The most defining thing about Gil is that she is omnipresent - Gil is everywhere. At almost every event, be it one of our own Garden Design Society talks or outings or weekends away or trips to Melbourne – she is there. She will pop up at whatever festival or tour you can think of – the annual Gardens Trust Conference, Jo Connor’s trips to Australia and California, Warwick and Sue Forge’s very first foray into South America – Gil was there.

Garden photography may be a large part of Gil’s life but it is by no means the whole story. Art and artists have always been central and her photographic record of the social, political and environmental issues of the last 50 years would be second to none.

Gillian Mary Taverner was born in 1934 during the Great Depression, the eldest of three children on a farm out from Bulls near Tangimoana on the coast, at the mouth of the Rangitikei River and due west of Palmerston North where her husband-to-be, Patrick Hanly grew up.

Gil’s upbringing was a bit different to Pat’s – her father, born in 1896, had won a scholarship to Cambridge in the UK to study medicine and was there when the First World War broke out. He joined the British forces and saw service in Gallipoli and elsewhere, returning home only to find that his father had sold the farm – except for the house and a hundred acres of fertile fattening land. Gil’s father Lewin, “then spent the rest of his life breaking in a farm where only lucerne really thrived on the sandy soil”.

Some of Gil’s earliest memories are of visiting her grandparents’ home, with its huge macrocarpa trees and exotic white pigs. “It was a wonderful garden for hide-and-seek and we used to play in the hedges, run up and down the raspberry walks – there were hazel hedges too, artichokes and figs.”

Her mother, Alison Kebbel, had grown up between Levin and Foxton and was ‘mad on horses’. Interestingly, she too painted and drew and was interested in native plants in particular – planting a native bush strip at her new home.

Gil learned by correspondence until she was twelve, escaping into the big farm vegetable garden whenever she could to avoid the housework. After that came a stint at Nga Tawa, a boarding school near Marton, where our patron Bev McConnell also went. The art classes must have been good as both proceeded to Canterbury Art School.

Pat, on the other hand, had left secondary school in Palmerston North before matriculating (there were certainly no art classes there) and soon found himself apprenticed to a hairdresser as his parents deemed this a safer path to a regular income than the life of an artist. At least it was creative. Pat enrolled in night classes and then gained entry to the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts as a non-diploma student - where of course he met Gil.

The couple lived overseas in London and briefly in Ibiza for several years from 1957 until the early 60s when they moved back home with their son Ben. In 1963 they moved into Windmill Rd and baby Tamsin arrived. Gil was then fully occupied looking after the children and her vegetable garden and fruit trees – well-trained by her mother to grow everything from cuttings.

Her photographic career began by chance in the 70s with an unexpected trip to Fiji: “I bought a camera at the airport and photographed the Pacific Arts Festival which was on at the time.” Such was her delight at having a camera in her hands again, she took a photography course at Elam.

Photographing gardens for a living took centre stage when Julian Matthews, editor of the New Zealand Gardener, saw one of her pictures and asked her to photograph gardens for the magazine in the early 90s. Her entrée into books had come a few years before via her friend Susan Firth who wanted to follow up her successful book on ferns with one on city gardens – instead of the usual big country garden theme. Gil had been using black and white so she had to learn about colour photography, travelling all around the country with Sue, discovering small gardens of interest. Before long she was plunged into a world of garden books for Godwit, Moa, Batemans and New Holland, among others.

Her interest in subtropicals was sparked by Noel Scotting of Whitford. “She was a lovely woman who had been to South America with Arno King and seen Roberto Burle Marx’s work.” From there she met plant collectors like Dick Endt and Russell Fransham who was then at Earthsea with his partner. A book for the Heroic Gardens Festival was soon inevitable, then one on the Ellerslie Flower Show – all of these interspersed with trips overseas with Julian to photograph gardens in England and America besides constantly trekking around NZ. More books followed throughout the 90s – many for Paul Bateman and also the Trinity Garden Festival.

