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| Kieran and Dorothy Hurring have established a productive garden on their steep but sheltered section. |
Dunedin has many secret gardens, tucked away down
driveways or private roads. Charmian Smith visits one created
by a couple in their 70s.
Down one of the private roads off Mornington Rd is a hidden
valley, blooming with the work of 75-year old Kieran Hurring.
Only two years ago it was a wilderness where the Hurrings
kept a few sheep.
Before that it had provided an untamed playground for their
eight children.
Kieran and his wife Dorothy built a house on a neighbouring
section in 1958, and bit by bit bought up adjoining empty
sections.
Some had been sold in the United Kingdom when the land was
subdivided but was abandoned when the owners saw the
steepness, he said.
A solicitor who was tidying up an estate offered them the
first adjoining quarter-acre for 40, and a mortgage if they
needed it, he said.
Eventually they ended up with 1 acres additional to their
original acre, and two of their children built houses on it.
Two years ago the Hurrings built their own new house, which
is more suitable for Dorothy, who is developing Parkinsons.
They sold their original house and Kieran, a former salesman,
began to establish a garden on the steep section in the
sheltered valley.
He dug out the large stones and used them to build small
retaining walls for the beds and paths, and to line an open
stormwater drain running through the property, which turns
into a creek when it rains.
Grass clippings, wood shavings and sand helped condition the
clay soil, and all the plants were either given to them or
propagated by them in a shed built out of old windows, he
said.
He proudly shows a bucket of rose cuttings, all of which have
taken.
They are in his own mix of soil, grass clippings and horse
manure, he says.
The Hurrings are members of several gardening groups.
When you are given plants you don't always know what they
are, but you don't need to identify a plant to grow it, he
says.
A beech tree turned out to be a black beech; one of the
hydrangeas turned out to have unusual oak leaf-shaped leaves;
various species of lilies and types of dahlias add colour to
the beds at this time of year.
Trees are scattered around the lawns - among them a silver
birch, a golden totara, an ash tree that drops its branches
and is for the chainsaw soon, and fruit trees - a Peasgood
Nonsuch apple for both eating and cooking, peach and plum
trees, and a walnut tree that grew from a walnut.
Several beds of vegetables provide food for the whole family
and for giving away to those who are sick, or to Ings
rest-home.
Kieran's secret to growing plants is to feed them.
He puts horse manure in a 44-gallon drum with water and stirs
it to make liquid manure.
He also recommends cow manure and seaweed.
Go to Aramoana in late autumn after a good wind to find acres
of seaweed washed up on the beach and rocks, he says.
Kieran would like to encourage people to establish their own
gardens.
You don't need expensive equipment - he mainly uses a spade,
a fork, a rake and a push-pull hoe.
If he can do it at his age, anyone can, he says.
• Photos by Gerard O'Brien; prints available from otagoimages.co.nz.
