A Doctors Point garden has been turned from broom, gorse and pine trees into a five-star property, planted with 1400 species from all over the world.
The 5000sqm garden has been a labour of love for Dylan Norfield, who is much more than your average weekend green thumb.
His property has just been named by the NZ Gardens Trust as a five-star garden. It can be viewed by private appointment.
The garden was inspected by two assessors who viewed it as worthy of the five stars.
It was a mighty turnaround for a property which resembled a "complete wilderness" when he first viewed the site.
"It was completely overgrown. It is actually the site where one of the first doctors, Dr Dickie, lived. I was going to do up his house and live in it but it was covered in borer.
"But I could see the potential of the site."
"The vision I had was to have so many collections of unusual plants, the preservation of so many species. Grow them and give them to someone else.
"The plants have come from all over the world. And they have thrived. One reason why I chose the location, why I liked it, is because it’s pretty protected from all but those northwesterly winds. It’s a good little microclimate.
"I could get away with growing a lot of things that I couldn’t in more exposed sites."
He had plants from all over the globe — China, Europe, Africa, even Macquarie Island.
He had tried to make the garden as low maintenance as possible. Maples were a favourite with about 80 species of the plant throughout the property.
The rimu tree was his favourite native.
He had another property in Naseby which was the home for plants which could survive a continental climate.
He did a lot of pruning, as gardeners did, but left the mulch to sink into the ground and enrich it.
"Every one of the initial trees, what I did is I dug a hole, put the possum in and planted a tree on top of the possum. They fed all my trees to start with."
Mr Norfield had a degree in biological science ecology and ran a nursery in Britain for 10 years, winning Chelsea Flower Show medals and honours from the Royal Horticultural Society.
But business got too busy and he and his wife Jo came for a holiday to New Zealand 20 years ago, instantly loved Dunedin and never went back.
He is the collections supervisor at the Dunedin Botanic Garden — a dream job, he said.
But for all his planting and his efforts someone has to do the most basic of gardening tasks — mow the lawns.
"It takes about three to four hours just to cut the lawn. This time of year, there’s a lot of time spent just cutting the lawn because I’ve planted so many plants."
