New Zealand Gardens Trust — LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AOTEAROA

Landscape architects are closely involved with the New Zealand Gardens Trust as part of its work promoting the best gardens in the country.

The trust has a system to assess the quality of gardens so it can provide visitors with information that accurately reflects the experience they will get when they visit.

Wendy Palmer’s gardens at Welton House in Blenheim.

Trust Board Chair Wendy Palmer says Trust gardens are either privately owned or public parks but are open to the public. The Trust was established as a Trust of the Royal New Zealand Institute of Horticulture in March 2004 to promote the best in New Zealand gardens and horticulture.

Wendy says many open gardens have reported a significant upswing in International tour groups this season compared to pre Covid numbers.

“Many international visitors to my garden at Welton House have remarked on the unique style and design of NZ gardens.

“The Trust seems to have become the go-to organisation for tour operators and independent travellers to work out their options for garden visiting in Aotearoa,” she explains.

Landscape architect and NZILA Life Member Jan Woodhouse leads the teams of assessors which is made up of other landscape architects and designers as well as highly experienced horticulturalists. She’s been doing assessments for nearly two decades and believes it is important to have landscape architects as part of the assessment process.

“We bring the design element to the assessment which is important because we look at how the garden works, its relationship to the house or other buildings, the layout or structural arrangement of the garden and its circulation. "

Assessors also look at the quality of the hard and soft landscape elements and maintenance and finally they consider the ‘wow' factor; how exceptional the garden experience is. Jan says sustainability and climate resilience are also becoming increasingly important factors in their assessments.

Member gardens are visited and assessed by Trust teams every three years and a three to six star system is used. Six star gardens are seen as being of international significance.

Jan believes those checks and balances are more important than ever with an increasing number of international tourists specifically wanting to visit the country’s finest gardens. She says this programme has resulted in a consistent improvement in the quality of member gardens but also ensures the visitor experience is of the quality expected.

And she says public parks and gardens also have a major role in the Trusts portfolio by providing high quality, well designed open spaces with a high degree of horticultural interest.

The Trust now promotes around 120 gardens up and down the country. It is holding its annual conference at the end of the month in the capital and you can find more information about the event here.