Passion Project
How does this garden grow? With a blend of natives and deciduous plants, a mix of rich textures and pretty hedge plants lined up in rows…
Meander through the grounds of Emaho, a luscious garden and ornamental tree farm in Queensland’s Darling Downs region.
“Barbara and I have been very fortunate. It’s not often that you get the opportunity to create something with no limitations.” James McGeoch, owner
Set in the undulating valleys of Queensland’s Darling Downs region is a beautiful Asian-inspired garden withinatreefarm.HometoJamesandBarbaraMcGeoch, the property is aptly named Emaho, which means ‘wonderful and amazing’ in Tibetan. It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly where the 2-hectare garden ends and the tree farm begins: the view from the homestead extends across a valley filled with native and exotic trees to sylvan hills of towering eucalyptus. At 750 metres above sea level, it’s cooler here than on the coast, with the added benefit of rich volcanic soils. Rainfall averages 1000 millimetres per annum, but climate change has resulted in reduced falls in recent years; the couple try to conserve every drop.
James and Barbara have worked in the horticultural industry for several decades. After selling their nursery to developers about 15 years ago, they were able to make Emaho, a property spanning 16 hectares in total, their primary focus. Emaho offered the ideal environment for growing ornamental trees and made a useful base for the couple’s landscaping business.
In 2005, while James was travelling for work, Barbara designed a corrugated iron and timber ‘eco cottage’ nestled into a protective embankment. The plan was to use it as a temporary base, then build a main residence 100 metres to the northwest. But the eco cottage proved so perfect that they decided instead to add a spacious extension and make it their permanent home.
When James and Barbara took the former dairy farm on, it had worn-out grass, few trees, many stumps and abundant weeds, whichmakesthegarden’stransformationallthemoreremarkable. Their first step was planting slender weaver’s bamboo ( Bambusa textilis var. Gracilis) along the driveway. The bamboo protects the house from dust and westerly winds, plus forms a cocooning enclosure in line with the feng shui principles Barbara was keen to factor into the garden plan. Feng shui influenced the location of their residence too. “It’s built on the leeside of the hill, so we can sit on the verandah completely protected,” she says.
The McGeochs planted masses of Australian native trees in copses around the property. Today, these trees are thriving, providing shade and habitat for local wildlife. The couple
also planted 30 semi-mature deciduous trees to give the garden structure, filling in vast areas with leftover nursery stock – thousands of azaleas and camellias – which have proved very drought-tolerant. “Barbara and I have been very fortunate,” says James. “It’s not often that you get the opportunity to create something with no limitations.”
Inspired by gardens they visited in Japan and China, the McGeochs have created extensive hedging for zoning, while sweeping ribbons of plants in varying textures and colours are a clever ploy to cover large areas and reduce weeds at the same time. At the entrance, hedges of Camellia sasanqua ‘Yuletide’ offer up cheery flowers all winter. They link to rows of lilly pilly ( Syzygium ‘Bush Christmas’) beneath majestic liquidambar trees. On a sloping bank near the home are bands of Metrosideros collina ‘Little Dugald’, dwarf Loropetalum ‘Bobz Red’ and the reliable native groundcover, Grevillea ‘Poorinda Royal Mantle’.
On the northwest side of the house, garden rooms are enclosed by Camellias in en sis hedges featuring three of James and Barbara’ s own cultivars, ‘Kirsty’, ‘Sally’ and ‘Rosemary’. “They’re named for our daughters,” says Barbara. A couple of years ago, the pair added a 14-metre wisteria bower to segue between the garden rooms and the ‘stream’ of lilies filled with summer-flowering cannas, iris and day lilies that form vibrant waves of colour.
Ornamental trees – crabapples, Japanese maples, Manchurian pear, and golden and claret ashes among them – are planted throughout the garden, delivering flowers, colourful leaves and shade with the turn of the seasons. “I love the umbrella shape of the crabapples. They’re gorgeous in flower but even in winter they look quite sculptural,” says Barbara.
Productive plants also make an appearance at Emaho. There’s a citrus orchard and an enviable vegetable garden contained within a hedge of coffee plants. Arranged around a charming 100-year-old creamery, the only structure remaining from the dairy-farm era, they provide an abundant harvest year-round.
As with all gardens, there’s always something to do at Emaho. The McGeochs’ next project is a 25-metre pond amid the cannas, which will be bordered with Louisiana iris and filled with water lilies. It will make the perfect natural swimming spot for their grandchildren. With so much passion, and so many projects planned, there’s simply no time for this amazing couple to contemplate retirement.
Formerly a dairy farm, the site only had worn-out grass, few trees and abundant weeds when James and Barbara took it on, making the transformation all the more remarkable.