AWATERE VALLEY

MARLBOROUGH

ROOTED in the

HERITAGE, MAGIC AND

CREATIVITY of the NATURAL

WORLD.

The Garden.

Barewood remains one of Aotearoa’s oldest and most treasured private heritage gardens. Designed and developed over 55 years, it is a mature garden, bountiful in romance, escapism and surprise. Since 1970, the garden at Barewood has been led forward with heart, soul and pure determination.

The garden at Barewood radiates from the traditional 100 year old homestead, around which the 4 acre garden has evolved. At the top of a sun baked farming valley, a flourishing oasis reveals itself. The climate is harsh and the clay ground tough, yet here you’ll discover an established and lush garden, ambrosial in fragrance and layered with texture and colour.

In spring, the century old homestead sits swathed in cascading white wisteria and old fashioned fragrant roses, under which the wide veranda offers a cool reprieve in the heat of a hot summers day. From the house, each aspect offers something very different; from the kitchen, brick paths lead to a formal and well established potager with a mix of speciality fruits trained over canopies, self seeded flowers, aromatic herbs and ever changing produce providing an abundant and playful display. Across sweeping lawns, unusual herbaceous plants and shrubs create structural borders with interesting colour combinations threaded throughout. To the side of the homestead sits the original cob cottage dating back to the 1800's which now houses a thoughtfully curated gift shop.

The garden consists of many rooms, all created to compliment the house and connect with the wider landscape.

In 2025, Barewood Garden changed hands for the first time in its history. Under the stewardship of new hands, regenerative practices are being implemented around the estate, whilst honouring the formal and classic style of the garden.

About

Visit us.

From November through to April the garden is open for visits with prior arrangement. Please contact us via email or phone to organise a time before arriving.

Email - rosie@barewoodgarden.com

Phone - +64 (0) 21 150 4948

Throughout the seasons, we host a series of engaging and hands on events, take a look at our events page to see whats on.

If you have any enquiries relating to the garden, or something you might like to host or see here, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We love sharing this inspiring space and would love to collaborate with like minded individuals and institutions.

Nothing really beats autumn colour in the garden. Along with crispy evenings and fresh mornings. Crunchy leaves and cosy fires and all the other excellent autumnal goodness 🍂🕯️

On March 29th we welcome the wonderful Tanya of @heartstonebaskets to host an in depth willow obelisk weaving workshop here at Barewood.

Enjoy a day of total immersion in the garden as the colours shift to autumnal glow. The day is fully catered including morning tea, a garden lunch and afternoon nibbles. We will frame the day with a morning and afternoon of hands on weaving under the tuition of skilled craftswoman Tanya.

Throughout the day, you will create your own willow obelisk to take home. Beautiful in its own form, this classic and sculptural piece will support climbing plants as they grow in your garden.

You will also learn and practice techniques and skills to apply to further weaving projects, all within a small and intimate group.

Moderate hand strength is required for this workshop and everything you need for the day will be provided.

If you have any queries at all please drop us a message. We can’t wait to welcome you to the garden✨

Bear in mind this is the first draft of a much bigger project, but this seasons result offers us a glimpse in to how we can expect the meadow to feel moving forward.

As soon as the weather warmed we were out there casting wildflower seed. We bought a pre made mix and then added in some extras. Originally I had been collecting wildflower seed from the side of the road and in nature, believing that if it’s thriving there it would thrive here but i think we lost confidence and panic bought a mix as we were running out of time to sow in the spring window.

Germination was patchy, and where trees had been removed and stump ground the seeds struggled to take, combined with being on a slope , compaction and some serious run off, we lost some seed. Many hours have been spent weeding out areas as well.

In those patches though we took the opportunity to test transplanting some beautiful grasses hoping they would self seed and populate some of the barer areas, which has been a success in part. We are now seriously battling some rampant clover if anyone has any top tips to get on top of that!!!

Although there’s plenty to work on, the wildlife within the meadow has been a joy and they really don’t seem to mind the clover one bit , birds diving in and out and insects and bees galore. Watching it evolve and different plants and flowers come and go is fascinating, and there is something about watching one square-ish patch revolve in colour that is magic. From a field of mud you can’t believe your eyes when pink and red poppies reveal themselves, to purple phacelia and cornflowers, and now yellow dill flowering and delicate white queen annes lace, Prairie coneflower, and cosmos.

