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John and Diane's travels have taken them around the world.
Creating a garden paradise from the ashes The McKinnons have a special connection with Nepal. From climbing its mountains with Sir Ed to working in a Nepalese hospital and now creating their own slice of Nepal in their Nelson garden. Frank Nelson speaks to the McKinnons about their incredible life.
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lmost three years after a raging wildfire left their Nelson property a blackened, barren moonscape, John and Diane McKinnon have created a new garden that promises to be even more beautiful than the original. Though it’s still early days for some of the flowers, shrubs, bushes and edibles, there are signs that this prominent Iwa Road site, with its sweeping views over the city and sea, is being transformed into something special. The flames of February 2019 took out about 70 percent of the established Douglas firs planted by the McKinnons to suppress gorse and broom on the upper reaches of their roughly four-hectare block.
From there the fire, which authorities believe was deliberately lit, raced down through about an acre of garden and was threatening the house before aerial fire-fighters saved the day. John, undaunted by the steep terrain and an 84th birthday later this year, still does much of the gardening, however, when it came to starting again almost from scratch, he and Diane turned to Nelsonbased professional garden designer James Wheatley. Together they have created a network of grassy pathways meandering between rhododendrons and daphnes, canna lilies, radermachera, agaves, bird of paradise, pieris, mahonia, azaleas, osmanthus, orangeberry and juniper.
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