Millbrook Manor Magazine Feature👀🌿

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Our email inbox is probably not too dissimilar from yours.  There’s the usual notices of deals and specials, along with odd speculative email suggesting we’ve been hacked and need to pay up in bitcoin, and the promises of vast wealth from a distant relative overseas, if only we could provide our bank details.  Maybe we should just provide the bitcoin blackmailers details instead?

Anyway, this long preamble is because this week the inbox included an email from a client, sharing details of their home which was recently featured in NZ House & Garden Magazine (click here to read the full article).  It was a wonderful surprise and took us back to a project which we have fond memories of.  So we thought we’d revisit the project this week.  But before we do that, we should extend our thanks to them for sharing, and also to Baxter Design for their quite brilliant vision. 

Home and Garden Magazine

Millbrook Manor was an Award of Excellence Winner at the 2022 New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects Awards.  Using over 3000 plantings, it is full of hidden delights and nooks, from which the owner and visitors can enjoy their own privacy in an open setting with that glorious alpine backdrop.  A very clever trick, the design make particularly pleasing use of:

 

Tilia Platyphyllos (European lime).  

The heart shaped leaves of fresh green seem to radiate health, drawing you in with an abundant freshness that only changes come late Autumn, when the season is embraced with a vibrant yellow shade.  In the summer months, white-cream flowers emerge but are not overpowering.  Their scent is stronger than their appearance, attracting honey bees and creating a sweet scented walkway.

Tilia Pleached Avenue - Millbrook
Pleached Platanus - London Plane - Millbrook

 

Plantanus acerifolia (London Plane). 

 

The fast growing, deciduous tree has a wonderfully clean trunk which, over time, begins to take on a mottled appearance as it begins to flake.  The large maple like leaves form a naturally rounded head which has been pleached to form a canopy.  This is a place where you can make the most of the sun, until it’s time for a short, summer nap as you move your chair below the leafy canopy.

 

Completing this unique setting are:

 

CARPINUS betulus ‘Fastigiata’ – Upright Hornbeam

ZELKOVA serrata – Japanese Elm

BUXUS sempervirens – English Box, Hedging, Cones & Spheres

LONICERA nitita – Box Honeysuckle

PRUNUS lusitanica – Portugal Laurel, Hedging

ou can view a brief video of the property here. It really is quite a remarkable landscape.
Footage shown two years apart.
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