Grahams Bench: Localvore
Lots of cool things happened over summer (as well as the great weather!). One was putting in a vegetable garden at home. Lou had wanted a better one for a while and cripes, what a success! We have been smothered with tomatoes, cos, japanese and iceberg lettuce, capsicum, celery, beetroots, plus the old faithful silverbeet!! Big part of the success, apart from Lou's positioning and design, is the superb organic soil. It's really enjoyable growing and eating your own and being a part of the growing worldwide movement of being a 'localvore' (see later article to get this happening!)
Secondly, we have installed the country's first greenwall here at the office. These have taken Paris, London, Melbourne by storm on significant public buildings and are being used in and on amazing contemporary homes in these cities. Read the following story and then come and see ours.
In this issue
Greenwall at Natural Habitats Head Office
Ever since a Frenchman called Patrick Blanc amazed Paris in 1988 with covering La Villette (National Museum) walls in Paris with plants, the greenwall concept has been one of the hottest things in architecture and green building design.
The Natural Habitats greenwall features a number of leading edge innovations, including lightweight media (1/4 weight of soil), almost lifelong structural components, automated irrigation and feeding, and of course fantastic horticultural design!! Importantly for us, after much research of our native plants, we have identified those we believe will thrive in this vertical environment. All plants on our wall are of course native, but exotics can be used also. Give us a call and make a time to come and see our Greenwall here in Ellerslie.
Greenwall at Natural Habitats Head Office
Natural Habitats in Central Otago
On the ground in Queenstown for Natural Habitats is Mark Aston. Mark has been with us for 4 years, acting as Project Manager of high value and detailed landscape projects. Mark had previously managed a successful landscape partnership in Central Otago. If you have any queries or needs in Queenstown, call Mark on 021 190 4541 or marka@naturalhabitats.co.nz. Alternately call one of the design team to discuss.
The decision to expand our services into Central Otago is a reflection of the continuing demand nationally for our designers and reliable delivery and methodology.
Care Services - Home Vegetable and Herb Gardens
Watching your own vegetables grow then eating them, is a real luxury that is really catching on!
Speak to either your Gardencare Team Leader who can advise on positioning, topsoil types, garden style and management options or contact Chrissie at chrissie@naturalhabitats.co.nz to organise someone to come and meet with you.
Whether you want to do this in a stand alone vegetable garden or within an edible landscape, Natural Habitats Care team can install and even manage production if you wish.
stand alone vegetable garden
Stonefields
With Stonefields (Mt Wellington quarry) starting to take shape, we want to share our success of this large project. Senior landscape architect Debbie Tikao and her team have been involved in this project from early in its development stage. They have just completed designing the wetland reserve which is going to be a massive asset of ecological significance to Auckland city. Additionally, several other neighbourhood reserves are in various stages of design.
There has been a high level of commitment from Debbie to ensure that the end product matches the design. Debbie says that being involved at the macro and micro levels is critical to a successful end result. The feedback from the Stonefields project team including the project manager and developer has been very positive, commenting on the level of accuracy and detail of Natural Habitats documentation.
We understand that even in the current tough market, Stonefields has been Fletcher Living's best selling subdivision! A great commendation for the owners commitment and the great environment created.
Nice job, thanks Debs!
Debs and Jenny on Stonefields site
Limitless gardens - Discover the Dreamgardens of New Zealand
This beautifully presented international book being launched later this year has two of Natural Habitats residential landscapes featured, which is real buzz for designer Mark Read. One of the properties is the Takapuna Home which was Gold and Best Residential winner at last years Landscapes of Distinction awards. The other project was a Parnell 1980's pergola decked garden converted into a 21st century lifestyle garden in 2004. It now has lush sub tropical planting with interesting hard landscaping features, evoking hints of Bali/Queensland. The book should be available at respected book stores.
McIllroy Garden
People news
We have more additions to our team. Firstly, we welcome back Pete de Jager to Natural Habitats. Having worked in most aspects of landscaping, Pete's project and relationship management experience will be a good complement to our existing sales team. Don't worry about the silver hair - there's a twinkle in the eye! Good to have you back Pete.
We have also grown our Landscape Architecture team, with the addition of another two qualified Landscape Architects: Renee Hearn and Claire O'Shaughnessy, both of whom have recently returned to NZ from the UK.
During her time in the UK, Renee acquired a wealth of experience in resort projects. Renee has previously worked for Natural Habitats whilst studying for her degree, and had hoped she would be able to come back to us.
Claire has her Master's in Landscape Architecture, and has extensive experience in urban planning and master planning projects. She will be assisting the team on the Monte Cecilia Park project, a large joint venture for the Auckland City Council.
Pete
Renee
Claire
www.naturalhabitats.co.nz | www.greenwalls.co.nz
PO Box 11832 Ellerslie, Auckland, New Zealand
ph: +64 9 970 3488
toll free: 0508 HABITATS
sales@naturalhabitats.co.nz
Branches in Auckland, Coromandel, Tauranga, Wellington and Central Otago