Gil always says she likes the bigger picture – not close-ups – but concentrating on how things relate to each other. Being artistic, she particularly likes design and found an outlet for that in photographing Landscape, a book featuring top New Zealand designers, first published in 2005. It was followed by The Artful Gardener in 2008 – in some ways a compendium of some of her best work illustrating the theme of gardens as an art form, allowing the gardener to explore his or her creativity through a living, growing, ever-changing medium.

For someone who has been at the forefront of conflict so often throughout her life, Gil is remarkably tolerant of people with different viewpoints. She sums it up by saying “gardening people on the whole are really very nice – we just don’t talk politics!”

Summary of an interview by Rose Thodey, AGM, 17 June, 2015.
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Society members are familiar with Michael’s enthusiastic and scholarly presence in our midst and many have been taught by him at Unitec. Not so familiar may be the story of his inspiring and rewarding career in the field of Landscape and Garden Design.

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Bristol born, Michael emigrated to New Zealand in 1961. His training in landscape architecture was in the Lincoln post-graduate DipLA in 1986-7. A group of four on the course decided on the somewhat audacious plan as brand new graduates to form a Landscape Architecture practice, Isthmus Group, in Auckland. So into the turmoil of the stock market crash, the Isthmus Group began in January 1988.

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After a lean two years the practice took off and in 1993 won the George Malcolm Award for the design of the Brown’s Bay Town Centre. The practice flourished and has an impressive body of work across the country.

In 1990 Jacqueline Margetts approached Isthmus Group to take over the teaching of Garden Design History at Unitec, which evolved into Michael taking personal responsibility for that whole course.

The following years saw Michael take up a position as the first Landscape Architect in the Urban Design Division of Auckland City Council becoming responsible for drafting the special character zones and criteria for the district plan - a move to preserve built heritage at neighbourhood level, the first such effort in NZ. During his years with Auckland City Michael furthered his passion for garden history by participating in and later leading a specialist study tour of Italian gardens.

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Lecturing at Unitec continued until he took up a tenured position. In 1993/4 Michael assisted Rod Barnett in drafting the 4 year BLA degree which commenced in 1996.

Roles as President of NZILA, judge and convenor of judges for the Ellerslie International Flower Show, and LIANZ national awards chair of judges seemed natural extensions of Michael’s dedication to the academic and creative development of Garden Design.

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In 2001/2, a small group of staff at Unitec led by Ian Henderson, Lesley Haines and Michael met regularly to explore the formation of a Garden Design Society, in the belief that garden design deserved its own professional organization. Michael visited staff of the Garden Design School at Leeds University to discuss their experience of the UK Society of Garden Design and how it managed accreditation. He found there was no accreditation! Despite this fact and with great resolve, Michael drafted the NZ constitution, to include accreditation.

In June 2002 a group of fifteen formed the Society, subsequently becoming the signatories of the application to the Registrar of Incorporated Societies. Thus the GDSNZ was born in August 2002. Michael joined the National Committee elected that day under the chairmanship of Ian Henderson and has remained on the committee ever since, serving as Chair from 2005 – 2007.

His experience, wisdom, and willingness to guide and support the Society through these important early years is greatly appreciated by us all. May your active contribution as a Life Member, long continue Michael!
Garden photography may be a large part of Gil’s life but it is by no means the whole story. Art and artists have always been central and her photographic record of the social, political and environmental issues of the last 50 years would be second to none.

Gillian Mary Taverner was born in 1934 during the Great Depression, the eldest of three children on a farm out from Bulls near Tangimoana on the coast, at the mouth of the Rangitikei River and due west of Palmerston North where her husband-to-be, Patrick Hanly grew up.

Gil’s upbringing was a bit different to Pat’s – her father, born in 1896, had won a scholarship to Cambridge in the UK to study medicine and was there when the First World War broke out. He joined the British forces and saw service in Gallipoli and elsewhere, returning home only to find that his father had sold the farm – except for the house and a hundred acres of fertile fattening land. Gil’s father Lewin, “then spent the rest of his life breaking in a farm where only lucerne really thrived on the sandy soil”.

