Juliet Nicholas/NZ House & Garden
High country gardener Jan Taylor and the arches formed by hornbeam trained up deer fence posts; the pot is encircled with Hebe pinguifolia.
Among Jan Taylor’s favourite garden tools (after the pruning saw) is her four-wheel farm bike, a Can-Am Defender in distinctive pink camouflage livery. “It’s great for carting garden stuff away, a lot safer on these hills than a truck and the tray is big enough for the dogs.” That about sums up where and how she lives too, on a high country station in Canterbury 450m above sea level, where mountains, rivers and winds from all quarters, throw challenges aplenty at a gardener.