Our Beach House Garden

It will be two years in October since we purchased a run down little batch at Mokau. It was very overgrown and the first thing was to clear the section of rampant undergrowth. There was a standard clothes line that couldn’t be seen for the weeds and rubbish that had over run it and a sleep out that had been placed on a pallet frame but the pallets had rotten away, The inside was not quite so bad but the windows were in poor repair and we gradually replaced them with aluminium windows.

There is a wonderfully sheltered area out from the kitchen and dining room where we put in a fledgling succulent garden to provide privacy from the batch next door. Eventually we will build a deck in this area but the garden has blossomed and will still create a wonderful view when we come out the dining room French doors into this northern side of the house. A bedroom creates part of the protected L shape so the area is hidden from the road and completely private.

Over time the garden has grown and various members of the family have created painted rock figures that adorn the garden. This is a very funky modern garden and quite different to my home garden which is more traditional in nature. The idea was that anyone that wanted to paint a rock and add it to the garden was welcome. Because the sea at Mokau is battered during periodic west coast storms there are a lot of logs and rocks that periodically get beaten into the beach and up the river mouth. We have salvaged some to these to make painted “Pencils” which various members of the family have painted with their names on them. I have to admit I haven’t done mine yet. You can see families of rock ladybugs, funny faces and penguins who sport brightly coloured posca paint disguises hiding in the garden. Other opportunity shop finds have been brightly painted and added to the mix. The bright mustard marker charts the grandchildren’s growth and my daughter Kim has created mosaics on an old wheelbarrow and a pair of gumboots. This colourful garden is fairly low maintenance and the plants do so well in their protected environment.

We have put in some planter boxes at the back for seasonal vegetables and they do really well, especially over the summer. It is only an hour’s drive down to Mokau and their are endless walks both seaside and bush that continually inform my artwork and provide opportunity for photography, both landscape, family and textural. Even when the weather is not conducive to being outside the batch creates a cosy haven for crafts and aritwork