Kate and Phil Williams’ Canterbury Garden isn’t just a beauty. It is also a reservoir of raw materials for Kate, an avid forager who harvests the riches of the garden and transforms them into things of even more lasting beauty.
“I gather and craft with what I find,” says Kate, who not only creates floral and dried arrangements but is also an expert in preserving, dehydrating and making juices from fruits, berries and vegetables. which grow prolifically in the rich soil of Prebbleton. And it does not stop there.
Anna McLeod / New Zealand Home and Garden
The Williams Garden is full of plants and interests; a path from the back yard leads through an ivy-covered outbuilding that houses Kate’s art studio (left) and a potting shed to an edible garden, orchard and woodland beyond.
En route to the vases or the pantry, those who catch his eye may find themselves immortalized on canvas in the form of photographs or paintings. In a nutshell: “I plant flowers, I cultivate them, I pick them, I style them, I photograph them and I paint them.”
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Kate shares the garden’s loot as well as her skills by running foraging and flower design workshops, hosting charity visits and speaking at women’s conferences. Add to all that a full-time job as the managing director of a law firm and the author of a book The After-hours Stylist due out in November and it’s no surprise that a torch be part of his toolkit.
“I often pick flowers by torchlight, in the rain and at all hours of the day. In the winter I often don’t see the garden in daylight during the week and find a quick walk around the garden after work with a therapy torch.”
The Williams bought a bare 4ha block south of Christchurch eight years ago and Kate was there with her spade before the builders turned the first clod for the house’s foundation. “I drove the builders and my husband crazy,” she admits. Almost a third of the property is now garden and is constantly expanding into the surrounding enclosures.
The garden is a mixture of cottage gardens and neatly covered rooms with mowed paths leading the eye and the legs to the focal points. “We wanted areas of formality next to messy flower-growing areas, with walkways leading to garden rooms and hidden areas,” says Kate.
Evergreen topiary balls, hedges and recycled structures provide year-round form and interest, while a large woodland setting, which includes many varieties of eucalyptus, keeps Kate stocked with foliage. “It’s provided buckets over the years,” says Kate, who outfits her workshop participants with carts when she takes them on foraging excursions.
Kate’s self-proclaimed obsession with planting not only ensures that her creative stocks never run out, but also keeps weeds at bay. Only the most determined will find a space to grow, and chances are Kate will get there first.
“In the first years, we spent a lot of time weeding. There were a few tough months where we couldn’t control the clover and wondered why we were aiming so high with the garden ladder. Now the garden is actually much easier to maintain, although fall clearing requires a few big weekends.
Among the expanses of plants there are around 80 hydrangea bushes, more than 30 varieties of dahlia, hundreds of hellebores and bulbs galore. Thousands of white daffodils, lilies, gladioli and tulips are literally packed into over 200 pots across the garden. “Watering the pots takes more time than tending the garden itself,” says Kate. “I continually repot them and the creative side in me likes to move them around the property.”
Phil, inventor and builder, is also a creative, and together they are powerfully productive. “I love flowers and Phil loves projects. We make a great team,” she says.
Phil’s forte is structures. His most spectacular on the property is a flying fox, built during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown. His most ingenious was a solution to an impetuous purchase by his wife. When Kate spotted a pair of wrought iron railings on Trade Me, she thought they would make perfect railings for a bridge project over a pond.
Anna McLeod / New Zealand Home and Garden
Phil built much of the brazier area using scrap metal, while the fire itself was created from old tractor disks by their nephew.
Upon receipt of the goods, she discovered that they were steeply angled, designed for a sloping structure. No problem, said Phil, who built a hill to accommodate them. Tucked to one side is a seating area and firepit created from scrap metal.
“The error has proven to be one of the best features of the garden, and the hill also makes a great waterslide for children,” says Kate. The playground is heavily used with their two children and five grandchildren often visiting or living and the garden is a popular place for family gatherings and business meetings.
Anna McLeod / New Zealand Home and Garden
The house and garden were designed as one, with spaces for courtyards and terraces, all housing Kate’s pots and furnished with a range of seating areas for their many visitors; the central living room and the master bedroom to the left all open onto the garden.
Phil also concocted a grunty pergola above the veranda using deck beams, fashioned obelisks for climbing plants using building rods and built one of Kate’s most beloved spaces. : an art studio in the garden. “I go out at night and on weekends when the garden isn’t calling.” Creating a painting is a bit like creating a garden, she says.
Kate has a sense of form, color, balance and beauty and a level of energy that most mortals can only envy. The couple’s garden is filled with plants, the pantry with preserves and the home with flower arrangements and botanical artwork. The 14-car garage houses construction materials as well as two tractors and several lawnmowers. Less busy are the garden seats. “The garden is full of seats where we never have time to sit,” says Kate.
Anna McLeod / New Zealand Home and Garden
Raised wooden beds provide kitchen gardens for vegetables and seed production areas for flowers.
Q&A with Kate and Phil Williams
Favorite plant: If I can pick it and decorate it, it’s my favorite. I find dahlias, hydrangeas, and woodland foliage to be the best value for decorative work. (Kate)
Most used tool: Our garden cart to tow – grandchildren also love to be towed. (Kate)
Favorite place in the garden: Sit under the deck beams on the front patio under wisteria and vines. (phil)
Most used part of the garden: Because we receive a lot, the garden furniture and the lawn at the front of the house. I also love my art studio which is positioned near the flower beds and vegetable gardens and looks across the orchard to the Port Hills. (Kate)
Best advice for getting started: Ask a good garden designer to provide the first footprint plan. Kamo Marsh’s Emily Hastie captured everything we envisioned and more. (Kate)
The type of soil: Templeton silt loam, fine fertile soil. (phil)
Garden watering: We water once a week all summer. The lawns are on an automated sprinkler system but Phil prefers to use a sprinkler. He likes the job. (Kate)
Anna McLeod / New Zealand Home and Garden
Phil and Kate Williams in a rare moment of relaxation surrounded by potted petunias and hydrangeas.