An overgrown Outram section with heaps of rubbish has been transformed into a delightful garden, as Gillian Vine discovers.
Trish Brenssell says she was very ignorant when she began gardening in Outram more than 25 years ago and recalls the horrified look she got when she showed her mother the lovely plant growing at her new home.
"It was oxalis, that noxious weed one, and getting rid of it was a nightmare," Mrs Brenssell said.
When she and her husband, Ken, bought the property, the small section was crowded with conifers, silver birches and a massive walnut.
A rubbish pit had been dug beside the walnut and more refuse was piled alongside it.
At the back of the garden was a gorse hedge.
The couple removed the hedge and the trees, including the walnut, which was badly damaged and potentially dangerous, and began planting.
"The garden's sort of evolved," she said.
"We had the cottage garden and did try the red hot pokers alternating with toetoe but, fortunately, they died.
"I had a lot of roses to start with but as I was working full-time, I took them out except for those I kept for sentimental reasons, or ones that have been given to me.
I'm now putting in more permanent things."
There is still something of a cottage-garden effect but Mrs Brenssell's criticism of her original cottage garden was that it had masses of colour at its peak and nothing in winter.
She now looks for plants with interesting colour and texture - for example, olives that screen a shed; Chatham Island forget-me-nots (Myosotidium hortensia) for their big, shiny leaves; and camellias that do double duty as a windbreak - to maintain a good look year-round.
Outram has a reputation for good soil but the Brenssells found theirs to be very poor and silty - "It dries out very, very quickly in summer so vast quantities of manure and compost have been used to build up fertility.
"We do get a lot of wind here, too, but by trial and error we've planted things that cope with that."
Old farm gates and fence posts, and dozens of rocks, have been worked into the garden design.
"I collect rocks.
I just can't resist them," Mrs Brenssell said.
She also has an eye for an unusual plant, often bought during the Outram Garden Club's annual bus tours.
One such is a variegated Norway maple (Acer platanoides 'Drummondii'), bought from a Geraldine nursery and very happy in Outram.
There is plenty of colour in the garden now but it may be a different story in a week's time, when she picks flowers to enter in the annual Outram Flower Show.
"My late mother was a fantastic gardener with amazing green fingers.
She always won prizes at the Outram Flower Show and even won the supreme award.
My son also used to enter, so three generations [have supported it]," Mrs Brenssell said.
Unlike her mother, she does not grow especially to show.
"I come home from work, tear around the garden with the secateurs and it's surprising how much I find to show.
I've even surprised myself by getting some prize cards sometimes."
She urges people to have a go at showing.
"People are reluctant to enter because they think they have to have the best but it's not really like that."
Be there
The Outram Flower Show is being held at the Outram Church Hall, Holyhead St, Outram, next Friday, February 19. The show is open to the public from 2pm until 7pm and admission is $1. Afternoon tea costs $2 and there will be a market table. Artwork by local schoolchildren will be on display.
Anyone can enter the show. Simply take along your flowers and/or vegetables on Thursday, February 18, between 7pm and 9pm, or on Friday, February 19, between 8am and 10am. Entry is $1 per exhibitor, regardless of how many classes are entered. Schedules are available from Mitchells Family Food Centre, in Outram, but if you do not have one, show officials will tell you which classes to enter.
