Formal Lesson
One man’s mission to revive a disused school and its grounds.
Architect Graham Fisher already had a weekender at Daylesford, 100 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, when a decommissioned primary school at nearby Kingston came up for sale in 2008. But he couldn’t help himself and bought the old building, constructed in the 1870s, along with its hectare of land. He has spent 12 enjoyable years building a garden that has slowly and pleasingly matured before his eyes, aided by the region’s fertile volcanic soil.
Graham concedes the school was “pretty bleak” when he bought it. A drought was in full swing, the summer sun radiated off the asphalt playground and the hot north winds blew in like something out of Dante’s Inferno. But he would not be deterred. He found a photo of the schoolhouse, taken in 1906, in the Victorian State Library, and used it as a source to return the building’s exterior to its original splendour – restoring the northern gables and reinstating the heritage colour scheme.
In the winter of 2010, Graham planted 70 new trees and dug a bore to ensure the trees would always have sufficient water. That September the area flooded, and two wet summers followed, so the bore was not needed for several years.
Graham recently opened the garden and schoolhouse to the public, an event attended by many of the school’s former students. “They told fabulous stories of their schooldays and were delighted to see the old sycamore tree they called ‘the helicopter tree’ because of the way the seeds spun as they fell,” Graham says. “Some people arrived thinking that the community had lost a school, but left, I think, realising the community had gained a garden.”
Graham says his training as an architect gave him the confidence to plan the garden. “I had designed a few gardens over the years as part of housing projects, so it was not a totally new experience. I surveyed the land, planned the garden, planted hedges to create different spaces and took advice from a variety of people.” He sourced plants from local suppliers whenever possible, including two specialist nurseries, Lambley Nursery at nearby Ascot and Frogmore Gardens in the Central Highlands. Many mature trees came from a tree sale at Chandpara, near Tylden. Mature trees already on the site include an Aleppo pine ( Pinus halepensis) and a Himalayan cedar ( Cedrus deodara).
Graham reinterpreted many recurring themes of traditional Western garden design, creating a wilderness garden, a parterre garden, a woodland garden and a pear avenue.
“I am a traditionalist and a classicist, and like the idea of formality,” he says. “I like different areas that do different things. The garden forms a frame or setting for the building, while the building acts as a focal point. Hedges help to differentiate areas and also keep the wind out.”
The garden has been designed with the changing seasons in mind. “Many deciduous trees and plants have been chosen to ensure a dramatic autumn,” says Graham.
They include pin oaks, crepe myrtles ( Lagerstroemia spp.), liquidambars and Manchurian pears ( Pyrus ussuriensis). “Summer is hot and usually parched, so the use of bore water is essential. I think spring brings out the best in my garden. We have very cold winters, so when things start to warm up there is an explosion of life, colour and flowers.”
The largest challenge for Graham is trimming the
1.2 kilometres of hedges – mainly Chilean myrtle ( Luma apiculata) and box leaf privet ( Ligustrum undulatum). Hawthorn hedges ( Crataegus monogyna) reach heights of 5 metres, requiring a cherry picker to trim. “Mercifully, these do not need to be trimmed during winter, which gives me a holiday from that arduous task,” Graham says. #
This is an edited extract from The Garden State: Inside
Victoria’s Private Gardens by Richard Allen with photography by Kimbal Baker, $80, Thames & Hudson.
“The garden forms a frame or setting for the building, while the building acts as a focal point.” Graham Fisher, owner