Stretching out across 26 hectares is one of New Zealand’s biggest and perhaps most impressive gardens that no one knows about.
Based just outside of Wyndham in Southland, the Maple Glen garden has been a work in progress for more than half a century.
However, what’s even more impressive is just how few people have worked on it.
Muriel and Bob Davison – now 78 and 90, respectively - began their gardening journey 50 years ago when they bought the farm and the veggie patch started to grow.
“I didn’t really envisage it at all. I just had more room for plants and kept pushing the fence down the hill. pinching bits off the calf paddock for years,” Ms Davison told 1 NEWS.
Each year the garden grew, plants flourished and so did the local birdlife.
The Davisons spend most daylight hours in the garden, fearful to take a holiday in case it suffered without them.
These days, son Rob and his partner Kimmy help with the heavy lifting.
The garden's open to the public, but that's not widely known, even though Maggie Barry’s garden show visited in the early days.
Take a tour of the beautiful natural wonder with reporter John McKenzie in the video above.
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