Gardens back in bloom

Work has resumed and people are back at Hamilton’s Gardens.

The operations manager of one of Waikato’s key attractions, Gus Flower, said “we had been toing and froing, but we realised people were so keen to get back.” 

Some gardens remain closed to maintain social distancing, but the Enclosed Gardens are open from 10am to 4pm, last entry at 3.30pm.

The Chinese Scholars’ Garden were temporarily closed this week for some maintenance work.

“You really notice when people aren’t there, nature didn’t miss us at all,” says Gus “the amount of activity and birdlife we have make the gardens quite special.”

During lockdown, at level 4 ‘a skeleton crew’ maintained the gardens as essential workers, primarily as security.

As soon as level 3 came into effect, bubbles were created for teams to come in and maintain the gardens. Gus says it is working, “but people miss each other – but it’s the way things have to be for the moment.”

Contractors are back on-site for the development of the Egyptian garden, which has been interrupted a couple of times due to Covid. New plants and trees have been planted, with more on the way.