Some of Gil’s earliest memories are of visiting her grandparents’ home, with its huge macrocarpa trees and exotic white pigs. “It was a wonderful garden for hide-and-seek and we used to play in the hedges, run up and down the raspberry walks – there were hazel hedges too, artichokes and figs.”

Her mother, Alison Kebbel, had grown up between Levin and Foxton and was ‘mad on horses’. Interestingly, she too painted and drew and was interested in native plants in particular – planting a native bush strip at her new home.

Gil learned by correspondence until she was twelve, escaping into the big farm vegetable garden whenever she could to avoid the housework. After that came a stint at Nga Tawa, a boarding school near Marton, where our patron Bev McConnell also went. The art classes must have been good as both proceeded to Canterbury Art School.

Pat, on the other hand, had left secondary school in Palmerston North before matriculating (there were certainly no art classes there) and soon found himself apprenticed to a hairdresser as his parents deemed this a safer path to a regular income than the life of an artist. At least it was creative. Pat enrolled in night classes and then gained entry to the University of Canterbury’s School of Fine Arts as a non-diploma student - where of course he met Gil.

The couple lived overseas in London and briefly in Ibiza for several years from 1957 until the early 60s when they moved back home with their son Ben. In 1963 they moved into Windmill Rd and baby Tamsin arrived. Gil was then fully occupied looking after the children and her vegetable garden and fruit trees – well-trained by her mother to grow everything from cuttings.

Her photographic career began by chance in the 70s with an unexpected trip to Fiji: “I bought a camera at the airport and photographed the Pacific Arts Festival which was on at the time.” Such was her delight at having a camera in her hands again, she took a photography course at Elam.

Photographing gardens for a living took centre stage when Julian Matthews, editor of the New Zealand Gardener, saw one of her pictures and asked her to photograph gardens for the magazine in the early 90s. Her entrée into books had come a few years before via her friend Susan Firth who wanted to follow up her successful book on ferns with one on city gardens – instead of the usual big country garden theme. Gil had been using black and white so she had to learn about colour photography, travelling all around the country with Sue, discovering small gardens of interest. Before long she was plunged into a world of garden books for Godwit, Moa, Batemans and New Holland, among others.

Her interest in subtropicals was sparked by Noel Scotting of Whitford. “She was a lovely woman who had been to South America with Arno King and seen Roberto Burle Marx’s work.” From there she met plant collectors like Dick Endt and Russell Fransham who was then at Earthsea with his partner. A book for the Heroic Gardens Festival was soon inevitable, then one on the Ellerslie Flower Show – all of these interspersed with trips overseas with Julian to photograph gardens in England and America besides constantly trekking around NZ. More books followed throughout the 90s – many for Paul Bateman and also the Trinity Garden Festival.

Gil always says she likes the bigger picture – not close-ups – but concentrating on how things relate to each other. Being artistic, she particularly likes design and found an outlet for that in photographing Landscape, a book featuring top New Zealand designers, first published in 2005. It was followed by The Artful Gardener in 2008 – in some ways a compendium of some of her best work illustrating the theme of gardens as an art form, allowing the gardener to explore his or her creativity through a living, growing, ever-changing medium.

For someone who has been at the forefront of conflict so often throughout her life, Gil is remarkably tolerant of people with different viewpoints. She sums it up by saying “gardening people on the whole are really very nice – we just don’t talk politics!”

Summary of an interview by Rose Thodey, AGM, 17 June, 2015.
James has worked on designs throughout New Zealand along with a number in Australia, Japan and Singapore. James has a passion for garden design which is site sensitive, connects with the land and is responsive to the clients needs. James believes good garden design is an opportunity to create functional, engaging outdoor spaces and also gardens with diverse and healthy plant ecologies.

A number of projects James has worked on projects which have been featured in leading New Zealand and international media.