Elaine's Garden Nursery

12/05/2023

05/01/2021

"She was my total match, my soul mate, my twin," says grieving Blenheim man.

06/12/2020

There are a lot of beautiful new hydrangeas at the rediculous price of $6.

28/10/2019

21/01/2019

Instead of purchasing a chemical-laden cleaning product for each area of your home, a group of Australian mothers have developed a 'miracle spray' that can transform just about anything.

14/08/2018

Regular exercise is essential for health, but there's tons of conflicting fitness advice out there.

29/11/2017

New Hydrangeas ready next year.

12/06/2017

09/06/2017

These pics show the business end of Elaine's Garden Nursery where the plants are propagated and sold. In Elaine's memory I am resurrecting the nursery. It's a bit difficult with my handicap.

01/06/2017

History of The Pines

The Pines was the first house to be built in the town. This was in 1857 and it is the oldest inland town in North Island so we believe that this house must be one of the oldest houses in Central North Island.
There is a picture hanging in the Council showing Waipawa as it was in 1870 and this house and the Anglican church are the only recognisable buildings.

I would like to tell you briefly about the first owners of The Pines
–--Thomas Fitzgerald built The Pines in 1857. The Kauri was shipped to Napier and brought to here by bullock wagon.
---Charles Weber a German Civil Engineer arrived with his wife and baby daughter in 1860 from the USA where he had been surveying a railway line through the Rocky Mountains. His son George was the first child to be born in the town in 1861. Charles Weber was appointed Hawke’s Bay Provincial Engineer and Chief Surveyor in 1864. He surveyed the railway line south from Napier. In 1886 he disappeared and his body was found three years later by bush cutters. The town of Weber is named after him.
The Pines therefore had two highly skilled owners. They diverted the creek running down behind the house and they constructed a drinking pond for their horses.

--Dr Todd was the next owner and he planted the great Redwood trees which now form the skyline.
--Dr Todd built substantial dove cotes for the homing pigeons which he used to communicate with his country patients. We have a macrocarpa replica of one of his dove cotes on the hill behind the house. It is said that he would leave a pigeon with a sick patient or pregnant woman to enable them to send for help or even just send a pigeon home to tell his wife he would not be home for dinner !
Our neighbour Frank White tells how his father had his tonsils out on the kitchen table. As Dr Todd grew older he enjoyed walking down to the pub for a drink and the story goes that one evening he was weaving his way home down the middle of Ruataniwa Street. Dr Reed the new doctor passed him in his horse drawn trap and suggested he walk on the pavement. He retorted, ‘What do you think I am, a bloody tight rope walker!’ Another night a fellow drinker took Dr Todd to his nearby house as the doctor was not in a fit state to walk home. When he awoke next morning the Dr could not remember why he was at this man’s home so just to be on the safe side he sent him a consultation fee!

Dr Todd and Mrs Todd lived in The Pines for 45 years.