Red’s fabulous shed
If there ever was a haven that for sheer pleasure’s sake, epitomised the intellect, talent, eccentricities and the story of one person, it is Red’s Shed. By Nicola Belsham. Photos by Sam Cameron.
Growing up on a sheep farm in rural Wanganui, Kim Walton (AKA Red), spent most of her childhood outdoors, at one with nature. She developed her interest and respect for plants through the various cuttings her keen-gardener parents would collect from their neighbours’ properties. Kim would make small arrangements – literally within the single flower of a foxglove.
A diploma and accreditations in Organic Horticulture and Permaculture Design followed. As sole owner/operator of her Wairarapa business Red Horticultural, Kim’s successes embrace some very high-brow gardens and designs of the region, including 15 years at Tablelands of Martinborough. In her own time, Kim has a penchant for rescuing and replanting historic trees that are earmarked for destruction. She is widely known for her down-to-earth attitude, coupled with an innate and sensitive appreciation for natural aesthetics.
Perhaps what gives Kim’s garden designs their character of organic structure, finesse and sensitivity, is her old-school approach. She only works from her drawing table – with paper and pencil in hand. It is her father to whom Kim attributes her eye for natural aesthetics. Dick Walton is a brick collector. As niche a hobby as trainspotting, he canvasses the country for antique and named bricks, often carrying a dozen of these treasures in his car to offer as swaps.
Likewise, Kim has been collecting her own treasures and it is her recently and meticulously constructed ‘shed’ that is their Elysium. A final and carefully considered resting place for native timbers, window frames, power poles and cross arms, stain glass, French tiles, antique bricks, railway sleepers and other pieces of delight, that have been composed from a lifetime of recognising the beautiful in ordinary objects.
Prudently engineered into a detailed and balanced structure by arborist, colleague and good friend, Bastian van Benthem, Red’s Shed far exceeds her first plan of ‘nail-gunning it all together’. Pre-drilled, enforced and bolted, the result that with loving patience from partner Brent, took a year to build, is a solid structure that is unconventionally suggestive of the love-child between Wellington’s Begonia House and a Hansell and Gretel forest cottage.
It is magically detailed. Sitting peacefully in the stain-glass, high rafter, natural timber setting, with layers of plants cascading down from glass insulators, is like witnessing the tropical rainforest as it takes over an ancient civilisation.
Magic detail. Photo by Sam Cameron.
Every single detail has a story to tell. The surrounding path of named bricks being the double-ups of Dick’s collection; internal sarking was exchanged for a box of beer; pride of place and framed by an Art Nouveau fire surround is a copper toilet cistern, procured in the 1990s from the gardens at Victoria University.
With just enough room for five people to sit with a G&T, the view from the purposeful juxtaposition of glassed frames overlooks the meticulous wildness that is Kim’s garden. Dahlias and peonies nestle among native plants; the living feel of timber from parts of echoing power poles and totara fence posts add additional structure to the topiary that pops out of exploding foliage. Every aspect of the garden feels alive, breathing and as if somehow delighted to be sharing the same space.
Magical, beautiful, tranquil, Red’s Shed belongs to the garden itself.
Kim Walton (AKA Red). Photo by Sam Cameron.
