The garden was once a weedy plot of land in the Te Henui Valley in New Plymouth. It borders the remnants of a coastal swamp forest and pa site and neighbours the river reserve and Te Henui walkway, leading to the city and sea.
When David Clarkson and Valda Poletti purchased the land in 1972, they began the task of taming the 0.2-hectare plot. Kikuyu grass, gorse, fennel and blackberry covered the land. They began landscaping and also built their own home, a 'posh hut,’ designed to blend into the surroundings.
They wanted a bird-friendly garden with grasses, climbers, herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees. However, they noticed an absence of tui in the area. Carefully planning native plantings on their property and the surrounding reserve they set out to increase the populations of tui and other nectar feeding native birds living in the area.
To get the tui into the garden Valda and David planted flax plants in the adjoining Te Henui Reserve to complement the existing kowhai and pohutukawa trees.
By the year 2000, a resident tui population in the Te Henui Valley had become established. Concerned there wasn’t enough food for them in the winter David and Valda made a commitment to start feeding a sugar/water supplement to help this population through the months when nectar and berries were in short supply. David made bamboo troughs attaching them to the kowhai trees, filling them with fresh syrup daily.
They have succeeded admirably and now have a well-established population of tui enjoying the garden and surrounding reserve.