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Growing edibles in a small space

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to lay out a small, productive garden and you happen to be in Christchurch, a must-see is the Curator’s House Demonstration Garden in Christchurch Botanic Gardens. Not only will you glean some wonderful ideas on growing edibles in a small space, you’ll be able to treat yourself to a fine dining experience in the Curator’s House restaurant – a taste of New Zealand with a touch of Europe inspired by Spanish-born owner and chef Javier Garcia.

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Varied veges

The formal vegetable garden set in raised beds demonstrates the best seasonal crops for the home garden; composting and crop rotation; various methods of plant support, watering systems and pest control. Garden and restaurant staff collaborate on which crops to grow and enjoy experimenting with new varieties.

Perfect potager

Flowers grown as companion plants to vegetables fill the potager area and create a lovely, semi-wild sight in high summer. The flowers, including calendulas, nasturtiums, borage, phacelia and violas, have many uses – they deter insect pests, provide garnishes for the chefs and attract bees and other beneficial insects

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Natural philosophy

In line with Christchurch City Council’s Natural Step policy, proprietors Javier and Jackie Garcia are committed to running Curator’s House restaurant and garden according to the principles of environmental sustainability. Food waste from the restaurant is either composted in the garden or sent to a pig farm. Suppliers are selected very carefully, packaging is recycled wherever possible and the garden is run organically.

Demonstration garden

The garden is divided into six distinct areas: informal orchard, potager, formal vege garden, berryfruit area, herb garden and composting area. The role of the garden is twofold. First of all, it is an important educational resource for visitors and secondly, it provices fresh, organic produce for the restaurant. Various planting and composting methods plus a range of paving and fencing materials, provide a raft of excellent ideas for onlookers. Plants are labelled and a blackboard in the summerhouse outlines the monthly planting plan and gardening activities.

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Fabulous fruit

Fruit trees in the demonstration garden are trained in various ways. All make good use of vertical spaces, such as fences, archways and walls. Apples are espaliered or trained vertically to keep them compact. Pears grow over arches, forming a charming central walk and vista. Dwarf and triple-grafted fruit trees also save space, while hedges have been formed using Chilean guavas and feijoas. Kumquats, lemons and olives grow in large tubs, adding a stunning decorative element to the garden. The berryfruit section houses strawberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants and blueberries along with cocktail kiwifruit and grape vines growing over pergolas – imagine the delectable desserts!

Heavenly herbs

Fresh herbs go hand in hand with fine food, so the herb garden is an essential for the Curator’s House chefs. They duck outdoors to pick bunches of fresh seasonal herbs for use in flavouring and garnishing. The plant that attracts the most comment from visitors is the giant cardoon with its spectacular silver foliage and thistle-like flowers. A Curator’s House favourite (which happens to be mine also) is highly aromatic lemon verbena – simply delicious!

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