- Thousands have toured Peter Brady’s renowned garden, which is now on the market.
- Brady’s garden, developed over 40 years, features Japanese and Balinese influences.
- The property is for sale by a set date closing end of this month, with the agent imploring buyers to ignore the $2.35m RV.
Thousands of people from around the world have toured the lush Auckland garden that was the pride and joy of its late owner, Peter Brady.
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And since the 1930s Art Deco-Spanish Mission-style property and grounds were put on the market at the end of last month, garden-lovers and neighbours have turned out for another look.
Brady’s acclaimed and ever-changing garden was 40 years in the making, starting life in Japan and then morphing into Bali, said niece Lynda Powell.
Powell said her beloved uncle died a couple of years ago, aged 90, and it’s taken her some time to come to terms with selling the property, which is on one of Mount Eden’s protected streets.
Brady’s two-bedroom home is well-known to garden lovers. Photo / Supplied
She said her warm and generous relative had the time of day for anyone who passed by, and everyone loved him.
He lived for his garden, sharing his life with two successive parrots, both called Mr Rainbow. “He was my absolute legend of a man. We spoke every day. He was just really kind to everybody. He never judged people.”
When Brady was nearing the end, Powell said all he wanted was to die at home looking out at his garden, and he did. “He just loved that garden more than anything.”
Brady and his garden appeared over and over in magazines and gardening shows – Powell has a fish bin full of magazines he has featured in.
People would come from China and America on garden tours, and they would bus to Mount Eden from cruise ships.
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Brady had been a florist in Waihi for 28 years when he bought the property. It was so rundown he couldn’t live in it initially but then he revamped the house, painting it pink outside and adding a yellow sunroom.
“It was stunning when he did it, my God. It was beautiful – silk wallpaper and chintz curtains. It was fabulous. He could turn something quite ordinary into something very stunning – super creative.”
Brady loved foliage rather than flowers for the garden, Powell said, adding structure through trees and ornaments and working on instinct.
When he moved to the site in 1983 he first had to tackle the honeysuckle and privet, and “all that horrible stuff”.
He studied Japanese garden design principles and then got to work, utilising the scoria rock and adding texture and layers.
Brady’s pet parrot, Mr Rainbow, in 2014. Photo / Chris Gorman
The garden was Brady’s pride and joy and thrilled the thousands of visitors who visited. Photo / Chris Gorman
“It was absolutely Japanese-inspired but as he found bromeliads and he realised what he could grow it turned into a Balinese garden,” Powell said.
There’s a fish pond and he loved birds, especially his parrots, which were both characters themselves. “You’d be sitting there and you’d hear a phone ring and you’d go, ‘oh’, and he’d go, ‘no, it's just the bird’. He loved that bird, it was such good company.”
The garden was also one of the first “hero” gardens in Auckland, Powell said.
Brady was gay and once a year the gay community opened their gardens up to fundraise for people with AIDS, and later for the hospice. “They did that for years and they raised thousands and thousands. He was in it for 20 years.”
People returned to his garden over and over because her uncle was always changing things up.
“He didn’t build it and leave it. He shifted stuff, he replanted stuff, he got new sculptures, he ripped stuff down.
The property has $2m-plus RV which the listing agent has asked buyers to ignore. Photo / Supplied
“It was probably the best part of his creativity – he kept changing it. Some very close friends, who are all gardeners, they said, ‘what are we going to do now? This was our library. We’d come here to get inspiration from Peter and he would know at all’.”
Ray White agent Dean Tuffley, whose listing says to ignore the $2.35m RV, said one of the great things about the address was the house was in a single house zone, which meant the neighbours were too.
“There’s a real protection from the development that’s going on in Auckland with townhouses etcetera, and also the properties either side are really beautiful character properties so you’re amongst the very best company in Mt Eden.”
The house can be extended out the back and renovated but it can’t be removed and will remain in keeping with the heritage area that is Marsden Avenue, he said.
Tuffley said the house was a beautiful Spanish Mission/Art Deco style home, designed by architect William Henry Jaine who was prominent in the 1930s.
There’s 890sqm of land, which is a good-sized plot for Mt Eden, and the garden has over 200 species of plants.
“It’s amazing. It’s like having a nursery or a park as your backyard.”
Interest has been strong, Tuffley said. “I’ve had so many people come through the open home that knew him well or that had seen the property on garden tours or in home and garden magazines and just absolute garden enthusiasts who absolutely adore the property.”
- 56 Marsden Avenue, in Mount Eden, Auckland, is for sale, deadline closing February 26
