Gardenlight: The Blue House
/Being the final stop I would squeeze in as part of the Hurunui Garden Festival in late October 2021, I had planned my first visit to Jenny Cooper and Chris Raateland’s garden in Amberely to be a fleeting one.
I had heard “The Blue House” murmured through the crowds over the four-day event, and on visiting, in the low, late glow of the spring dusk , I felt like screaming in delight. Neither murmured praise or a fleeting visit was deserving of the incredible, creative refuge that I found myself in. Here was a garden, hidden from passers-by, that answered my long-held lust for witnessing naturalistic style planting locally.
To say that I was, and have since been, inspired would be an understatement.
In late January this year, I finally found the opportunity to return and spend time with the gardener/visionary Jenny Cooper, holding her wisdom and wit hostage until after dark. As I have come to know Jenny I’ve found a deep connection to her planting decisions and aesthetic, her own journey to create this garden not evident to me at first, as I simply drank up the invigorating treats she offered at every corner of the property. But hiding behind the romantic result has been a long-winded journey of grit and discovery that saw Jenny bend to the environment she was creating in and learn an entirely new approach.
“My previous gardens were town gardens with fences, endless free water and established trees on around 800 sq. metres. I took those things for granted, as it was not until I found myself without them that I really had to sit up and take notice” relayed Jenny. “I used to mulch and feed to the max, 6 inches of beautiful homemade compost every year. The garden beds would eventually rise up out of the ground and tumble forward onto the lawn there was so much mulch.”
In 2013 Jenny and her partner Chris purchased this new property, all 4600 m2 (just over an acre) of it. What’s more they had arrived to an average rainfall of just 650 mm per year and the infamous heat, cold and treacherous nor ‘west winds of North Canterbury. They were confronted with the challenge of making a new home and garden out of a bony sheep paddock with wire fences and a single sheltering hedge on the eastern side.
As an intense demonstration of gardening being a continuous learning curve, Jenny was brutally punished for applying her formative garden approach to this unforgiving section. She took on the back breaking work of hand digging the beds, removing vigorous grass, working in compost, mulching with compost, staking and watering to assure plant survival. Her preferred palette of shade loving plants got blown away or burnt to pieces (given the extreme lack of shelter) with the rich ground making everything too lush and too soft.
“The old way was exhausting and unrewarding. And yet I was vaguely aware of other gardens that survived in these harsh conditions. So began a journey which I am still on, and which is one of the most enjoyable and valuable things the garden has given me.”
Turning to the internet and the library she scoured the world for information on gardening in the wind and dry. She took a deep dive into horticultural research on water uptake, how to plant effective windbreaks, no dig methods, plant nutrition, gravel gardens, bare rooting and mycorrhizal fungi. Even now, in our regular dialogue, my mind swims at the extent of her knowledge and her ability to adopt it in the building and care of the garden we see today.
Jenny and Chris undertook an enormous programme of shelter planting with seven mixed species wind breaks fanning through the property. Trees are also dotted through all the garden beds, as she learned, if you can’t give a plant water, give it shade. In for the long game, all trees (and perennials) are planted as small as possible to ensure they adapt and grow to withstand their environment early.
Seduced by articles and photography featuring the work of Piet Oudolf, Olivier Filippi, James Golden (‘Federal Twist’), Charles Dowding, Dan Pearson and our own Jo Wakelin, she saw a relaxed, alternative approach in creating a beautiful urban garden in contrast to her initial, traditional ideals.
Where her former garden style was neat and tidy, The Blue House beds reflect her pursuit of planting that isn’t constantly bothered by the gardener. There is a wildness where plants are left to express their natural character with little disease or need for staking. This has been achieved by ruthlessly planning and sustaining zones within her space, planting plants with similar needs together and culling the instant one doesn’t cope. In taking the resource of water seriously, she is in constant pursuit of reducing her consumption and has succeeded in needing to water only half of the beds she has planted. Given the scale and abundance of her space, this is truly inspiring!
Despite this critical planning, aesthetics reign supreme and a less knowledgeable visitor wouldn’t believe the science behind the creativity on display!
Where Jenny speaks about seduction, I too can relate in my own reaction to The Blue House.
I chose to photograph in the magic of the mid-summer gloaming, seeking to capture the sense of place she has created. Light shimmered through the soft grasses, spikey globes and gentle washes of colour, pulling the eye through leafy frames created by the trees. As an award-winning illustrator, Jenny’s planting zones reflect her eye for colour and texture. They range from lush, glossy beds shaded from her maturing trees to wings of sun-drenched mixed perennials, gravel beds of architectural succulents and a pool of bronzing grass that shifts in the wind.
Like all gardens, The Blue House is a work in motion that provides any visitor a sense of calm underpinned with possibility that can be translated into our gardens of the future.
The Blue House is open for visitors by appointment from November until April. Contact Jenny Cooper by text 021 258 9511, or via their website The Blue House Amberley
This is an expanded version of the article featured in my Stuff ‘Homed’ gardening column for beginners , The Press, Dominion Post and other regional papers on February 17th 2022
All words and images are my own, taken in my home and garden in Christchurch, New Zealand unless otherwise captioned.
