CHS Avebury Climate Resilient Garden is a collaborative project to create and maintain an ornamental garden which showcases a wide variety of plants that are resilient in Christchurch’s changing climate.
Gardens resonate with people when they are connected to their environment and the people who spend time there. CHS Avebury is designed to be a beautiful naturalistic Christchurch garden. The space is secluded but welcoming. Clustered seating and immersive planting encourage people to linger; share gardening knowledge and experiences or quietly absorb the atmosphere and contemplate the plants.
The climate in Christchurch is becoming warmer with longer dry periods between intense rainfall events. This means plants must be resilient to both drought and downpours. CHS Avebury encompasses a wide range of both New Zealand native and exotic species which have evolved with adaptations to withstand our changing and future climate. Like people, plants are stronger when surrounded by a positive, compatible and harmonious community. The species used at CHS Avebury will be planted in densely layered plant communities. The naturalistic style plantings and the paths through them will be mulched with arborist’s mulch to help retain soil moisture. The garden will be managed with sustainable techniques. Plants have been selected with sensitivity to eco-system services, for example: single flowers have been chosen to enable pollinator access while potential pest plant species are excluded. Seedheads will be mostly retained. As well as adding visual interest seedheads provide niches for invertebrates to over-winter, in turn providing food for birds.
CHS Avebury garden design uses a diagonal main axis along which are centered three circular borders based on Fibonacci proportions. The planting in each border becomes more complex to give a sense of a swelling crescendo of beauty and biodiversity. A twisted paired trunk of Plagianthus regius (native Ribbonwood) marks the end point of this axis. A secondary, perpendicular axis directs our focus to the multi-stemmed trunks of Ulmus parvifolia (Chinese Elm) and the sightlines out to the main Avebury lawn.
A series of native species give evergreen structure to the garden: Melicytus obovatus are clipped into spheres; various Astelia species give dramatic arching form while the seedheads of native tussock grass Chionochloa conspicua (Hunangamoho) provide delicate, light movement. The fine, weeping foliage of Kunzea ericoides ‘Little Fox’ (weeping Kanuka) and the glaucous leaves of Pimelea prostrata (NZ daphne) are a calm presence to offset some of the dramatic perennial flowers. Under the tree canopy, native ferns Polystichum vestitum (Prickly shield fern) and various Parablechnum species (Kiokio) provide textural interest and form.
