Down to Earth with Tony Murrell |
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Tony Murrell does not hesitate to stop and chat to strangers at garden centres about the plants they have selected. “There are so many spectacular things you can buy but unless you’ve chosen a plant which will thrive on your site then you’re setting yourself up for heartbreak,” he says firmly.
“People can become passionate about creating a unique garden but spending $600 on a kentia palm when it hasn’t a hope of surviving in your backyard is not the best introduction to the joys of gardening.” |
Tony is used to engaging with the New Zealand public. As well as working as a landscape designer, he presents NZ House & Garden (Fridays on TV ONE) and has a weekend spot on Radio Live, which allow him to dish out wheelbarrow loads of advice to a wide audience.
He says that for him the key to good garden design is to keep it simple and make the whole process a fun experience.
“I’m a great believer in lots of sound practical advice. Gardens take time to mature and are intended to last for years so you want to get the basic structure right. I love combining plants with dramatic form, bringing them together as a group to highlight distinct characteristics. It’s a bit like putting together a display in a shop – you’ve got to showcase particular features and focal points and inject lots of personality.”
Tony had a passion for pot plants as a youngster and learnt his trade through a traditional horticultural apprenticeship in which he was exposed to everything from growing orchids to the intricacies of lawn care. He also became a dab hand at various kinds of plant propagation, which is still a bonus. “People are always giving me cuttings to grow. It’s wonderful.”
These days he lives in a loft where his balcony hosts “three of everything in pots, from topiary to palms”. Still, he doesn’t really need a garden as he’s already got hundreds he has worked on over the years that he considers his own.“If you get me to design a garden, you need to be prepared for me to ring you and say, ‘That hedge really needs a trim’, or ‘Your garden needs a good feed’,” he says laughing. “Gardens are ongoing experiences.”
And his mother has got used to arriving home to find an area of lawn has been turned into a garden, courtesy of her son.
Tony loves gardens that embrace seasonal change and colour and for him fragrance is vital. “It totally transforms the feeling of walking into a garden. I’ve just finished a tropical garden and I’ve filled it with plants that pack a great wallop of perfume.”
Tony says there’s no such thing as a low-maintenance garden. “Clients sometimes get totally surprised by how much gardens grow and change. That’s why gardening makes us feel so good, because it’s all about the rewards of nurture and care.
“There are ways to cut back on tasks, like planting in raised beds and using lots of groundcovers but gardens are a living thing so there’s always going to be some maintenance involved. And it’s easy enough these days to hire people to do regular clean-up tasks.”
Tony has been busy travelling round the country meeting keen gardeners for the NZ House & Garden television show. “It’s such a privilege to be invited into people’s gardens. I’ve travelled to all sorts of places I’ve never been before, and there are so many creative people with lots of ideas. Most people want to have a patch of ground that reflects their personalities. It’s giving them the ideas and skills to get them started that’s the fun of it all.”
Story: Sarah Beresford
Issue: August 2006
Photographs: Sally Tagg
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