New Plymouth, on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, is home to about 60,000 people. With its mild climate, generous rainfall and rich free-draining volcanic soil, it’s a paradise for plants – and for people who love gardening.
Tucked right in the heart of the city is Te Henui Cemetery. It opened in 1861 as New Plymouth’s first public cemetery and was largely full by the early 1950s. Around two-thirds of the site, about 10 hectares in total, is made up of older-style graves – and that’s where we do our gardening. I believe that cemeteries, especially very old ones where nobody is freshly grieving, can be places of enjoyment and happiness – principally gardens with “lots of reading material”.
Te Henui Cemetery is such a place, with most graves dating back between 85 and 165 years. A hidden gem, it has a mix of rolling ground, sea and mountain views. Surrounded by a lovely patchwork of native and exotic trees, it’s mostly protected from the wind, which helps everything grow that much better.
In the 1980s, the older part of the cemetery received a much-needed facelift. It had been in poor shape – cracked headstones, broken concrete grave tops and very few visitors. The damaged concrete was removed and new trees, like magnolias, crab apples, cherries and cedars were planted, along with hardy shrubs such as rosemary, conifers, hebes, roses and hydrangeas. But as time went on and council priorities shifted, the maintenance faded.
I stumbled across Te Henui by accident in 2009. As a keen gardener, I was immediately struck by the potential to beautify the space. While the trees had grown into a lovely mature canopy, giving the space a park-like feel, there were still many unused or reserved grave areas with no planting at all. It was clear that very few families were tending graves and that’s still the case today. I thought at the time, “this place needs some love”.
So I started out small. I began pulling weeds and adding bulbs, perennials and shrubs. After about six years, I was joined by Mary, then my husband Rob and later Paulene. The four of us make up the core team and you could say we’re a bit obsessed! Depending on the season, we also have another seven wonderful volunteers who garden with us as their schedules allow.
All up, our group puts in around 300 hours a month. We’re out there most afternoons, all year round. Many volunteers find us after visiting the cemetery during the Taranaki Garden Festival or hearing about us through word of mouth. The New Plymouth District Council Parks team is also very supportive. They mow the large lawns, collect our green waste and help out with mulch, compost, some plants and arborist support – not to mention the provision of wheelbarrows and a storage facility.
We do the hands-on stuff – trimming, deadheading, weeding, planting, rearranging, fertilising, pruning, mulching – you name it. The community gets involved too. Local growers, garden centres, the Parks team, garden clubs and even casual visitors donate plants regularly. We garden as we see fit, with the understanding that if a family member comes by and wants to make changes at a grave, they’re welcome to do so. It’s their plot, after all – though in reality, that rarely happens.
The focus is on keeping the garden vibrant all year round, with as much diversity as possible – we make sure it’s welcoming to bees, birds and monarch butterflies. Visitors especially love the daffodils and tulips in spring, and summer brings lilies in full bloom. This is definitely NOT amenity-style low-maintenance gardening, but we like it that way!
Our work hasn’t gone unnoticed. Since 2018, Te Henui Cemetery has been a proud part of the spring Centuria Taranaki Garden Festival. We also earned a 5-star rating on TripAdvisor and even caught the eye of Australian gardening expert Michael McCoy, who added Te Henui to his North Island garden tour.
But our biggest fans and most regular visitors are the dogs walking their humans! We also see photographers, genealogists, garden enthusiasts, tourists and artists, as well as students passing through daily from the adjacent high school.
Some people assume that cemeteries are sad, gloomy places, but Te Henui is anything but – full of colour, activity and delight. It’s a celebration of life rather than a reminder of loss – a sentiment echoed by visitors. For me, it’s my happy place. I’m 63 now and I plan to be at Te Henui, trowel in hand, for many years to come.