FIRST LIGHT
Gail van Rooyen embarked on a love affair with plants and flowers after studying botanical art. When her family bought a rural retreat in Victoria many years later, she could finally bring all her favourites to life.
Lakithi is the name of Gail and Brian van Rooyen’s country property in central Victoria. It means ‘our home’ in Zulu, and is very much at the heart of their globetrotting family. After moving from South Africa to Melbourne in 1987, the couple and their four children bought the 130ha at Terip Terip, near Euroa, in 1996, drawn to the undulating land and its views to the Strathbogie Ranges. The rich, granite-based soil and ample water supplies were ideal for the Angus cattle they run – and the garden Gail was keen to create.
“I’m besotted with the changing seasons and cool-climate plants,” says Gail. “I’ve always loved gardens and I’m definitely a plants person.” Having learnt the basics from her mother and grandmother, and the years she spent studying botanical art, Gail’s extensive knowledge was developed through constant reading and hands-on gardening. She was more than ready to tackle a large project.
Tree planting at Lakithi began well before the house was built in 2000. “All our children helped enormously,” Gail explains. “In the early days we all slept on mattresses in the shed on weekends, snuggled together for warmth, with a huge stew on the pot-belly stove.” They bought 1200 bare-root trees to plant the boundaries, 50 silver birch for the first grove, 90 Lombardy poplars to line the property’s entrance, and an avenue’s worth of fast-growing pin oaks.
“I was keen for the house to nestle into the landscape,” says Gail. Although there wasn’t a plan, she had a clear vision: garden rooms with hedges and stone walling, with a relaxed feel. Enlisting the help of a skilled local excavator and stonemason, they created the large dam around a natural spring, and built 250m of stone walling and steps to link and frame the different zones. It’s a beautifully balanced blend of formal and informal.
Over 20 years, the garden has expanded to 3ha. An abundance of plants provides a constantly changing display and something to pick and enjoy every season. Gail’s favourites are spring and autumn. In the latter, the display of leaf colours includes the fiery reds of Acer ‘October Glory’ and ‘Autumn Blaze’, >
medlars and ‘Ukon’ cherries that line the walk down to the dam and summer house. Foliage colour also comes from claret and golden ash, Chinese pistachio and the soft yellow of birch leaves, while red-stemmed dogwoods provide breathtaking reflections in the dam. Gail adores autumn berries and eagerly anticipates their appearance in the rosehip, crabapple, Viburnum ‘Notcutt’s Variety’, hawthorn (Crataegus) and elderberries (Sambucus nigra).
When spring comes, it’s a succession of floral delights, with pink daffodils, wisteria, Chinese snowball bush (Viburnum macrocephalum), dogwood (Cornus), irises and pearl bush (Exochorda) competing for attention. The rustic post and rail fence is smothered with pink roses such as ‘Heritage’, ‘Redoute’ and ‘Kathryn Morley’, threaded with clematis in all shades of pink. A line of espaliered ‘Royal Gala’ apples has ‘Altissimo’ roses at every post, with purple clematis climbing throughout; in front, red Flanders poppies team with hazy blue catmint.
Spring brings the unforgettable sight of bluebells blanketing the ground under the silver birch groves. A few years ago, the van Rooyens’ grandchildren came to stay and were tasked with planting hundreds of the bluebells in the groves their fathers had started. “After they planted the bulbs in the new soil we’d spread, the little boys would roll the big bales of silage hay over to mulch them. As city kids, they all loved it,” says Gail.
“I always said I would be lying under the birch trees reading Anne of Green Gables to my grandchildren,” she says, laughing. That never quite came to fruition, but another dream – having a carpet of mushrooms in a birch grove – did. “They’re the huge ones with red spots you see in children’s fairy books… deadly poisonous, of course. One autumn they just appeared. Now every year thousands of them come through. They’re quite enchanting.”
Gail and Brian now have 12 grandchildren, who all visit regularly even though some live overseas. “I take the younger ones on nature walks around the garden with a wicker basket, collecting seed pods, berries, autumn leaves and things to draw or use in some craft project; it’s a little botanical lesson, too,” says Gail, proudly. “We’re very blessed.” #