As I said, first draft! Now to get weeding out the clover if anyone fancies a mindless task, we’ll get the kettle on!

The leaves dropped in autumn along with our hearts. This was not a happy time here in the garden at Barewood.

As autumnal finery fell to the ground, the branches of our Malus Tschonoskii avenue were left exposed and riddled with an unsightly disease. Oh dear. We suddenly had some difficult questions to answer, but before we asked ourselves, we asked everyone else seemingly more qualified to deliver such dramatic news. Arborists, disease experts, experienced gardeners. The general diagnosis - fire blight. The treatment - manage with diseased limb removal until the inevitable removal of all trees, or act fast now, slow the spread across the garden and remove the trees. With heavy hearts, we opted for the second. Sacrifice one to save another.

Originally planted 35 years ago, and grown to create a cathedral like feeling as you wandered out of the potager, this avenue would gracefully take your hand and encourage you down its cool shaded aisle, to a hand crafted bench that sits beneath an extraordinary liquid amber. Gorgeous.

Then jump back in to September 2025, where grace and genteel was well and truly absent, the task began. One by one Pete chainsawed the trees down, chained them to the tractor and dragged them away and with each luckless tree we dragged away half the lawn too. To add insult to injury, poor Pete then had the completely thankless task of immediately burning the diseased wood - that’s 30, 35 year old green wood trees. You can imagine…⛽️🔥🧯

As I said this was not a happy time at Barewood for anyone involved or near said tree removal. BUT let me reassure you we had a plan. Once the mud had settled we got to rotavating, raking out grass and marking out a new green space. Without the trees, so much light gets in, so this felt like the perfect opportunity to try and regenerate this highly compacted clay soil….

More to come….

Little velveteen jesters slippers, dancing around down the woodland walk. These martagon lilies feel like a fabulous Christmas flower but are long gone by the end of December. Jewel red beauties that are always admired when they are here♥️♦️

A shout out perhaps a little late as she’s flowered and fled, but we always get asked about this fabulous tangle when in bloom.

✨Buddleja alternifloria, the fountain butterfly bush.

In spring I always think the front of the house feels like something from a fantasy children’s book, friendly soft monsters leaping off the verandah, and this character really puts in a show! Brilliant scent as well, and luminous colour. What’s not to love!

✨Join us on centre court this sunny Sunday, December 14th, 3pm - 8.30pm for @l_o_v_e_a_l_l_ , a refined wind down to your week. The perfect Sunday session before the festive madness✨

🪩Bring a rug, sit back and soak up the incredible soundtrack, brought to your ears by the one and only @coltercarson

🍾 @soif.marketstreet will be popping up as a garden bar, providing all your beverage needs, hard and soft 😏

🦀Mark Wilson Diu will be whipping up some magic in the kitchen, reimagining the sausage sizzle, ft king crab and venison.

🔊And none other than sub_urban_records will be providing the finely tuned all important sound system, for your listening pleasure.

🎾This is the first instalment of @l_o_v_e_a_l_l_ , a music event championing the music you’ve haven’t yet heard, but wish you had. It’s all set to be a goodie.

🌿We can’t wait to welcome you to the garden to indulge your senses🌿

🎟️Tickets and further information is available at the link in our bio.

📷 Photos by the incredible @peanutbuttervibesphotography during @gardenmarlborough this year.

❗️Please note - This is an R18 event, so we cannot accept children. No dogs allowed either. Even Whisky and George will be away!! Thank you ⛔️🐕

Some bobs and bits from around and about 🌿✨

Boscobel at dusk as the birds go to roost. We’ve been welcoming travellers from across the globe this week, independent travellers and groups, and can’t wait for a lovely garden club picnic in the garden tomorrow.

And that got us thinking, do you want to host your own picnic in the garden for a special occasion or get together? Drop us a message, the stage is already set! ✨

Just dropping this video on the grid as it’s a beautiful and poignant and needs to be shared 💚

Well what a weekend @gardenmarlborough!
11 GM buses, all enjoying morning or afternoon tea and wines, with 1 independent bus and catered lunch tucked in the middle of it all. We worked really hard to get the garden looking amazing for our first year and we’re very proud of how it presented!

