It's summer - and the glorious gardens of Wanganui are now at their best. We continue our new summer series - Gorgeous Gardens - celebrating the wonderful work done by nature, and by some green-fingered locals.
Gene Toyne describes her garden as her therapy.
"I spend most of my weekends gardening. After a busy week, I just love it."
When Mrs Toyne and her husband, Chris, bought 1.6ha of land between SH3 and Wanganui Airport, it was little more than an uprooted kiwifruit orchard.
Now, 16 years later, that land is a mixture of beautifully landscaped gardens, lawns, paddocks and the house the couple built.
"This land was part of a 21ha kiwifruit orchard and Chris worked for the developer. It was just bare land when we bought it," Mrs Toyne said.
She began working to establish the garden immediately.
"I just chipped away at it, and it probably took me five or six years to really get it going. I started working on the boundary first, for privacy."
Now pristine lawns are broken up with banks of flowers, including roses and alstromerias, and backed by flowering cherries. There's a private garden with a swimming pool and another enclosed garden with a fountain and fish pond.
The soil is ideal: rich, but with good drainage.
Mrs Toyne is the features manager at the Wanganui Chronicle while her husband works in the timber industry. She does most of the gardening, although Mr Toyne helps with the heavy lifting and keeps the lawns maintained.
Mrs Toyne spends most of her weekends in her garden, ably "assisted" by her two friendly labradors, Louie and Moses.
"The dogs love being around while I'm gardening."
The garden attracts a lot of birds, including tui, wax-eyes, fantails and even pukeko.
Mr and Mrs Toyne's two adult daughters spent much of their childhood at the property, and for eldest daughter Giverny, the garden will soon feature in a new chapter in her life.
In February, she's getting married in her parents' garden.
"I'm putting in a lot of preparation work for Giverny's wedding. We've had a few parties here, but we're having 90 guests at the wedding so this will be our biggest event," Mrs Toyne said.