Jan 1, 2001
Organic NZ Magazine - January/February 2001.Dee Pigneguy visited Margaret Peace’s garden in Blenheim.
In Blenheim for a weekend conference, a friend and I decided to take a respite and visit Margaret Peace, a woman who has done so much for science, education, conservation and permaculture.
Margaret’s one-acre organic garden on the Wairua Plains is an oasis in the surrounding vineyard monoculture. A riot of colour on her road verge greeted our arrival and it was a relief to see red-flowering manuka, overshadowed by the tall flower spikes of the encroaching flax, after the constant rows of poles and precise lines of wires everywhere, supporting the newly planted grapes – sure signs that industrial agriculture is taking root in Marlborough.
“When I came here,” Margaret recalls, “this was an open paddock – typical Marlborough grazing land with grass grubs and sparrows.”
One-third of Margaret’s property is used for intensive food production. Twenty-five different varieties of vegetables are set in ten rectangular beds, separated with bark and sawdust for weed control. Huge cauliflower and cabbages, leeks, asparagus, and onions grow, ready to eat. Raspberry canes and red currant bushes smothered in ripening fruit grow alongside the vegetables. Nature has no garbage, it recycles everything, as do Margaret’s compost bins providing rich fertiliser for her food crops.
Silvery-grey wormwood, planted to control goats’ external and internal parasites, now sprawls rampant marking the gate to the fenced fallow area next to the garden, once used to support the two milking goats. Now, it’s home to four hens who are self sufficient, feeding on insects, worms and herbage while fertilising the ground in preparation for the annual planting of corn and pumpkin.
Margaret’s specially designed wind-gate leads back into the third of the property designed for human habitation. It includes a lawn, flower-beds, strategically placed seats, her house, potting shed, glass house and separate small dwelling for the Willing Workers On Organic Farms (Woofers) who have helped and been inspired over the years. The house overlooks a brilliant green lawn and driveway ablaze with flowers, cascading roses and the stunning Marlborough daisy. Fruit trees, including cherry, guava, nashi, pear, feijoa, apricot and five varieties of citrus add height, variety, and a year-round supply of fruit.
Margaret is clear in her aims. “I wanted to show people what they could do, rather than the wasteful use you see all around you. I also wanted to put into practice the principles of ecological land use, so when I wrote articles people wouldn’t just pass me off as some urban know-it-all.”
As well as planting a diversity of trees, shrubs, herbs and vegetables, over the past 23 years she has slowly developed a habitat and food-source for a wide range of insects and bird species necessary for biological control.
The final third of the property has been used to re-establish some of the native plants that grew in this region one hundred years ago.
“It was a devil of a job establishing the first plants of mahoe and karamu for my native forest. The temperature often fell to minus eight degrees in the winter and I used plastic covers to shelter them. Once they got away, they grew two metres a year and then I planted the valuable podocarps,” recounts Margaret.
This forest has provided Margaret with firewood over the years and she is adamant that CO2 from burning is less damaging than, “mechanical things with their noise and dependence on fossil fuels!”
Elderberry, barberry and old man’s beard continue to invade from the margins and Margaret is also kept busy trapping and controlling predators – feral cats, possums and ferrets. Nothing is wasted here either, the trapped pests are buried in her vegetable garden.
The sweet scent of hinau flowers pervades the cool air, while brilliant purple poroporo flowers provide welcome splashes of colour. Margaret points out natives planted as memorials to her women friends and comments on hutu (Ascarina lucida), kaihuia (Parsonsia heterophyllia) and hebe hilkiana, plants I didn’t recognise. Taking a tentative bite of the proffered horopito leaf, my mouth is afire with its peppery taste.
Margaret laughs, “One of my friend says this is a museum, not a forest!”
And perhaps it is. Where else will you see many of the native species that have disappeared from the region?
We step into the sunlight and are greeted by her specially designed yin-yang garden. Stones containing a waterfall are surrounded with grasses and the whole area is encircled with plants from the Garden of Eden – mulberry, olive and fig, kiwifruit and apple. The visual surprise provides a stunning contrast to the forest.
Margaret is adamant, “Design the garden right and nature will do the work.”
For the past ten years, she has taught permaculture courses as well as an appreciation of native plants. Change happens person by person, and Margaret’s garden has provided not only an inspiration to many people but also given them design guidelines to facilitate that change.