We never could have pulled off this weekend without our amazing friends and family lending us a hand serving teas, running the shop, and helping tidy up as we whizzed around chatting to all the wonderful visitors to Barewood.

The garden was the star but in very close second come ALL the humans who helped us sail a smooth sea into Garden Marlborough 2025. Thank you everyone involved in the organisation and execution of such a full on event!

And a massive shoutout to @iampetegreen for building me a table in the shop out of a concrete trough two days before show day - you are the best!✨

The whole garden is getting ready to POP for @gardenmarlborough , we can’t wait to welcome you all, what a fun fun fun and rewarding prospect xx

She comes and goes in a such a flurry it’s enough to make you weep. Delicate, heavenly, another reminder of the magic of all nature and all plants. Although we got rather hammered by the high winds, it could have been so much worse…it could always be worse. And after a chunky team clean up (thank you family team!) and a little mow, oh my gosh the garden is POPPING!! We can’t wait for @gardenmarlborough , the garden will be putting on an absolutely cracking show by then and for anyone who can’t make garden Marlborough, drop us a message and we will look forward to welcoming you another time.
Wishing you all a beautiful day x

Watching nature and a garden unfurl is the simplest food for the soul. Welcoming visitors and hearing their stories and learning from them is such a privilege and a joy! Nature, and connection feel like the cornerstones of so much - soothing, inspiration, creativity, nourishment. So much more. Isn’t it wonderful that a garden can create that. Thank you @carolynferraby and Joe for creating a space with all those things and entrusting us to lead it forward 💚

We have some fantastic events in the pipeline, @gardenmarlborough , then our workshop and garden lunch with Tanya @heartstonebaskets. Link is in the bio and spaces are limited! Following on from there Pete has something up his sleeve that we are so excited to bring to the area which will encapsulate everything I’ve waffled on about here!

And in the meantime it is business as usual. We are open for garden visits and teas morning or afternoon, as well as enquiries for small intimate events & special occasions xx

Everyday in the garden offers new observations, and opportunities to learn something new, even in the slower months. I have a feeling that doesn’t change no matter how much you already know. The gift of a garden. Carol told us recently that the trillium pictured is about 40 years old and it amazes me that it looks so soft and velvety when new growth appears. Everything is popping everywhere you look, layers of green, pops of colour.

1 - Trillium giganticus
2 - Angelica pachycarpa
3 - Euphorbia epithymoides

Yesterday was all hands on deck with our merry band of wonderful helping hands, weeding, mulching, tidying and general readying for today - the first day of the season. We welcomed our first groups this morning and what a joy it was, as the first couple through the gate graced us with an engagement! 💍 Happy days. Then on to morning tea for a gorgeous group of ladies who enjoyed fresh cheese scones and homemade marmalade. A great start to the season, and as always, an honour to share this magical green oasis with the outside world for garden visits, special events, workshops and more.

New buds and blossoms fire a spring in our step as we prepare to open for the season, but sometimes the most important task is to stop and admire before it’s all change again. In a garden so charmingly demanding, we sometimes forget to look up ✨🌸🌿 plants from left to right -

• Prunus shimidsu sakura
• Vibernum plicatum mariesii
• Acer negundo violaceum

#gardentoursnz #visitnz #barewoodgarden #vibernum #acer #sakura #marlboroughnz #destinationmarlborough #gardendesign

And just when you think the frost has passed she unravels her icy blanket once again. Hopefully the last but I suppose you never know, nestled in a valley. Perhaps with it unravel the young seedlings you have just sown!❄️🌞🌱🫠

An ever evolving peppering of sweet peas, violas, creeping thyme, nigella love-in-a-mist and larkspur, all tumbling around together, intertwined and clearly loving living life in the companionship of each other. No ground to be seen, just a mass of luxurious greens and small flecks of velvety purples and blues.

This little patch in the potager gets a lot of attention from us in the form of serious eyeballing. It just completely self sustains itself and I adore it. It sets an example for us to practice across the rest of the beds here, lovely little guilds all just looking after themselves without too much intervention!

Dawn in autumn in the Awatere Valley. The birdsong still strong and gorgeous, above fiery leaves and fresh air 🍂

Little garden George, a trusty garden companion. Never far away and such good company. Naughty boy though, lying in the beds!!!!!!!

