When you step into Maryanne Calver’s garden, your mind slows, the weight of the world lifts and you never want to leave the peaceful setting with a view of farmland and northern Tauranga Harbour.

“I also feel like that,” said Maryanne, who will once again showcase her rural piece of paradise on Lindeman Rd, just north of Katikati, to the public next month.

“You might have a garden on a farm but it’s usually got trees all round it – here you can look right out to the sea, as well see the stock and land. I think that’s what draws a lot of people.”

Another seat with a spectacular rural outlook to the harbour. Photo / Merle Cave

Her garden is one 19 peppered throughout Katikati district that will open their gates from 9am-5pm on November 8-9 for the 2025 Katikati Garden Ramble organised by the local rotary club.

From Knyvett Rd near Aongatete to Athenree Rd north of town, a range of landscapes, designs, plants, trees, flowers – and most importantly inspiration – will be on show in the name of charity. “You’ll find a reason to smile in each one you visit,” said Maryanne’s husband Rod Calver, a Katikati Rotarian.

Truly hers

Maryanne’s garden is truly hers – “I planted everything here,” she said of the once blank canvas.

The Calvers bought the property in 1990 and moved onto it in 1992. “We’ve been here 33 years now,” said Rod. “It was a bare paddock.”

Maryanne recalled it vividly. “The homestead was here – it needed a lot of help – and it had a little white fence around it, that was it.”

She used polythene pipe to form the shape of her garden three decades ago. “Before, when you came home you drove straight off the road and down below the house,” said Maryanne.

“I’d never lived so close to the road, so I decided to curve the driveway into the property and remove the driveway below.” Now a lovely pergola, with grape vine running over top, sits below the home with a brick courtyard and rosemary bush.

Thirty years ago Maryanne got to work pretty quick. “A lot of my first plantings were from throw-out bins at local garden centres.”

Show-stoppers

Today, there’s large trees – a magnificent Magnolia ‘Star Wars’ and a lone kauri are show-stoppers. But it’s the 25-year-old cherry tree captivates you with its gnarly branches extending like tangled, twisted arms.

The 25-year-old cherry tree with its gnarly branches extending like tangled, twisted arms. Photo / Merle Cave

Maryanne admits she got carried away with tree planting in the early days and now has an arborist visit annually to trim or remove a few. “It’s amazing what he can tidy up in a few minutes!”

Today, among the trees, are beautiful pockets of flowers and plants, with daffodils, fuchsias, and roses all having their own space. The latter benefits from donated horse poo.

“I like it [the garden] because it has lots of little ‘rooms’, and you never quite know what’s round the next corner – even I sometimes don’t know! said Maryanne.

“There’s always something flowering or happening – no matter what time of year,” said Rod.

A bird bath among blooms. Photo / Merle Cave

He said a wooden fence originally made the garden’s small boundary. “That fence was originally along the new driveway but it’s been shifted out further and further over the years! The joke was when would it meet the stream down the hill?”

Downhill toil

It hasn’t yet, but the couple have toiled downhill too. In 2017-2018 the Calvers planted out the stream, at the bottom of their land, with 2.5 hectares of natives. “It doesn’t quite connect up to the garden but it certainly provides a great backdrop,” said Rod.

These days Maryanne has a gardener visit once-fortnightly to keep things ship shape. Plus Rod is always mulching, weeding and tending to the garden where she directs him.

Difficult to choose a favourite area, Maryanne said she does enjoy sitting on a wooden seat tucked into the rear right-hand corner. “It’s lovely sitting there looking out onto the hills.”

Below the garden is the couple’s Speckle Park cattle on luscious green grass, the stream, and northern Tauranga Harbour on the horizon.

Maryanne and Rod Calver in their Lindemann Rd garden. Photo / Merle Cave

Maryanne only opens her garden to the public in the Katikati Garden Ramble because the event’s profits goes to local causes. “All money raised from the garden ramble goes directly to the community projects that Rotary supports,” said Rod.

Tickets for sale

Those wanting to snap up tickets to the 2025 Katikati Garden Ramble on November 8-9 from 9am-5pm should get in quick, Rod said. Tickets cost $35 each plus booking fee from: www.theartsjunction.org.nz/event-details/katikati-garden-ramble-2025

Once tickets are purchased, ramble-goers will receive a PDF of the garden ramble booklet. Then they show their ticket at any garden gate on the ramble to redeem a wristband to enter the remaining gardens. Only assistance dogs are permitted on the ramble, and cutting can only be taken with permission of the landowner.

Rod said Kings Seeds will be open on Saturday, November 8, at 189 Wharawhara Rd – a great stop to compliment the ramble. There will also be raffle, which boasts a lovely new garden seat prize built by Katikati Menz Shed.