About Kai Gardens
Kai Gardens was created in 2005 by Karen Fletcher to offer the best of conventional landscape garden design aesthetics along with edible and sustainable and organic implementation options.
Karen began her horticulture career in Australia working for Warringah Shire Council in the parks and reserves division While studying horticulture at Ryde TAFE in Sydney, Karen chose Permaculture as an elective and right there fell in love with organics and the concept of sustainable living, going on to graduate from the Permaculture Institute of Australia.
After graduating from TAFE Karen spent time working with award winning Australian landscape designer Joanne Green. The work here was mostly conventional landscape gardening to a very high standard on exclusive residential properties in the northern beaches. Karen honed her design skill here, as well as plant knowledge and usage.
Eventually Karen returned home and found work with Natural Habitats, a landscape company at the time contracted to maintain the extensive grounds at Government House in Auckland. Karen enjoyed six years there as head gardener helping develop and maintain the magnificent grounds. It was also an opportunity to introduce compost bins and the recycling of garden waste and by the time she left Karen was really beginning to see the change in the sustainability of the gardens at Government House.
Later still came the time to do her own thing and Karen founded Kai Gardens, a landscape gardening company that would provide the best of her experience – a beautiful functional design which can include edible plants and sustainable systems to keep everything healthy and low maintenance.
“We love to include edible plants in the design, thus the name Kai Gardens.” Based in Papakura Auckland, Kai Gardens offer a full landscape gardening service from consultation and design right through to implementation and ongoing maintenance.