter. A garden wander checking every 3 to 4 days can be invaluable. Also keep a vigil on the weather. Be ahead of the spring winds and stake your treasures so they will still be standing for a stunning display.

Your house is part of your garden

Your garden is on show, but so is your house. Here is your incentive for maintenance jobs you have been avoiding. (I could ignore the rip in our canvas awning no longer.) Clean your house exterior of the ravages of winter and touch up paint. A loved house with sparkling windows compliments the garden. Clean down decking and paving areas and ensure grout lines are maintained to minimize trip hazards for everyone’s peace of mind.

Trimming

Find the optimum time to trim your hedges and topiaries to look their smartest. We trim the obvious hedge planes by hand to reduce leaf burn from electric cutters. It is more time consuming, but worthwhile for a structured garden design so reliant on these features.

Mulching

Be weed free and let mulch be your friend. Especially in the vegetable garden we spread a layer of Tui organic compost. It feeds, suppresses weeds and gives the surface a dark healthy glow! A wonderful contrast to the lush green of the vegetable seedlings above. Label young seedlings too. Visitors enjoy knowing what is emerging from the ground.

Indoor and outdoor spaces

If your garden is close to the house, consider opening doors. Embrace the transition between outdoor and indoor. The garden will be more alive because of it. Yes, some people are inquisitive about interiors, I am! But I have found they are respectful. Outdoor seating areas should be inviting with cushions, umbrellas, pots even a watering can. Some guests enjoy sitting and taking in the same garden vistas you do.

Ditch the ugly

Wander your garden with fresh eyes and get rid of the unsightly. I am not a fan of barbeques, washing lines and portable gas bottles. They are distractions to beauty. All of ours are mobile enough to store in the garage and our garden looks the better for it. We also clear our cars from the driveway.

Extras at hand

Have on hand some extra pots of greenery. If there is an obvious gap or something dies unexpectedly those standbys can prove invaluable to fill a last-minute hole in the garden design. Also on standby for the opening days, have helpers to ease the load. An experience shared is always more fun.

The finale

Finally, the leaf sucker is key on the morning before an opening. After, the garden landscape looks more manicured tidy and ready. A bit like brushing your hair! You and the garden are finally poised to welcome visitors. Time to relax, chat and be charmed by your garden now at its most stunning!

– Bernice Wright