The Garden's Story
A SANCTUARY FOR THE SENSES
Welcome to Sacred Blessing Sanctuary Garden & Sculptures — a unique garden on beautiful Waiheke Island, ovlerlooking Sandy & Enclosure Bays. Two acres of established gardens, sculptures, and a safe haven for butterflies, birds and bees.
Scroll to wander the story, chapter by chapter.
Chapter One
GARDENS THAT BREATHE COLOUR
Beautiful New Zealand native plants — flaxes, Karaka, grasses, Totora, cabbage trees weave as a backdrop to classic exotics, roses our favorite, creating gardens that remain full of interest through every season. Restful places abound: settle into a garden seat and enjoy the birdsong while you watch the bees at work. And below the surface, the abundabce of lifeforms, the worms and the microscoipc lifeforms are the true workhorses in the garden.
The plantings are designed to flower in overlapping waves, so there is always something in bloom to feed the pollinators and to delight the eye.
Chapter Two
ART MEETS NATURE
Art is everywhere. Sculpture is nestled into the garden as a series of surprises — discovered around corners, half-glimpsed through foliage, revealed at path's end. Stunning works are hidden among the plantings, each placed to draw you deeper into the garden.
Chapter Three
A SAFE HAVEN FOR POLLINATORS
The garden is a haven for butterflies, during the summer months, when monarchs are bred. The butterfly nursery protects them from preditors in their early stages of their remarkable life. Native birds shelter in the kānuka and scurry amongst the roses, and the hum of bees follows you wherever the flowers lead.
Every planting choice starts with a simple question: what will this give back to the butterflies, the birds and the bees?
Meet the monarch
Chapter Four
Clay, salt air & a lack of water
Waiheke Island has a history of being an extremely challenging environment to establish a garden because of its poor soil conditions, that is, being predominately clay with very minimal topsoil, coastal winds laden with salt spray and long hot/dry summers with little rain.
Pushing the boundary of plant diversity in this challenging landscape is something we strive for. The garden is completely hand watered to conserve water.
Chapter Five
EVERY GARDEN STARTS WITH ONE PLANT
What began as a bare sloping lawn, turned into a vege patch, has grown, year by year, into the garden you see today — one bed, one tree, one sculpture, and a perfectly hand picked rock started it all. The garden continues to evolve with every season, and there is always another refresh quietly taking root.
The first clay is turned with a spade, like a hammer hitting a nail, becoming the first vege patch.
The gardens open to visitors for the first time as the plantings start to take shape.
Sculpture arrives — art is woven permanently into the garden's paths, rock work and plantings.
A sanctuary for butterflies, birds and bees — still growing, still evolving.
SPRING IN THE SANCTUARY
Nature is truly inspiring — and a welcome escape
from all that is this world.
A hidden sanctuary, a sacred blessing.
Plan Your Wander
FIND EVERY PATH, SEAT & SURPRISE
Click the map to open it full size
Uses your phone's location to place an approximate "you are here" dot on the map. In a two-acre garden GPS is approximate — you'll see a soft circle showing roughly where you are, not a pin-point.