A dry garden surprise at Riverside

July 16th, 2013
[Article and photos by Shirley Frater]

While waiting for friends to join us for lunch at the Riverside Café in Lower Moutere, we were drawn to looking at the covered dry garden filled with cactus and some succulent plants - a very prickly place.

The very well landscaped collection of plants from the late Garney Drummonds garden is in complete contrast to the rustic flowing garden surrounding the café. Some of hte plants are over 80 years old!

The design layout is done by a very understanding and knowledgeable landscaper providing nooks and crannies in the rocks for tiny plants to have cover, to the stony situations where it is difficult to see which are stones or the small stone-like plants. The careful choice of colours almost makes it a quiz.

The positioning of textures, forms and spaces, the cobweb-like draping of some plants is a reminder of the temperature extremes in their natural environment.

The prickles prevent browsing animals destroying the plants and, in the case of this garden, the visitors snipping off bits for their collections.

The large vertical plants with hairy covers and prickles (remembered from John Wayne desert movies) are very old with some dry spent flowers; remind me to go back when they are in flower to see the luscious coloured waxy blooms.

A very impressive installation usually only found in a large city botanical garden. What a blessing to have close to Motueka - and I don't have to do the weeding!

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