And just when you think everything is off to bed for winter, a camellia, I think, peaks through the layers of evening green. Nestled in behind a spidery grevillea also beginning to unfurl, the garden illuminates in a completely different way in this autumn light, although this image does remind me a lot of 9pm in mid summer!
But with darker evenings and a chill in the air, it’s the perfect reason to get the fire roaring and bunker down earlier. So much love for all four seasons.

There’s an obvious beauty at Barewood, the heritage home and the undeniably gorgeous garden, all gracefully dancing together. The striking genius loci.

But snuck away, behind gates and trees you find even more magic. The stable at Barewood stole our hearts as soon as we saw it. Steadfast through earthquakes and floods, it’s an important slice of history that we treasure and a piece of the puzzle here at Barewood, a clear nod to its farming heritage. Joe used to ride out to work on his horse from here, until he discovered motorbikes. It’s stored tractors and stuff and bits and bobs for years, as barns so helpfully do. When we landed in to Barewood it was pleasingly empty, but crying out for a good clean down. So we donned brooms and blowers and got to work. Cobwebs cleared and saddles buffed.

And now we have this glorious space, open to interpretation✨

As we slowly bed down the gardens outside, we start to stoke the fires inside to keep the radiators toasty and rumbling. It’s not even really properly cold yet, but there’s nothing I love more than a twinkling ember and the deep satisfaction of burning your own firewood and slowly dismantling the epic wood stack. We have so many ideas fizzing around our heads for house and garden projects, but we’re trying to do one thing at a time, so now the cooler weather is closing in, fully lined curtains have jumped to the top of our priority list!

We haven’t properly unpacked yet even after 7 months but it’s a joy to see loved pieces from the UK out and bringing a sense of home to this new place. Every piece has a story and a place, and this new landscape welcomes them beautifully ♥️

That early autumn light illuminates so differently, the pendulum swinging from season to season. When the heat dropped off and the plants perked up, it might well have been spring for how fresh the garden looked. Sprightly limes and lovely low shadows, dancing across the boards 🌿🌞

Mornings are cool to the skin, dew on the lawn underfoot. The light is changing and the plants are perkier. The leaves are shifting colour as a spectacular show unfurls across the garden. There is so much thought and creativity threaded throughout the garden at Barewood, every season touched. Time to sit on the roof and soak it all up in the evening light 🌞

Friendly giants swaying in the autumn sunshine, you can’t help but smile at a sunflower. These beauties are another @koangainstitute delight.

Just a week since we sowed the soil improver mix we have lift off, and the vetch is coming along beautifully too. We’ll share some of that over on our stories and if anyone has any tips for cover crops and vegetable growing in general, we would love to chat!!

Xx

#nzgarden #newzealandtourism #barewoodgarden #offthebeatentracknz #gardenvisitnz #gardenlover

Praise be, for gorgeous local businesses who prop us up in the areas we fall short on. @gray_floral always have a brilliant and varied supply of seedlings ready to roll, healthy and strong. We’ve not successfully seeded swathes of veggies ourselves yet so we’ve loved picking up some potager bumper packs from these guys.

We’ve been preparing some of the beds in the potager with a common vetch cover crop from @koangainstitute , ready to plant our brassicas straight into, as well as also trialing some beds of the soil builder. So excited and curious we are! Playing with some regenerative methods to get the soil in tip top condition for our spring plantings 🌱

Remembering the first flush of roses in the garden ✨

The garden has been pouring stone fruit, plenty to give away, plenty pickle and preserve and plenty for the birds. These peaches are little, but perfectly formed - we didn’t thin them out as they were growing, but they are still juicy and luscious to pluck from the tree or off the ground.

We pickled some with ginger, and made peach and chilli hot sauce. Perfect pantry fillers for those chilly days ahead x

Michaelmas, twinkling in the borders and providing a lush fullness along the brick wall, baked in summer sun. Loving all the greens that are appearing, then peppered with colour as blooms erupt!

Luisa in action. A day plucking, prepping and jarring plums for winter. Up the ladder, under the branches, in the kitchen. Life at Barewood is unfurling, and we can’t wait share more of it with you as our plans come together slowly but surely x

A Saturday haul, slowly collecting pinecones for winter warmth, and fresh blooms from the in laws farm. Nothing like a bit of pottering to soothe the soul, and nothing like fresh flowers in the house to brighten your day x

Through the orchard gate, you’ll find Luisa. Tucked towards the back, heavy with fruit. Tomorrow is liberation day, as we pick her bounty!

