Landscape designer Jonathan Boucrée of Lushlandscapes.nz on summer shade, big pots and finding the best seat in the garden.

Jonathan Boucrée’s love of gardens started next door. He grew up in Louisiana, where his neighbour kept a vegetable garden between the two houses. “She grew cosmos out the front that seemed taller than me,” he says.

“I’ve always been fascinated by nature,” says Jonathan. “Whatever I’m doing, I’m looking at plants and thinking about how everything is connected.”

“Everything is so lush back home that gardening is almost easy,” he says. Plenty of New Zealanders want the same tropical look, but “you have to be in the right spot or choose the right plants, and that can be a real challenge.”

New Zealand has its own advantages. “Here you can grow herbaceous perennials, which you can’t do in Louisiana,” he says. Then there are the seasons.

“Autumn lasts about a week there, and it’s my favourite time of year. Having it last three months is the best part of living here.”

His favourite natives are the Asplenium ferns. “On any bush walk, I’m the one taking forever. I’m looking at all the small things happening on the forest floor.”

With a hypothetical $500 to spend, he’d put it into one statement piece. “I’d buy a Japanese maple and plant it in a pot twice as big as you think you need. Spend more on the pot than the tree.”

He’d put roughly $400 into the pot and $100 into the maple. A pot moves house with you too, which suits renters.

Beating the heat

Ask him what he wishes Kiwis did more of and he answers straight away. “Provide shade.”

“It doesn’t have to be a tree, but shade is a must,” he says. “A pergola in the backyard adds resale value, and it makes entertaining far more pleasant. You can add as much cover to it as you like.”

To find the spot, he uses a lesson from one of his professors. “Walk around the property and sit down in different places.

Ask yourself whether it’s somewhere you’d actually want to sit. You can feel where a garden wants you to stop and rest.

Lifestyle block owners have one more thing to plan for. “You can’t talk about landscape architecture in New Zealand right now without talking about fire,” Jonathan says.

“It’s not a question of if, but when. Using gravel and keeping planting back from the house gives it a break if a fire comes through, and it can save you money on insurance.”

Leaving a legacy

Jonathan thinks in longer timeframes too. Landscape architects work on fire and flood resilience and land use as well as backyards, he says, and most people don’t know the profession is there to help.

“We’re taught to design sustainably and leave the world better off,” he says. “Plant a tree and let it grow.

You might not be here when it’s at its fullest, but that doesn’t matter. It’s the decisions we make now that leave the world better when we’re gone.”