Finger on the pulse |
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Every day, Patricia Hosking, or Trish as she’s usually known, dons practical outdoor attire and goes to work on her 48-hectare farmlet at Ngongotaha, near Rotorua. It’s a far cry from her former life in which she trained as a nurse, did a master’s degree specialising in epilepsy and went on to an interesting and varied career that included working for years in a big London hospital – “a fantastic experience”.
These days she looks after a small herd of breeding cows and tends a spectacular garden. A friend recently asked her if she was a farmer or a gardener. “I went from being a specialist nurse to a specialist gardener and now I am a farmer feeding the world. But this is not a proper farm. It’s barely economic.” Breeding cows is the least economic type of farming, she adds.
Agriculture is in the blood though. Trish grew up on a farm near Hamilton – a tremendous advantage, she says. “I was feeding calves when I was only five years old.”
Despite her years of working in people-oriented environments, Trish is very much at home with her animals. When she leans over a gate at the bottom of her garden and calls to her Angus cows, they lift their heads and move in her direction, sleek black calves at heel. “I was given a dog but it wasn’t interested in working cattle. Now the cows come when I call them,” says Trish, laughing.
In front of the house she maintains an expansive lawn with mixed borders of shrubs and perennials around the perimeter. As well as the more common trees that shelter the garden there is an abundance of Japanese maples, a massive gnarled banksia (B. serrulata) and a shadbush limbed up to make a small tree.
Beyond the lawn a rock garden lies in the shelter of a low rise in the ground level and another sweeping lawn leads to a utility area, a large vegetable garden, a glasshouse and Trish’s growing-on area. “I have always had a vegetable garden,” she says. “It’s supposed to be organic but I occasionally use Roundup.”
The glasshouse is another story: with family and friends helping, it took two weeks to assemble. Trish loves it and uses it to raise seedlings and tomatoes. She hopes eventually to specialise in chrysanthemums and in the meantime she picks them for the house. To one side of the garden an extensive orchard has been added and a variety of fruit trees are now established. “I’d like to be self-sufficient one day,” she says.
Interesting shrubs are another feature of the garden and Trish happily rattles off a few of her favourites. She ranks fothergilla very highly for its autumn colour – the Rotorua district is just cold enough for it.
Another favourite is enkianthus, which many people don’t know, and the viburnum family (V. sargentii), which Trish loves for its bright red fruits.
Lilac blooms freely and forms a background to several of her borders. Particularly striking is the foliage of a newish shrub called ‘Shady Lady’, though the clear yellow growths of its sister, Physocarpus opulifoius ‘Luteus’, are perhaps better known. She admits she has “gone a bit mad” on the colour red as she points out the glowing foliage of Cotinus ‘Grace’.
Visitors often remark on the corokia hedges that define areas within the garden, says Trish. “Corokia makes a fantastic hedge – so much nicer than box because it has flowers and berries for the birds. We should all be planting for the birds.” No birds visited the garden when Trish arrived here 18 years ago, in 1992, but there are plenty about these days. “There was even a kaka one winter.”
In 1998, after building the house and establishing the garden on land infested with ragwort, Trish went overseas – first to Australia and then on to the UK. She applied for and obtained nursing jobs in both countries and, after setting everything up, sold her pedigree herd of cattle and leased the farm. “I had been to the UK once before, looking at the great gardens – Kew, Sissinghurst and others – but while living in London I was able to visit gardens most weekends.”
Seven and a half years later Trish returned home, eager to start work in her garden again. She was dismayed when calling into Terry Hatch’s nursery Joy Plants, south of Auckland, to find perennials were out of favour on the New Zealand garden scene. But, not to be deterred, she embarked on a road trip around the South Island, picking up her favourite plants and storing them carefully in the boot until she returned to Rotorua.
Though roses play a big part in Trish’s garden – ‘Dublin Bay’ festoons the verandah on one end of the house and many David Austins can be found in the borders – it is the lavish use of perennials that makes a splash. “I think they’ve really come back into fashion.”
A veritable rainbow of colour is produced by sympathetic groupings: bearded and Siberian iris, lupins, salvia.
“I can’t be without Salvia nemorosa or geraniums (cranesbills), especially the gorgeous blue/purple Geranium magnificum. In autumn the parade of colour changes to gold and bronze and all shades between as rudbeckia, helenium, helianthemum and dahlias have their turn.”
One photo opportunity we missed, Trish tells us, was the time she was running around the garden at one o’clock in the morning, trying to shoot a possum just outside her window.
But her nocturnal forays, she reports, are much more effective now. “I’m getting really serious about these pests and recently bought a spotlight to mount on my gun.”
Last year Trish opened her garden for the Rotorua District Festival of Gardens. “I used to visit other gardens but I decided it’s my turn now. People are so appreciative of the garden and I learn from them also. It is not an expensive garden as I do everything myself but it really is a year-round garden.”
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Story: Gordon Collier
Photographs: Paul McCredie
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