Soft pillows in dreamlike hues. Hydrangeas are reliable bloomers at this time of year it feels!

The darlings of the moment ♥️ captured in that magical dusk light as the moon was rising 🌙

The wild plum thickets are alive; possums, pigs and plums in abundance. No one is going hungry as these plump jewels ripen and fall. Happily nestled between pine trees, and sprouting in surprising places around the land. We’ve been busy collecting baskets of these beauties to roast and make some kind of jam. Simply roasted with the stones in, removed when cool and then jarred. Sweet without added sugar, a tart finish on the back of the tongue. Delicious.

Take a bow, her majesty has arrived. There’s an extraordinary display to be seen by these velvet pink lillies. 7ft extraordinaires that must be seen to be believed.

💫✨Wishing everyone a joyful, prosperous and peaceful 2025✨💫

✨✨Orlaya blooming like stardust last week✨✨

These were the first lilies to open, a gentle yellow paving the way for a riot of pinks shooting up in other borders!

The Potager. A beautiful space, serene and green, the potential for abundance is major, but in complete transparency it’s the piece of the garden that challenges us (Rosie!) the most. I can’t speak for Pete…maybe he finds it breazy!

The birds have a keen eye over the potager, waiting for us to leave so they can swoop and dive for their dinner. They can see it all from up there, so we’ve taken inspiration from those sneaky swoopers and gone birds eye to create a map of the potager. The plan being to make copies and use to plan and record what goes where, when, and why. Basic steps to understanding the rhythms and making the space work for our needs.

Does anyone have experience in potager planning? We would love to hear your thoughts and experiences wonderful gardening community🌱

The many guises of green, very much on display and especially gorgeous in the evenings light 💫

Besides gardening, there’s a whole lifetimes worth of other jobs around the homestead that require our attention. You will never be bored at Barewood. We never truly sit still.

Pete and his great friend Steve spent some serious energy and time clearing some fallen trees, splitting logs and putting some hours on the tractor. So the other evening we whipped up some burgers, grabbed a wine and had an epic bonfire to clean up the clean up. Jobs done and wine time all in one happy swoop.

We’re in the middle of a glorious sunny bustling day of tours here at Barewood. The knowledge and generosity of experience that comes with every member of a tour group - well, you can’t put a price on it. It’s honestly just such a joy to welcome people, to talk candidly and with curiosity, and hear their gardening experiences of the garden. Every garden is unique, as is every gardener, and there’s always a surprise around the corner to put us to the test. The twists, turns and teaching of caring for a garden.

Cornus kousa ‘Satomi’. Wandering the garden at Barewood you’ll spot a number of spectacular dogwoods all on display, giving joy at every turn. They are quickly becoming a favourite of ours.

Striking, sculptural and delicate, they’re hardy to the wild mix of elements we experience here in the beautiful Awatere Valley. In the small amount of time we’ve been here, we’ve experienced gushing floods, icy hail, cracks of thunder, strikes of lightning and bikini weather heat, and no doubt there’s more to come. So, we like hardy!

Everything’s getting big and blousy and gorgeous, and the borders are filling up day by day.
In total transparency, our plant knowledge has a few rather gaping holes in it but we are gaining knowledge everyday. It helps that when @carolynferraby pops round I follow her around scribbling down plant names, without a shadow of a doubt spelling them completely wrong, but doing my best. And that’s what we’re here to do at Barewood - just give it our very best shot, and continue to share this magical wonderland with all of you online and in person.
If you would like to visit the garden or have an idea, send us a messge. We are open for garden visits, and if you’d like morning tea on the veranda that can be arranged as well 🫖☕️

#nztravel #nzgardens #gardensofnz #newzealandlife #newzealandtourism #newzealandtrip #marlboroughnz #marlboroughgardens #amazinggardens #greenspaces #getoutside #greenfingers #bespoketravel #luxurynztravel #nzhiddengems #newzealandfinds #newzealandvacations

The unfurling of various giant poppies around the garden is such a happy surprise. Every offering a different colour of papery petals, they come and go pretty quickly too. A blip of beauty in an ever changing landscape.

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AWATERE VALLEY

MARLBOROUGH

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