Native grace |
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Russell the boxer - now sadly deceased.
From the top of an artificial hillock in David Hobbs’ garden development there is a bird’s-eye view of his achievement. Stretching out in all directions, Broadfields has colonised four and a half hectares on the outskirts of Christchurch.
It’s a labyrinth of formal elements, designed by Christchurch landscape architect Robert Watson and lovingly executed by David over the last 15 years. Before that, it was a bare paddock – part of a 24ha plot that David bought in 1993 to sell as lifestyle blocks.
From the outset, Broadfields was intended to be a major project that would be open to the public to visit and enjoy. There’s no house on the property; David and his wife Jackie live on
a 28ha block at nearby Lincoln.
“Broadfields was intended to be a job for my old age – a job that I’m now qualified for,” says David with a wry smile. “It was to be a hobby I could work on in weekends, so Robert had to come up with a garden that could be maintained by one person.”
It’s the devotion to New Zealand flora that makes Broadfields so excitingly different from most other gardens of its scale. Native species flourish in a wide variety of settings and, where colour has been called for, David has planted New Zealand-bred varieties of exotics.
 “People don’t come here to see a Japanese or English garden, they come to see a Christchurch garden, so we feature New Zealand plants.
“There’s a misconception that native plants are slow-growing but when totara or kauri are left to their own devices they can grow half a metre a year.
“I’ve planted a kauri forest and a decade on it’s a very meaningful group of trees.”
He has planted between 7000 and 11,000 trees so far and as visitors make their way through the intricate network of hedges there are plenty of surprises. More than 500 camellias and 500 rhododendrons, hybridised and registered in New Zealand, are massed together for a spectacular spring display. Swathes of azaleas cuddle up to natives and the deciduous woodland features New Zealand-raised varieties of crab apple, cherry, ash and maple planted over the last four years.
For David, the hedges are an integral part of the garden design. They lend weight and scale while at the same time creating an elegant network of long avenues that lead to 20 different gardens.
“We initially planted two kilometres of poplar hedging within the garden for shelter,” says David. “That has since been cut down but we still have close to one and a half kilometres of internal hedging.”
Two different types of totara – Podocarpus cunninghamii and Podocarpus totara – are the dominant hedge species. David chose them for their longevity, the fact that they are evergreen and because, like yew, they regenerate from a stump.
He has aimed for the relatively simple design ethic he so admires in renowned United Kingdom landscape designer Russell Page’s gardens – “restrained plantings handled with substantial sophistication” – but he says there is still plenty to do at Broadfields. There’s no such thing as a static garden.
“Whenever I walk around the garden I am always looking for what needs to be done next. I do have a sense of satisfaction when I see the way it’s coming together but that doesn’t last through 15 years of hard work. You have to be motivated to keep the momentum going.”
As we walk down one long avenue and head into the next, a large hare darts in front of us and David’s dog gives chase. The bird life is alive and well too. Native plantings have encouraged the presence of large numbers of silvereyes, fantails and grey warblers and the 100m-long canal is home to hundreds of goldfish.
David with Russell the boxer, who has now passed away.
Through another hedge and into the camellia garden there’s a sign that says, “For Sale: Weeds. Pick Your Own”. It’s a joke of course but you can understand why it’s there. These days David spends every Saturday working on garden maintenance, helped by his son Nick, 22, and husband and wife team Dave and Denise Falls.
“We spend the equivalent of one person working full-time in the garden. The lawn mowing takes four hours each week.”
David is quite content with the workload, finding it light relief after his busy working week. “Broadfields is my mental therapy, my respite from the harsh realities of weekly office routines. I don’t get a lot of time to relax in the garden. My time here is all about keeping on top of things and we have to work pretty determinedly on Saturdays to keep it in reasonable shape. But this is about creating something, whereas my workdays are about intellectual pursuits.”
The garden is open to visitors every Saturday or by arrangement and David enjoys showing people through. “You just have to watch their responses and listen and you learn things about your garden you’ve never noticed or thought of yourself. I like that.”
Story: Adrienne Rewi
Photographs: Daniel Allen
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