Jottings
OTAHUNA LODGE, NEW ZEALAND
Trust me: you haven’t done beautiful until you’ve seen
Otahuna Lodge lies in its own valley, some 20 minutes from
When Hall and Miles purchased Otahuna they inherited several original, charming buildings. Among them is the apple store, sunk into the ground to ensure a year-round even temperature, and again protecting a harvest of early and late apples, among them Braeburn, Red Delicious, Granny Smith and Gravenstein. In the orchard an ancient mulberry thrives, along with peach, apricot, fig, pear, quince, and hazelnuts, walnuts and almonds. The melon house – a must in every important Victorian garden – is restored and will soon host its first crop of melons.
The vegetable garden is divided into four squares, each of which is broken again into four, both for crop rotation and for ease of access and maintenance. Height is provided by a central pergola built from a pine cut from the property and by a tall wooden obelisk at the centre of each quarter; they support peas and beans, planted in early winter for spring harvest.
Asparagus plantings, now in their third year, are mature enough to harvest. “Mounding is good if you want straight and white,” advises head gardener, Steve Marchan. “And mound [soil around] potatoes; otherwise the potatoes will appear on ground and the light will turn them green and poisonous.”
Enough garlic to last a year is sown annually: harvested on the longest day of the year it dries on the ground before being tied and hung in kitchen, the largest cloves reserved for replanting. Onions are also pulled and laid out to dry over a few days. “And if you lift them too early they have a soft top and don’t store well,” says Marchan. “You have to know your onions.”
Borage, to attract the bees essential for pollination, is planted between garlic and rows of the strawberry ‘Sunday Delight’, and herbs edge the beds.
Nearby, in the woodland, the acid soil hosts a collection of rhododendron, now flourishing after extensive tree surgery. Mature beech, giant redwoods, and maples shade new plantings of
Paths, softened with fallen oak leaves and edged with periwinkle (Vinca major), which acts as a fire retardant, lead to a series of glades. There, a selection among the 130 ferns that are native to
An important part of the landscape design is the formal Dutch garden, which was completely overgrown in 2006. Hedges are now clipped and a parterre houses important trees, including a massive strawberry tree (Arbutus menziesii), its red trunk glowing in the sunset.
In early spring hundreds of thousands of daffodils bloom in the grass that rolls out from the Queen Anne house: ancient oaks, beneath which porcini fungi flourish, stand guard.
Lush paddocks dotted with fat sheep are the mediating space between the manicured gardens, the parkland and a backdrop of heather-covered, craggy mountains, popular for hiking and riding. And,
Phone Otahuna Lodge on +64 3 329 6333 or email enquiries@otahuna.co.nz. Visit www.otahuna.co.nz
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I feel sure that gardening is an activity that will never fall from grace, no matter how difficult climate change, drought, water restrictions, changing lifestyles and economic turmoil may make it, because gardening, the purest and simplest of the great pleasures, brings some clarity to the meaning of life.
I'm delighted to tell you that the recent garden day to Mount Wilson, arranged by The Cranbrook Gardeners, made a profit of some $5,000.00. The money has contributed to a marvellous sculpture that is to be erected in a memorial park in Strathewen, a tiny town in the shadow of
Known as The Tree Project, the sculpture, of a eucalypt, is an initiative of The Australian Blacksmith’s Association (Victoria). “We chose a eucalypt because people love them; they're a symbol of
The trunk and main branches of the tree will be created, in
BUY A ROSE!
You can assist the life-saving work of the Australian obstetrician, Dr Catherine Hamlin, AC, and help celebrate the fiftieth year Golden Jubilee of her (May 1959) arrival in
Catherine Hamlin and her late husband, Dr Reg Hamlin, arrived in
The
Dr Hamlin is 84 years of age, but has no plans to retire. She has been awarded
In her book, The Hospital by the River, Catherine Hamlin writes movingly of a typical young woman: “Most likely she spends the rest of her life in misery. But occasionally her story ends with joy: somehow she hears about the hospital. Somehow she begs the fare or persuades a relative to take her on the long, frightening journey to the unimaginable confusion of the capital. The hospital is quiet and clean, set amongst flowers. People treat her with kindness. ….and the miracle she had hardly dared to believe in happens. After a time she returns home, cured, to begin life anew…..”
Over the last few years the Hospital has established four regional outreach fistula centres and a midwifery training college so that more rural women can have access to treatment and medically assisted childbirth.
Dr Hamlin places great importance on the hospital’s beautiful
Many of us know that when the tragedy of the loss of a baby befalls one in this country, one is surrounded by a loving and supportive family, along with the very best of counselling and medical care. How different for these poor women – often very young teenage brides - in
For further information and media assistance:
Holly Kerr Forsyth: 0411 88 77 48, or holly@hollyforsyth.com.au see also www.fistulatrust.org