Gardens

A neglected Wellington backyard becomes a flourishing garden

A Wellington family have spent the last seven years turning a neglected backyard into a flourishing garden complete with an outdoor kitchen

When Anastasia and Tom Hickey discovered a 620-square-metre property with a big backyard in the east Wellington suburb of Miramar, they were over the moon. “The large backyard was definitely a big drawcard when we were looking at the property,” says Anastasia. “All we could see was the potential and how lucky we would be to have such a big blank canvas. A lot of Wellington has been subdivided now, so, having three kids, the backyard was a dream come true.”

The downside was it had previously been used as a home garage/workshop and there were two vehicle-inspection pits in the garden that had to be filled in and concreted as well as numerous potholes, bags of rubbish, washing machine and car parts and an old lawn roller. None of this deterred the enterprising couple, who were thrilled to buy the place and have spent the last seven years turning the neglected backyard into a flourishing garden complete with an outdoor kitchen.

Words by: Carol Bucknell. Photography by: Nicola Edmonds.

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