This has been our very loved home for the last 9 years, I loved it from the moment we saw it and always will. It's a Fraemohs house built in the style of a warm Swedish log cabin. It is a completely wooden house with huge vaulted ceilings upstairs. It was built 30 years ago but liquid pine sap still seeps from knotholes in the walls and smells strongly of pine. It was in a derelict state when we bought it. The carpets were so bad we were living on bare boards for years before we were able to afford to replace the flooring.

The garden was so overgrown we didn't even know there was a garden shed when we bought it. I cleared all the old plants out except for 7 mature trees and landscaped and planted my dream garden. I wanted a garden that had autumn colour, summer fruits and spring blossom. I wanted trees that change with the seasons. I love trees, my favourite are Australian Eucalyptus so the garden was all about trees, not flowers or vegetables.

I planted a home orchard of cherries, apricots, plums, grapes, peaches, manderine, lemons, hazelnuts and all kinds of berries. Blueberries, boysenberries, raspberries and Chillian Guava. Christchurch is quite cold but sunny, with a lot of chill hours so all these fruits grow very easily and vigorously. If you only have room for one fruit tree in this climate, plant a compact Stella Cherry tree! It is small and produces thousands of cherries every year. The Santa Rosa plum and Moorpark Apricot also products a lot of fruit and are strong healthy trees. The fruit in our garden is amazing, apart from a few dwarf peaches and nectarines that were removed, I didn't need to spray them with any pesticides. 



I love autumn colours and it has been so much creative fun to layer red, gold and crimson coloured Japanese Maples against blue and green conifers. Maples are incredible by themselves but when they are paired together the colours blend and are incredible. My favourite colour combination has been the yellow gold of the coral bark maple close to a glowing australian purple wattle. 



I planted two beautiful Australian snow gums, one is a fully grown tree now. I'll miss waking up and seeing the birds in the huge bay tree, all the windows in our house have full views of leafy trees, the trees have made our house a complete hideaway. In summer evenings the bird song in the Golden Elm at the drive is amazing!

 

I'll miss all my trees! Especially the Canadian sugar plum that has white fairy-like blossom, The incredible Mount Fuji white blossom tree, its glowing yellow orange autumn leaves, my Snow Gums, the Bay Laurel, the huge Dawn Sequoia that our neighbour hates. The Arizona Blue Ice conifer that smells and reminds me of West Melton primary school in the 1970's when it was only a little country school amongst yellow paddocks and macrocarpa trees. I'll miss the tiny red Oregon Sunset Maple that I planted after our mini longhaired dachshund died. and also the maple that blossoms first with bright red leaves in the spring. I'll miss the star flowers of the Mauve scented Boronia. I'll miss saying every year for 9 years, "THIS year we'll have heaps or hazelnuts!" But we never did because I found and planted the pollinator tree years too late. I'll miss the smell of the Santa Rosa Plums as you eat them, they are perfumed. I'll miss the sugar sweet candy floss smell of the Chillian Guava that you can smell throughout the garden in the summer. They were Queen Victoria's favourite fruit and she had plants specially grown for her. I'll miss the slowing growing willowy looking Rimu tree that I did not plant but I always felt like it was the soul of the house. 

I'm moving partly because Christchurch is such a cold place, I was trying to layer some of the trees in my garden against the cold easterly winds but keep the sun as well. Western Australia has a mediterranean climate so the garden I'll plant next will need trees that grow well in sandy dry soil. My Japanese Maples would not survive the hot sun or winds and the stone fruit trees would not fruit well as there are little chill hours for making blossom. I'll always need a Eucalyptus with smooth pale bark for shade and an irridescent purple/blue Australian Wattle! I'm also going to plant tall Italian Cypress, oranges, avocado, pomegranates, a bay tree, nuts, olives. Lavender and scented green herbs will make up the ground cover. I can't wait to find new Australian plants as well. I'm a massive introvert, so all new friends! 



I just listened to the book "What if cats disappeared from the world?" while painting the star stickers. The theme was that when you gain something you have to lose something. Selling my dream home with my trees was the hardest thing ever but I'm looking forward to endless summer, idyllic beaches, rural Australia (my dream place) and new adventures. There will even be an ending to the art I have been making for Stella Murals for the last decade. I'll miss the perfect place in which I painted all those millions of stars as well, so many memories of Stella Murals and my great customers...But something new is coming in 2025. Stay tuned!