Twenty years in the making, Fisherman’s Bay Garden is impressive both in scale and execution. Vast, naturalistic and multi-layered, it’s at its very best through the summer season.

Words Kim Newth

Along a high winding road on Banks Peninsula, not far from Akaroa’s harbourside bistros and giftshops, lies a rugged landscape of sweeping uplands and bushy gullies falling to distant bays far below. It is an extreme place in many ways, swinging from hot and dry in summer to drenching wet and cold in winter. ‘The weather is why we don’t open any earlier than Labour Weekend as the ground can be so wet and slippery, even in early spring,’ explains Jill Simpson, noting that she first set foot here in the late 1990s after meeting Richard, a Canterbury farmer, who brought her to this windswept farm property with its spectacular ocean views.

Jill has devoted 20 years to developing the landscape-scale garden here, now spanning nearly three hectares. Steps, stone walls and curving pathways criss-cross the slopes above the bays, leading to one breathtaking vista after another. Swathes of flowering perennials, feathery grasses and native trees and shrubs create an enchantingly beautiful scene. It is a far cry from the traditional Arts and Crafts style garden of neatly clipped hedges and formal garden rooms.

Steps, stone walls and curving pathways criss-cross the slopes above the bays, leading to one breathtaking vista after another.

With her fondness for flowers and naturalistic gardens, Jill has found much to admire in the northern hemisphere’s New Perennial Movement and Prairie Style planting approach and loves the work of Piet Oudolf. The renowned Dutch designer popularised matrix planting with a ‘right plant, right place’ approach, combining compatible perennials and grasses to create a wild ambience. Jill has given it a twist, adapting it to fit her own New Zealand gardening style.

Banks Peninsula is home to some rare and unusual plants and, alongside her love for perennials, Jill remains devoted to the many native plants that grow here. She and Richard have long shared a passion for preserving the area’s natural beauty and are founding members of the Banks Peninsula Conservation Trust. Today, more than 100-hectares of their land is protected by covenants, (one is named Hugh’s Covenant, in honour of renowned botanist Hugh Wilson, who manages Hinewai Reserve next door).

Jill has always loved gardening and has a flair for colour and creativity. She studied art and art history at the University of Canterbury before gravitating to landscape design and landscape gardening. For Jill, gardening is art and her garden today is an ever-changing canvas of spectacular seasonal colour and texture.

Twenty years ago though, she wasn’t planning a big garden. Flaxes went in around the deck, then came steps down to a family lawn. Next a fern garden and a herb garden were planted. ‘I started with the easiest and flattest parts; I’d get so far and then think I needed more steps. I began getting diggers in to move rocks around and carve out new paths. It just kept going on and on.’

Over the past few months, the garden has been vibrant with azaleas and rhododendrons. An expansive field of daffodils has come and gone. These are a touchstone for Jill, who grew up in a farming family and spent part of her childhood in Purau Bay. ‘The previous owner there had collected and sold daffodils. We used to pick daffodils to sell in the market in Christchurch. It was my favourite time of the year. I was thinking about that when I planted the daffodils in the Old Orchard garden here.’

Now the daffodils have died back, giving way to a stunning array of summer flowers – Salvia cultivars, Heleniums, spikes of herbaceous Persicaria, and many more – with native shrubs also shaping the vibrant display. Jill went through a phase of collecting hebes and uses them today to add structure. Natives like ngaio, whitey-wood and podocarps do that very effectively too.

Swathes of flowering perennials, feathery grasses and native trees and shrubs create an enchantingly beautiful scene.

Richard has always supported Jill’s evolving plans, happily moving fences, answering emails and arranging logistics – ‘We joke about how he’d bring me rocks instead of flowers, but that was just what I wanted as I already had plenty of flowers.’

This is gardening on a massive scale and how to maintain it is always uppermost in Jill’s mind. Most of the garden is accessible now for machinery/trailers as needed. Rather than planting short-lived perennials like pentsemons, she seeks out longer lasting plants and has learned not to obsess too much about weeds. ‘It’s a big garden that grows like crazy!’

How to Explore

Fisherman’s Bay Garden

Visitors will find plenty of fresh interest as they explore this ever-changing garden. For example, there’s a new naturalistic rose garden, now in its second summer season, planted with many spreading shrub roses, vigorous singles, David Austin roses and old roses. ‘We’re also creating new low perennial planting in an area on our southern side that will be interesting for people to see,’ says Jill. ‘It has low alpine totara, grevillea [a popular spreading shrub in Australian gardens], Mediterranean plants, low hebes, colourful coreopsis, echinacea and so much more. This side of the garden is currently protected by Macrocarpa and Pines but we’re eventually working towards a garden that will be literally surrounded by native forest.’

Take your time

For those coming to explore the garden, set aside at least an hour. Jill says some visitors stay for two or three hours and bring a picnic lunch. ‘We like people using the garden – you can have 20 or 30 people here and it doesn’t feel crowded.’

The garden is open 11am – 4pm, Wednesday to Saturday, $25 per person. You can book online at fishermansbay.nz