46 WW
Newcomers to the 2020 tour and to opening to the public, David and Gregg’s garden, 46 WW, offers the chance to see innovative design that seamlessly connects their house and garden.
46 William Wong Place
CARTERTON
Eight years ago, at 46 William Wong Place you would have found an agricultural engineering workshop with no garden. David and Gregg demolished the old building to build a passive house – ‘the shed’ and began the slow process of re-conditioning the soil.
Occupying around 1000 square metres, and bounded on three sides by neighbours the challenges were plenty. To create shelter and privacy, they shielded the garden from the street with a full size shipping container creating a wall to the street and the handy bonus of storage.
Inside the property, you’ll find Gregg’s potted structural dry loving plants; jades and alloes in enormous pots. These are his domain, as is the collection near the house entrance.
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David’s love of perennials is evident along the north-east boundary, where under a host of esplaliered fruit trees, you’ll find self-seeding anemones, poppies, Canterbuy Bells, heuchera (Coral Bells), red geum, salvias, gazanias and cornflowers – additions for the 2020 garden tour will include orange cosmos and nigella. David’s future vision for this garden bed is a colouful meandering mass that will eventually look after itself.
The overall design belongs to the owners’ shared vision. Having moved from Wellington (where eating outside can be a rare treat), David and Gregg wanted shelter, shade and light to allow dining outdoors in Wairarapa’s more hospitable climate. The ‘jetty’ leads from the house to an outside entertaining area – shaded in summer by a canopy of grapes.
Productive trees include lemons, limes, mulberries, figs, and cherries. Silk trees for shade and feathery beauty teamed with structural conical cypress plantings along the western boundary; a native stand of manuka and lancewoods, underplanted with hardy Oi Oi grasses show diversity of plantings to suit the conditions of a compact urban space.
An ideal garden to visit for design inspiration.
GALLERY
