When you visit Mary-Anne Calver's place you quickly get caught up in her oozing passion for her country-style garden, which quaintly breathes in its surrounding farmland and animals.

Mary-Anne and Rod Calver at their Lindemann Rd property, featuring in Katikati Rotary's Up The Garden Path ramble this month.

'I just love how certain parts frame the farmland and the animals, bringing it into the garden,” says Mary-Anne, as she takes in the view of her trees enclosing a lush green grass backdrop. 'It's just me.”

Marry-Anne and husband Rod bought their 35 acre Lindemann Rd property 21 years ago and had an idea 'to plant the house out”. Marry-Anne began by planting trees against the roadside to block out vehicle noise and re-configuring the driveway to wind up to the house.

'Then it [the garden] got bigger, and bigger and bigger,” says Rod.

'I've planted trees every year – and now I've had to take some out,” admits Mary-Anne. 'This because you have to see the views [of north Tauranga harbour] as well as the trees.”

Today, the property has a bountiful orchard, including a banana tree, loads of roses, a drift of daffodils among silver birches 'which are beautiful in spring”, and a quaint cherry tree shaping an intimate setting below their home's deck, with perennials and other flowering varieties sprinkled throughout the wandering garden's landscape.
Marry-Anne nearly says she wishes she planted her garden with more organisation, but then takes back her regret, saying: 'I planted things when I felt like it”.

'And now you never know what's going to pop up next.”

Mary-Anne and Rod's property is part of Katikati Rotary's Up The Garden Path garden ramble fundraiser, showcasing 13 gardens on November 9-10 from 9am-5pm daily.

Katikati Rotarian Murray Steward, who is organising the ramble, says this year's event offers an eclectic mix of 13 gardens, open to the public, from Aongatete to Athenree.
Gardens include those that have been worked by their owners for 20-odd years to grounds being grown by newcomers to the world of green-fingers.

'We have five new gardens to show people, we have two that we haven't used for a number of years and we have a few favourites returning as well,” says Murray.

'We run it as a fundraiser – and all the money – 100 per cent – goes to youth and community projects in the Katikati area.”

Tickets for Up The Garden Path ramble cost $20 per person for the weekend (November 9-10) from 9am-5pm, and are available at Katikati Information Centre.