26 February 2015
This month we had the pleasure of meeting with Vicki Rule of Garden Mentors. Vicki’s passion for gardening began in 1991 under the encouraging eye of her neighbour. Since then she has developed a successful business in Tauranga that allows her to meet the needs of gardeners tailoring her solutions to their individual experience, knowledge, time and budget. Vicki offers a range of services, on-site consultation, planting plans and full landscaping projects and she has the added benefit of being able to provide the plants from her nursery.
We arrived to find Vicki arranging chairs, she had prepared a presentation for us. Throughout the next 1.5hrs she spoke confidently about the common design errors gardeners make, answered numerous questions about our own gardening problems from how to fix a disastrous camellia pruning to the best alternatives to weed mat. We appreciated the numerous plant recommendations for difficult situations, explaining the challenges of different soil types and in particular how to overcome clay soil.
It was interesting to hear about the common error of failing to have a plan or theme for your garden – this resonated with each of us – Vicki suggests choosing three words that you would want someone to use when describing your garden. For example, elegant, refined and beautiful or fun, bright and surprising. When you have ‘a moment of inspiration’ at the garden shop or elsewhere and are considering adding a plant/sculpture/bird bath or some other item to your garden, you can use these three words to check if the addition is consistent with your overall theme. This is a good way to ensure you don’t go spending time or money on something that will actually detract from your existing plantings/garden plan. 
We enjoyed touring Vicki’s Nursery as it gave us an opportunity to see a range of plants up close and ask numerous questions about growth, growing conditions and combining plants. The final piece of advice Vicki offered was one none of us expected. Tea. Remember to take a cup of tea in to your garden and sit down, just take a moment to enjoy your garden – because that is what gardening should be all about.
Thank you Vicki for sharing so much of your time and wisdom with us!
Becks
