Decades of wistfully watching a particular property finally paid off for Sue Poananga. “I admired this house and location for a long time – about 20 or 30 years,” she says, of the Te Puna property she and husband Kim now call home.

The waiting ended eight years ago when the 1.2ha site bordering Tauranga Harbour finally became theirs. After the years of hankering, Sue could finally put her own stamp on the property. She’d had plenty of time to dream up plans for the garden, which came with established trees, citrus and feijoas planted in clusters, and a few small garden beds mainly planted with agapanthus and roses.

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Sue has always been a keen gardener, and says developing the property has been therapeutic, after unexpected ill health saw her retire early from the fashion industry. Kim has a horticultural background and manages kiwifruit orchards, so he adds plant health and nutrition know-how. “He’s a natural compost and organic kind of guy,” Sue says.

Decades of wistfully watching a particular property finally paid off for Sue Poananga. “I admired this house and location for a long time – about 20 or 30 years,” she says, of the Te Puna property she and husband Kim now call home.

Sue and Kim’s gardening endeavours have involved a lot of planting, but they’ve also removed trees. Plenty of now-towering beauties remain, however, including a silk tree close to the house, flame trees, plum, ginkgo, ‘Awanui’ cherry, magnolia, plus tōtara, rimu and a huge black walnut believed to be about 50 years old. The Poanangas have added green and red maples, lilacs and wattles.

Sue and Kim felt the property’s “big, wide openness” was an asset, so it was farewell to all but a couple of 20 tangelos, which had been planted in a line, partially impeding the water view. Many feijoas were also felled, replaced by a row of dogwood trees. Sue’s a big fan of dogwoods for their profusion of white flowers, and she’s created a grove of eight, as well as planting four others close to the house.

Their home’s elevated position and its large deck makes the most of the view of the gardens, the expansive lawn and the harbour that ebbs and flows beyond a big stream-fed pond. The pond is loved by the team of white ducks that waddle across from next door with great regularity.

Planting flanks the lawn and either side of the house, as well as at the front where their land meets the quiet country lane. Gardens are allowed to meander, as Sue confesses little has really been planned. She simply started in one corner and went from there, and the garden’s always evolving.

“One day I may decide a little garden is needed around some of the trees. A week later I may feel another path should be added to mirror the first, as symmetry is important to me. Then we’ll make the call to fashion old timber into a bridge over the stream by the pond,” she says.

Blue flowers reign supreme in this garden, and white with blue is Sue’s top combination. Accordingly, she’s introduced cottage garden plants such as penstemon, pansies, lobelia, delphiniums, forget-me-nots, petunias and salvia. Adding touches of white are dogwoods, wisteria, roses, gardenias, anemones, star jasmine and hydrangeas.

Kim has made it his mission to train three ‘Limelight’ hydrangeas into moptops. They flower from November through to May and look fabulous alongside the red loropetalum, says Sue, who’s also made the most of red maples by underplanting them with anemones that provide a mass of white in summer.

Rhododendrons, camellias, clivia and vireya add to the colour spectrum, providing pops of hot pink, cream and lemon. Ligularia and hostas were chosen for their appealing foliage, and join hellebores and clivia that thrive in a shady spot under towering trees. In another garden across the lawn, mounds of grasses – mostly Carex comans ‘Frosted Curl’ and acacia – are also used for underplanting. Flourishing nearby are brugmansia, with their trumpet-shaped flowers, which Sue nurtured from cuttings.

While Sue professes to be best with flowers, Kim is in charge of the vegetable crops. An abundance of herbs, tomatoes, seasonal greens including asparagus, kūmara and potatoes ensures the produce on their dinner plates has not had to travel far.

The couple’s creativity extends beyond plants. Kim sees beauty in sawn-off tree trunks and branches, which he transforms into sculptural touches. On a bigger scale, what was a garden shed has morphed into a little Airbnb retreat or guest house for visiting family. It’s surrounded by garden, of course, with the line of dogwoods creating privacy from the house.

Sue works in the garden most days, but the purchase of two robotic lawnmowers means she no longer has to spend more than two hours mowing the lawns.

“First, we got Jim, but it was too large for him to do it all. So, we divided the property in half and got him a buddy called Bob. They each have their own patch to tend. They do a beautiful job but do run amok sometimes, like the time they nearly landed in the stream,” Sue says.

Making the property as easy to manage as possible is sensible as, after years of waiting to call this property home, there’s absolutely no talk of moving on.

Q&A with Kim & Sue Poananga

Garden must-haves: Dogwood trees. When I first saw them flowering, I thought I just have to have them. And white… white is a must in the garden as it is so bright and neutral. (Sue)

A special place to sit and enjoy the garden: The deck is our favourite place. We sit there enjoying the view most of the year, for coffee in the mornings and wine in the evenings. (Sue)

Best sustainability tip: When pruning and cutting back we tend to cut things up small and put them back in the beds so that they then become natural compost. The leaves get to stay in the garden too. (Kim)

Favourite garden art: We have a resident hawk that flies over every night and our garden now includes a steel and wood sculpture of a hawk that we found in Hokitika. When I saw it, I said: “That is coming home with me.” (Sue)

Is the garden is open to the public: During the biennial Bay of Plenty Garden & Art Festival (the next one will be held in November 2022). (Kim)