Light and shade

Hosts: Marion Rhodes and Bill Blain

Address: 378 Greta Rd., Great Valley

Directions: Heading north on SH 1, pull over at Elliot’s Road to let following traffic pass.

Continue for 1km, up a gentle rise and down through a cutting.

Our driveway is on the right, clearly signposted, immediately at the bottom of the cutting.

Please take care when turning into the driveway on approach from the south.

Driveway will be well signposted.

Part garden and part restoration, this is a project that began 20 years ago to beautify a weed-infested gully. It inevitably expanded to include surrounding areas, and started a love affair with our beautiful New Zealand flora.

In this garden native plants are celebrated for their unique tortured forms, their subtle colours and their amazing texture. The dramatic forms are accentuated by thoughtfully placed sculptures and gates created by Raymond Herber of Iron Ridge Quarry.

The garden’s terrain forms a natural amphitheatre around the workshop, and here the garden is more structured, with beautifully clipped and maintained plant forms. Further out, the garden grows wilder - our terrain adds drama and a sense of journey. Well-crafted steps wend their way down into a cool gully and back up to a sunlit orchard and play hut.

Despite rabbits, drought, frosts and landslides, and a distinct lack of ‘moist, free-draining soil’, we continue to learn what works here, and the garden develops more character each year.

We showcase over 200 native species and varieties, including some rare and threatened plants. Many of the plants have been grown from seed or cuttings in our own nursery.

This is a garden with topography, so expect lots of steps & wear sensible shoes. But there is plenty to enjoy in the flat area around the workshop, and plenty of seating as well.