HOW 1YA'S GARDEN GROWS

New Zealand Listener, Volume 6, Issue 142, 13 March 1942, Page 12

HOW 1YA'S GARDEN GROWS

Beauty Built Out Of A Rubbish Heap

OST city buildings-even in \ | places like Wellington — have backyards. The majority of these backyards are small, they are usually concreted or asphalted, they usually contain rubbish-bins, old pack-ing-cases and Such odds and ends. And usually they are depressing places. When the present 1YA building was first erected the eighth-of-an-acre space left over by the architect could hardly have been dignified by the name backyard, It was not concreted, in fact it was little more than a heap of rubble and clay thrown out from the excavations which the site necessitated. * * But in spite of its. unprepossessing appearance the small strip of vacant ground aroused the interest of the station manager, A. F. O’Donoghue, an enthusiastic gardener, He rolled up his sleeves and got to work. He added topsoil to the sterile clay and made a lawn. Wherever he

went he collected plants and cuttings, propagated them and With his surplus traded for more among his friends and acquaintances and 1YA’s garden grew in density if not in extent, until to-day the rectangle of lawn is surrounded by a concentrated belt of flower and foliage. Everything is there in its season and there is always a show of blossom. At present the summer flowers are still in possession. Among them there are fifteen different geraniums showing, collected from all parts of the Dominion, one coming from as far south as Ross, From various parts of the Auckland province have come eleven varieties of pelargonium and within twenty yards of the traffic of Shortland Street bloom a purple clematis, a fine double purple fuchsia and a tiger lily, all from Westland. From the garden (which lies well below street-level) almost up to the gate stretches a steep’ terrace border of hydrangeas and around the lawn below are serried ranks of carnations. °* .