A Kāpiti Perennial Garden
— Waikanae, Kāpiti
Set on a rolling site on the outskirts of Waikanae, one hour north of Wellington, this garden enwraps the living spaces with colour and seasonality. Rustic in-situ concrete walls help to frame the garden with pathways which lead the eye out to views of the wider landscape.
Inspired by the perennial gardens of Piet Oldolf and others of the New Perennial Movement, the garden integrates a complex variety of vibrant and exuberant plants for waves of colour and texture through the seasons. Colours are composed to provide rich corners of colour to capture the gaze with cool tones allowing the eyes to wander further out.
Ensuring the garden holds through the seasons and to give it a sense of place here in Aotearoa a framework of native plants lie underneath revealing themselves in the winter months as a soft, hazy and textural base layer. Without the snows these perennial gardens are associated with this winter form is a crucial element of the design.
Only months after the initial planting the garden was a riot of colour, but in the next two summers to come this garden will fully come into its own.
Key Plants
Astelia chathamica, Carex 'Frosted Curls', Chionochloa conspicua, Chionochloa flavicans, Chionochloa rubra, Muehlenbekia astonii, Achillea 'Salmon Beauty', Alchemilla mollis, Geum 'Princess Juliana', Echinacea 'Primadonna White', Geranium himalayense, Helenium 'Moerheim Beauty', Monarda 'Jacob Cline', Perovskia atriplicifolia, Salvia nemorosa 'Violet Queen',
Date
November 2020
Location
Waikanae, Kāpiti
Construction
Otaihanga Landscaping
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