Halfway House inspires Waitangi gardener

Bernice Dingwall, head gardener for the Waitangi Treaty Grounds visited the historic Halfway House garden on Waitangi Day and came away inspired.

Bernice was visiting friends in Glenside who took her to the Halfway House garden, where she met Claire Bibby, lead gardener.

“I walked into the garden and went wow!” said Bernice.

“It changed my thinking and I want to go back to Waitangi Treaty Grounds and revisit what we are doing in the garden and bring back heritage into the garden.”

Bernice was impressed that the Halfway House Heritage Gardeners had researched and grown period accurate plants from the 1840 to 1900 era. She liked the orchard and is keen to introduce a fruit tree to the Waitangi Treaty house garden.

“We had a fig tree but it blew down and had to be cut back,” she said.

Bernice was interested that the Her- itage Gardeners had built the garden around fallen logs and tree stumps and used dead branches, as wind shelter and supports for climbers.

In return, Claire said that asking Wellington City Council to have the Halfway House grounds classified as a Historic Reserve (which was done in 2014) had been directly inspired by her visit to the Treaty Grounds, which are Historic Reserve.

There are other features the grounds have in common, in addition to their association with 1840.

“Our historic houses are within a larger reserve which includes natural streams,” said Claire. “The Treaty Grounds are surrounded by native bush and our objective is to return a natural bush setting to the historic Halfway House and garden,” she said.

Anyone who wishes to volunteer as a Heritage Gardener or in the Duke of Edinburgh Award can do so by contacting Claire on 022 186 5714.