the garden
Four years ago, Remuera businessman Danvers Devereux bought two hectares of rundown Matakana farmland and began the process of regeneration to create both a productive nursery, and the new headquarters for his Matakana Botanicals (formerly Les Floralies) bath and bodycare company. Danvers spoke to Kirsty Cameron about the transformation to an eco haven.
Botanical Garden The
photography by stephen penny
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the garden
This place you’ve named Matakana Botanicals looks amazing — black barns, bees, lavender, worms recycling all the waste. But I understand it wasn’t always quite so idyllic? If you can recall the movie Smash Palace with car wrecks and machinery scattered all over the place, this was it! Most of it was grown over, and once a tow rope was attached to the Landy, we uncovered some surprises destined for the scrapmetal heap, which in the end required eight truck loads to remove. As an added bonus, the house was a very rundown hoarder’s bungalow, which had not been lived in for eight years. It had wildlife as tenants. Some friends offered me a box of matches, but I decided the house was worth recycling. The back garden was a jungle, but I could see heritage fruit trees like plums, apples, oranges, pears, figs and grapes which are now very prolific, and will provide for the café we plan to open in September. The road frontage was a swampy low-lying area with privet. Now we have a wonderful pond with large grasses and rocks as features, and a black post and rail fence. Why did you pick this location? Many don’t know this, but just about all our products over 25 years have been conceived at our beach house at Leigh! It’s here many wonderful things have started and then evolved into a finished product. We have always had a connection with the region, and over the years I’ve got to know many local growers who supply our hero ingredients. A few years ago, I was giving one of our overseas distributors a tour of Matakana and Great Barrier Island [another Botanicals brand is Great Barrier Island Bee Co]. We returned to our office and warehouse in the commercial area of East Tamaki, and this person said we had this wonderful jigsaw-puzzle of places, but being based in East Tamaki was the odd piece in this great picture. This was a defining moment, as our lease was about to expire and a new idea was emerging. Given our connection to our places, growers, beekeepers, and a personal interest and background in horticulture, it just felt right to become a part of it all. What’s your favourite part of this garden? I think it depends on the time of day. In the morning, I like sitting in the hanging chilling chairs with a coffee, looking out over the raised herb gardens taking in the fragrant aromas. In the afternoon and evening, it’s looking down the lavender rows, with the sun going down over the Sugarloaf. Very calming!
Who introduced you to gardening? My parents, Colyn and David. Our original family home in Seaview Rd was a place where we all helped out to maintain the garden from an early age. My chores list was huge, but I’m grateful for all that I learned there which inspired me to carry on and study horticulture at university. It’s quite ironic, as a few years later I ended up back in the garden assisting mum to make the Les Floralies products [Colyn launched the Les Floralies business]. What existing or natural features did you keep here? Most of the land has been recontoured, but the house garden remains the same. We certainly kept all the fruit trees and even some very large flame trees which are not everyone’s favourite, but are appropriately located next to our candle-making barn and home to loads of tui in spring. Does any part of the garden hold special significance? My kids and I have just planted a kauri in the area which we are going to revegetate in natives. Hopefully one day we can all sit and talk in chairs hanging from it. What are the kids’ favourite parts of the garden? Madi, who’s 14, likes relaxing in front of the outdoor fire. Georgia, her twin, likes sitting in a hanging chair by the herb gardens, as there’s wifi there! My 11-year-old, Ellamia, likes lying in the hammock between the pear and the apple tree. And my little bloke, Luca, who’s five, enjoys the big rope swing from the totara. What’s your favourite chore, so to speak, in the garden? Harvesting, be it fruit, herbs, lavender or honey. And your least favourite? Weeding the lavender rows by hand! What do you plan to do next? Plant out the NZ natives, and I’ve got another thousand lavender cuttings to plant out in May. How will you know when your garden will be complete? I’d say when the kauri is tall enough for us all to sit in hanging chairs, enjoying a wine and catching up with my kids and friends.
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THE MATAKANA BOTANICALS Garden, Year by Year Year 1: Removed tonnes of hoarder’s rubbish and uncovered the overgrown house. Started removing car wrecks and old farm equipment from the grass, and took the Stihl chainsaw to the privet. I worked on plans to renovate the house, which surprised many, given the state of it. Year 2: Started the house renovations with local builder Gus McKergow, also worked on designing our new buildings with Customkit Barns and putting together resource consent. Year 3: Major earth works, landscaping and commenced barn building. We planted 2,000 Grosso lavender, 1,000 natives, 250 jasmine, built 10 large raised herb gardens and one long-wall garden. Year 4: Our green installations started: three 30,000-litre water tanks, a septic system, a full solar power system and a DIY seaweed irrigation network. We relocated the business from East Tamaki to our new home, and the new journey began! — Danvers Devereux, right, with daughter Ellamia
Opposite top: Luca keeps his distance from the bees that pollinate the lavender, and provide honey and wax. The barn in the background is the implement shed. This page, clockwise from top: the restored farmhouse; the productive orchard garden; an outdoor bath with a fireplace designed by Danvers; a shady spot; the new barn as seen from Leigh Rd road houses the Matakana Botanicals office and warehouse; the same barn from the back. The raised garden beds will provide herbs and veges for the cafe, due to open in September in the wing seen to the right. Another barn houses the lavender distillery and candle-making facility, which will be open to the public once completed. the hobson 41