The suburb incorporates Botanical Reserve, a section of Nelson's town belt that includes the trigonometrical geographic centre of New Zealand, Botanical Hill.

[4] The reserve borders the Botanical Gardens to the east and Branford Park to the west.

The Wood was used for horticulture due to suitable conditions such as lack of frost.

Horticulture continued into the 1990s but rising interest rates made the area too expensive and combined with other factors most gardens were sold off and turned into housing in the 1990s.

Although some people chose not to answer the census's question about religious affiliation, 51.0% had no religion, 37.0% were Christian, 0.2% had Māori religious beliefs, 0.8% were Hindu, 0.5% were Muslim, 1.4% were Buddhist and 2.6% had other religions.