The Bee Valley Flower Farm has proven a magnet for bumble bees. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
There is a bit of a buzz about this year's Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival.
Among the five new gardens opening for the event is the Bee Valley Flower Farm, which has proven a magnet for bumble bees.
Christina Hannam got a little bit more than she bargained for when developing the Bee Valley Flower Farm in Lepperton about five years ago.
Christina Hannam pulls stems of Alstroemeria from her Lepperton Bee Valley Flower Farm. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
It soon began attracting swarms of bumble bees - but Hannam is allergic to bee stings.
"I was a little bit worried, but just kept on gardening and I've had two stings since we've been here both from bumble bees and I haven't had a bad reaction. It was actually a huge relief.
"The first sting I actually thought might be a spider because I didn't have a bad reaction, but the second sting I saw the bumble bee so I knew it was a bumble bee and I just had a little bit of swelling but nothing like I do get with the honey bees."
She said that was a relief - for her and her family.
"My family's had a few concerns too knowing my allergy to bees that they may come home one day and find me just stung in the garden and that's the end of me, but no it seems like I'm going to be around for a while that's not going to happen here."
The Bee Valley Flower Farm has proven a magnet for bumble bees. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
The last time Hannam was stung by a honey bee, her foot got so swollen she could not drive.
The bumble bees were feasting on Alstroemeria when RNZ visited.
"They're a great cut flower they last for at least a week sometimes up to two weeks in a vase.
"They way that you pick them is that you just pull the stem and you just get a huge long stem and then you can strip it and cut it to the size that you want.
"When you're picking them for a cut flower you want them when the buds are still closed but just about to start opening, so then they will open in the vase."
The Bee Valley Flower Farm has proven a magnet for bumble bees. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
The Bee Valley Flower Farm was offering a Pick Your Own Bouquet Experience and Gourmet Country Picnic event over the festival and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust was also visiting - with a bumblebee nest in tow - to explain their role as pollinators and how critical they insects were to food production.
The chook house was the focal point of the Mud Bucket Farm - part of the Sustainable Backyards Trail - which was running simultaneously with the garden festival.
Bronwyn Burkett explained the concept.
"For example, you can be pulling weeds and throwing them directly to the chickens, so the chickens are going to be processing all those weeds that you're not wanting to be putting into your compost.
"And as we move around the chicken coop we've actually integrated gardens around the outside, so that the chickens have access to fresh herbs and silverbeet that we grow specifically for them."
Bronwyn Burkett says a Potager style garden should be designed to be esthetically pleasing while functional. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Burkett said the planting had the additional benefit of providing shade for the hens in warmer months.
The garden was designed in the English Potager-style to be aesthetically appealing while functional.
"So, as you come through the garden the first thing you'll see is this beautiful flower garden here which is also integrated with our fruit. So, we have dwarf peaches and nectarines and all the rest is flowers just so when you come through the garden you're greeted with smell and something beautiful to look at."
The Bee Valley Flower Farm has proven a magnet for bumble bees. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Across in Inglewood first-time garden festival exhibitors, Chris and Gloria Smith's garden - L'amour - was a celebration of romance and second chances - complete with a Lover's Lane.
"The garden is something that we can both do together and we do, but it's not all beer and skittles occasionally the skittle gets skittled.
"It's a passion that we share and if you both have a vested interest in it you get the same amount of pleasure back out of it, so since sex is out of the question we're out in the garden you see."
Chris and Gloria Smith's Inglewood garden is a labour of love. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
Their curvaceous suburban garden, developed over the past decade was a riot of colour where irises, rhododendrons, roses and hydrangeas were the stars.
Gloria reckoned Chris was an okay gardening companion.
"He can be a bit strict, but we always kiss and make up if we have a problem."
Chris and Gloria Smith's Inglewood garden. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
As well as 44 gardens, the Taranaki Garden Festival also included dozens of workshops and events from culinary experiences to creative classes.
It runs until 9 November and was a big deal for the local businesses, attracting more than 7000 visitors to Taranaki in 2023 and contributing more than $5 million to the regional economy.
Running alongside it were the Sustainable Backyards and Sustainable Farms trails, the Taranaki Arts Trial and the Taranaki Fringe Garden Festival.
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