Mary Shanahan
Marewa has cleaned up in this year's Art Deco garden awards, with Logan Avenue residents Pam and John Thompson winning the Bloom's garden trophy.
The awards were set up by Napier's Art Deco Trust, primarily to encourage the owners of Art Deco homes to restore their gardens to the style that was popular when their houses were built.
Three other Marewa gardens were highly commended by the awards committee - Jill and Russell Shekford of 19 Sanders Avenue, Terry and Jill McGettigan of 21 Sanders Avenue and unknown residents at 5 Tom Parker Avenue.
The Art Deco gardens of the 1930s and 1940s were simple to the point of severity, said trust executive director Robert McGregor, much as the houses themselves were.
Hard edges were the thing - cypress trees, evergreen shrubs, sometimes trimmed to rounded, square or cylindrical shapes, and not much in the way of flowerbeds.
Many modern gardeners with small sections and with little time to spend in the garden tried to achieve a similar effect, Mr McGregor said.
The 2001 award went to the Napier City Council for the Marine Parade heritage garden, but all the other awards have been for privately-owned gardens.
Marewa suburb top in Art Deco garden awards
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