Homestead with ‘6 star’ garden of international significance seeks new custodian

There was a small garden at historic Greenhaugh Estate, outside Palmerston North, when Lynne and Les Atkins arrived there 49 years ago.

Lynne’s in-laws, who had been living in the home for 16 years, asked if they would like to take it over. The young couple jumped at the chance.

They spent decades fixing up the home, raising their three children and enjoying the country life. The children grew up and moved away. And, sadly, ten years ago, Les died.

With the help of her friends, Janet Wilson and Colin Mahy, Atkins threw herself into the garden. "I took down the fences and created a five acre garden. You can still see some trees that my mother-in-law planted, so there's definitely a little footprint there from her, which is lovely."

Once at the heart of a 40 hectare station, today the home sits on eight hectares, comprising two hectares of gardens and enough pasture for Lynne to run a hobby flock of black-faced sheep.

Over the course of a decade, the trio have added a wisteria walk, a pergola smothered in rambling roses and clematis, a rustic pond dotted with lily pads, frothing beds of bearded irises, and formal box-hedged beds of lush roses. There are more than 40 varieties of iris in her garden.

Decorating the garden are steel sculptures Lynne and Les brought back from a long awaited, much loved trip to Africa. One, a trio of steel giraffes, stands as a memorial to Les. Nearby, a pavilion known as the Giraffe House offers visitors a shady spot to enjoy a cup of tea.

It is no surprise the garden has been recognised as a Garden of International Significance by the New Zealand Gardens Trust.

"There's nothing I like more than being able to get out into the garden itself or into my nursery,” Atkins says. “I have imported a lot of very special seed for bulbs and perennials. So my favourite thing to do is to be out there playing with the results of that germination."

The four-bed house too was a project for Atkins and her husband when they first arrived. Built in 1874, the home was in excellent condition, but some period features had been removed or altered over the years.

Ranged over two floors, the late Victorian - early Edwardian home now has a cohesive, traditional country homestead style. Care was taken to preserve and restore its vintage features, such as the fireplaces, skirting boards and timber detailing.

"It's still in wonderful condition, because it's all totara, milled from the land that I'm sitting on," says Lynne. “We’ve done a huge amount of work.”

Originally built for the McKenzie family, one of the pre-eminent farming families in the region at the time, the homestead was also the site of the local Cobb and Co coach stables.

The stables have long since fallen down, but Lynne displays some artefacts from the coach service and the home in the garden, including a totara board pencilled with the names and birth weights of six of the McKenzie children.

Lynne reckons Greenhaugh has always been a great place for children.

“The children had a lovely country life. And now my eight grandchildren come back, and they absolutely love it here, too.”

The gardens are open to the public weekdays from 10am to 4pm, and by appointment on the weekends. With the pavilion and the gardens, Lynne says requests to host events, such as weddings, come so “thick and fast” she has to turn most of them down, but she has enjoyed sharing her hard work with the public.

Now, however, Colin has retired, and Janet “would like to retire”. Lynne has decided to put the property on the market.

“I’ve been here nearly ten years since my husband, Les, died. In that time the garden became a 6 star garden, because Janet and I threw ourselves into it,” says Lynne. “We’ve reached our heights. I feel ready to move on to do something else with what remains of my life.”

She would like to see the home go to somebody who loves the garden and who would like to put their own mark on it.

"They don't have to keep it up to the very high standards that we needed to as a garden of international significance. It would also be wonderful if somebody came in with a family that could enjoy it - children, grandchildren."

With a CV of $1,925,000, 914 Napier Rd, Whakarongo, is for sale by tender, which closes on December 10. The listing is with John and Michelle van Lienen for New Zealand Sotheby’s International Real Estate.