The street view of Alan Watson’s home in Ashburton is relatively conventional: red roses, green lawn and a trailer in the driveway. However, this arrangement is a kind of teaser, to increase the element of surprise when visitors discover that concealed behind the house is an elaborate Eastern-style garden, complete with teahouse, maple trees, covered walkways, lanterns, arched bridges and a spectacular stone pagoda. Words & Photos Martin Wilkie.

Alan Watson’s garden feels much larger than it actually is, for several reasons (the section is 1,040 sqm, less 240 sqm for the house). Multi-layered plantings of trees, shrubs and herbaceous perennials gradually reveal smaller scenes within the overall design as the visitor moves around, pathways fold back and forth across the centre of the space thereby extending the distance walked, and Alan has made use of every square metre right out to the boundaries. In addition, the 6.5-hectare Coniston Estate woodland forms the backdrop to the garden. These mature cedars, oaks and other deciduous trees are ‘borrowed scenery’ which further expand the garden’s apparent scale, and also provide valuable shelter from northwest gales – southerly and easterly winds can be more of an issue. A weeping willow whose foliage floats above the garden is growing on Ashburton Council land over the back boundary, next to a waterway and walking track.

A well-known and successful local landscape contractor, Alan is now semi-retired after nearly 47 years of work, and the garden is a great credit to his accumulated expertise and experience. His working life started with an apprenticeship in Horticulture and Gardening at Allenton Nurseries, time later on at Millichamps Nursery, followed by his own landscape and general contracting business. Tree and shrub planting and pruning was a major part of his business, and laying lawns was a speciality, although a more seasonal task – establishing a successful lawn requires thorough preparation and specific skills. He sold most of the business in recent years, and still takes great satisfaction from seeing the ongoing growth of trees, gardens and layouts he’s been involved with throughout Ashburton and local rural areas.

Alan bought his property in 2002 as part of a new subdivision, and the section was mostly laid to grass while he was still working full-time. Development of the garden started about four years later, initially by spraying off the lawn and laying pathways. He’d always liked maples and other east-Asian plants, and was inspired to build his first timber bridge after seeing the arched oriental-style timber bridge with zigzag woodwork in the Ōamaru Public Gardens.

A teahouse, and covered walkway roof and framing were constructed by the same builder who built the house, and Alan has completed all the other timber walkways and pathways himself. The garden is Oriental in style overall, made up of a combination of Japanese and Chinese elements and influences. Stone lanterns are Japanese, however square latticework suspended along the covered walkway is closer to the Chinese style. Historically, a gentle blending of these two styles (along with other influences) in Europe since the 18th century has been variously called Chinoiserie or Japonisme.

Alan bought his property in 2002 as part of a new subdivision, and the section was mostly laid to grass while he was still working full-time.

Weighing approximately two tonnes, the tall stone pagoda is made of creamy-white Ōamaru limestone – at around five metres tall with 13 tiers it’s a real feature in the garden. Completed by sculptor Patrick Barry, it was installed in 2019 and includes a representation of the Buddhist lotus motif carved on its base.

The garden’s planting has developed under a canopy of Japanese maples Acer palmatum, which Alan maintains to a relatively open texture with careful pruning to provide dappled shade. Most of the taller maples such as ‘Bloodgood’ have red foliage – there are over 60 different named A. palmatum varieties. Some are kept to around two or three metres tall and others (such as ‘Butterfly’) are naturally smaller growers, which he’s particularly keen on. Generally cold-hardy, their new foliage in spring can be caught by late frosts, but they’re worth persevering with because of their spectacular colours. Three are particularly beautiful: ‘Chishio’ has new leaves opening bright carmine-pink, softening to pink-red then green in summer and orange-red in autumn; ‘Ukigumo’ the Floating Clouds Maple with delicate five-lobed leaves speckled in white and pink; and ‘Peaches and Cream’ whose  foliage is covered in a fine variegation of lime-green, cream and coral-pink, again with vivid autumn colour.

The canopy of taller maples which provides light shade is important to protect the more compact and delicate Acer palmatum varieties from leaf scorch caused by too much exposure to Canterbury’s sun, wind and heat. This balance of sun and shade is also important for another plant Alan is keen on, the Calico bush Kalmia latifolia from North America. Too much sun and they’ll scorch, but too little and they won’t flower freely. When they’re in bloom the mass of flowers does look like calico fabric; or individually as English writer John Ruskin described, ‘little bowls of beaten silver, the petals struck by stamens instead of with a hammer’. They’re very cold-hardy shrubs and appreciate slightly acid soil, so they are good companions to rhododendrons and lily of the valley Pieris. There are 10 Kalmia varieties here, including white-flowered ‘Pristine’, and plum-pink and cream ‘Minuet’ beside the arched bridge. ‘Raspberry Glow’ is a favourite: deep burgundy-red in bud, opening to strong pink on the inside of the flower and fading to a medium pink.

Alan appreciates flowers and autumn colour, but evergreens are also well represented as a permanent backbone to the garden in winter.

The kalmias are a good example of how Alan has combined plants from all over the world in his garden – not only those from East Asia whose form associates well with the garden’s structures, but other plants whose leaf patterns and growth habits are complementary and whose needs are similar. Dogwoods Cornus ‘Cloud Nine’, ‘Eddie’s White Wonder’ and C. kousa ‘China Girl’, Crinodendron hookerianum (its red flowers resemble Christmas ornaments), Styrax japonica snowdrop tree and S. obassia; pomegranate, Exochorda, Cercidiphyllum japonicum Katsura tree (whose autumn leaves smell sweetly of burnt sugar), herbaceous peonies, hostas, trilliums, gentians and Purple Shamrock with pink flowers are all here, along with rarities for the connoisseur: Eyelash tree Stewartia malacodendron, Japanese Wheel tree Trochodendron aralioides, Lapageria, Acradenia frankliniae, Chinese Anise Illicium henryi, and Japanese Umbrella Pine Sciadopitys verticillata, a tall tree in its native habitat. Not surprisingly, Alan is keen to visit Japan!

He appreciates flowers and autumn colour, but evergreens are also well represented as a permanent backbone to the garden in winter, including shrubs Osmanthus and Sarcococca confusa (both have scented winter flowers), Viburnum propinquum, and Pachysandra groundcover. Dwarf conifers are featured too, including Abies balsamea ‘Nana’ and many choice varieties selected from Cryptomeria japonica Japanese cedar, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana and C. obtusa.

Only the roses and kalmias are regularly fed and watered – other plants are watered if they’re particularly stressed, but the heavy loam soil is able to retain moisture for long periods in the summer. Pruning is a vital part of achieving the distinctive Japanese/Chinese landscape aesthetic, and Alan carefully and methodically carries out this process himself mostly during winter, using clean sharp tools including Swiss Felco No.2 secateurs (my own favourite brand). Two organic sprays of Conqueror oil are applied ‘to runoff’ a few weeks apart. The prunings are removed, but autumn leaves are left to protect the soil and then cleared in spring – regular cultivation over summer keeps the soil open and weed free. Summer spraying is ‘as needed’ with Conqueror oil, and specific sprays for the roses.

Alan is meticulous with garden maintenance – his plants are thriving and the timber structures are solidly constructed with crisp colourful paintwork in traditional shades of soft cream, rich green and bright lacquer red.

A red market umbrella also shades the decking next to the living room, which ironically has the only bonsai specimens in Alan’s garden – elegantly printed on the wallpaper!