Hunter's Garden Marlborough has to be one of the best gardening events in the New Zealand calendar, if not internationally. If you didn't go this year, you had better organise yourself for next! (It's 9 to 11 November, 2001. Put it in your diary now!)
A veritable feast of beautiful gardens and great speakers, as well as the sheer enthusiasm and generous Marlborough hospitality are obvious.
 Despite the growth in numbers (over 1900 registered this year) and the demand for the most popular garden trails, visitors can relax, enjoy and absorb the magic of each garden they visit. One of the strengths of Hunter's Garden Marlborough is the organisation that has up to 300 photo-snapping and notebook carrying gardeners on the same garden trail without tripping over each other or coinciding with another coach-load in the same garden. Quite impressive.
Hunter's Garden Marlborough also assembles an impressive range of speakers, from Ireland's Helen Dillon, to enthusiastic culinary maestro Michael Lee-Richards. Unfortunately Helen Dillon's crushing lecture tour was telling by the time she reached Hunter's Garden Marlborough and her speech, although informative and packed full of nuggets of advice, sounded a stressed and as if she were 'getting through it' for the seventh time in only nine days. Faulty slide projection reduced the sharpness and quality of the slides, and her audience was clearly restless after the interval. (Incidentally, feedback from her Dunedin lecture, the third on her itinerary, was full of praise for her infectious enthusiasm and wonderful talk.)
Other speakers, giving their talk only over the weekend, were full of bounce, fun and 'joie de vivre'. Biddy Barrett took us through a myriad list of desirable trees to plant; Neil Ross sorted out the boring and uninspired gardeners and taught us to really look at our gardens and to improve the design and planting. Hunter's Garden Marlborough participants rated other speakers and workshops enthusiastically.
The range of speakers, the ability to walk from venue to venue, made Hunter's Garden Marlborough friendly, fun and gave loads of opportunities to socialise and meet other, passionate gardeners. And if you needed help, it was there. This is a festival that involves a whole community with large numbers of numbers of volunteers lining up to assist, guide and advise the visitors
 Throughout, for the garden visitor, Hunter's Garden Marlborough is simply a great time and loads of fun. After all there are wonderful gardens to see and inspiring speakers to listen to. And if all the gardens don't all appeal then that is gardening, the potential for diversity in style and taste, and the courage to stay with your ideals even when flying in the face of fashion. Lovers of minimalist would have been converted to a softer, more romantic look, as there were few minimalist gardens to be seen. |
