This New Zealand couple created a lush oasis at Fishermans Bay

The narrow winding road that regularly led busloads of domestic and international garden tourists down from the peninsula’s spine to Fishermans Bay was all but destroyed in late 2021, during the biggest storm event in decades. Finding themselves cut off as they scrambled to get home from a visit to nearby Akaroa, the pair abandoned their vehicle and negotiated the steep climb down in torrential rain. They spent hours precariously skirting slips that had carried their only access road down the gully. With their home completely cut off for a week, and the gate padlocked to prevent vehicle access for many more, the Simpsons were grateful for their generator and helicopter drops of provisions, knowing neighbouring bays were worse off than theirs.

The Simpsons shared this story as I sat guzzling elderflower cordial after a morning spent photographing the breathtaking magic of their garden at dawn. It was hard to imagine the large tumbling beds of naturalistic planting clinging on for dear life as a torrent of water attempted to wash it all down to the sea. Instead, I had sat in the stillness of twilight, listening to bulls roaring at each other across paddocks and the magpie chorus counting me down for the sun’s breach of the horizon, the orange beams finding their focus and touch on the South Island, choosing to be here first each day before any other point.

As it is today, the garden is settled across approximately two hectares of steep, east-facing hillside. While it is mostly frost-free, drought and wind provide the most regular challenges. These are followed by occasional bouts of catastrophic wet, as was demonstrated that summer.

Giant macrocarpas shield the garden’s back, supported by the undulations of the land, pockets of mature native bush, and a grid of terracing and paths. Unable to be viewed in full from any single point, this is a rewarding garden to explore, moving from the wide, traditional perennial border to the outstanding swathes of hebe plantings, cool native forest, and cascading naturalistic beds that rest across the hill like a tapestry.

Jill Simpson has attached herself to gardens and the natural world her whole life. As a country girl surrounded by nature, she spent more time on the moss garden around her doll’s house than the house itself. As she matured, her passion for gardening was only tempered by her passion for art. Between children, she studied fine art and art history, moving on to landscape design and landscape architecture: papers that allowed her to work as a designer while raising her family as a single mother.

After meeting Richard Simpson 25 years ago, the couple split their time between their Christchurch-based families and their peninsula property, driving backward and forward until the children had grown and Fishermans Bay could be­come their full-time base. In those busy years, the garden was comparatively low-key to match their schedule. Over time, they extended the garden out from the house, with the planting and tone a reflection of Jill’s interests at each stage.

Passionate about their area’s natural heritage, they planted pockets of natives, initially picking only from the palette of plants that grow there naturally. Extending from this, they planted further, using natives from all corners of the country.

Inspired by the meadow and prairie plantings of the Northern Hemisphere, Jill sought to reinterpret this style through the substantial use of hebes. She admits that her vision was never truly achieved by using the native flowering shrubs for this concept, frustratingly curtailed by gaps when a plant failed for any given reason.

“Each new area reflects a time in my gardening evolution. The soil and shelter available provided challenges and opportunities, dictating what could be grown and what I could manage to maintain. All new gardens present a gardener with much more of a challenge while they establish. One of the joys of gardening is that one is always learning,” shares Jill.

As her experience and understanding of her environment grew, Jill turned her hand to mixing natives with exotic plants. This was a chance to reignite her long-held passion for peren­nials and the establishment of a new area of garden inspired by the planting philosophies of the New Perennial movement.

This part of the garden seems to sing with the seasons, moving through fresh spring greenness, saturated patchworks of summer colour, and the long-limbed, rich tones of autumn. Come winter it is a sea of shifting texture, neutral and fascinating in its quiet state before being cut back, ready for the cycle to begin again.

Jill explains, “This garden gives me a wonderfully complex and challenging way to express the creativity that I think lies within my personality. I love the planning and the searching for new and interesting plants and ideas. I love the making and the weeding and am at my happiest working outside in the garden. Then there is the deep satisfaction and joy I feel when all of the things that make gardens happen come together: nature, the weather, a burst of inspiration or chance in the form of a seedling aligning successfully to be experienced by me, by Richard and by visitors to the garden.”