MADE TO MEASURE

FRESHLY GRADUATED LANDSCAPE DESIGNER SAM CRAWFORD USED HER OWN GARDEN IN RURAL VICTORIA AS A TRAINING GROUND. BUT THE ALLURING RESULTS SUGGEST THE SKILLS OF A SEASONED PROFESSIONAL.

Landscape designer Sam Crawford turned the gardens of her own home, Oak House in Clarkefield, into a passion project, combining skill and artistic vision.

“I’VE ALWAYS BELIEVED that it is important to be able to walk around a garden and gather something to eat all through the year,” says landscape designer Sam Crawford.

Eight years ago, when she moved to Oak House, at Clarkefield, 50km north of Melbourne, she soon put this and other theories into practice. “My first project was removing an ash tree to plant an orchard and then I turned the existing rose parterre into a vegetable garden,” she says.

But not everything had to be destined for the dinner table. She especially treasures the two superb examples of English oaks, Quercus robur, probably planted in the mid-19th century, which give the house its name.

Before they relocated south, Sam, husband Angus and children Emily, 13, and Lachie, 11, had been living on a family property on the Edward River at Moulamein in southern NSW. It was there that Sam’s passion for gardening was kindled. “It was a classic Riverina garden, with lots of lawn, mature trees and big old roses metres tall,” she says. “But it had had only minimal maintenance over the past 10 years and the challenge of resurrecting it and making it our own was really exciting.” Before living there, she had a brief stint working as a horticultural agronomist after graduating from Orange Agricultural College.

“But, after we had been at Oak House for 12 months, I realised gardens and landscape design were my real passion and the discipline I wanted to explore further,” she says. Postgraduate studies in horticulture at Melbourne University’s Burnley Campus followed her decision – she finished her studies there five years ago.

“I decided to use the Oak House garden as my experimental site, where I could trial plants – my passion – and work out my landscape ideas and philosophies,” she says. “However, I also had to make sure the garden was still a practical family-friendly environment.”

Before Sam and Angus’s arrival at Oak House, a front lawn had been created, level with the house, using truckloads of soil sourced from nearby creek flats on the property. A ha-ha, or sunken fence, had been built to retain the soil and separate the garden from the paddocks and billabong on the nearby creek. Vital changes to the landscape in this area topped Sam’s to-do list.

“The paddock below the old ha-ha wall was filled with rank phalaris grass, which we slashed to allow the view to the billabong; the ha-ha was already in bad repair, so it was a good excuse to remove it. I wanted to expand

“As I grow and learn as a designer, so will the garden. I am fortunate to have the surrounding rural vista and some wonderful mature trees as a backdrop.”

the garden to incorporate the billabong as part of the garden proper, which we did,” says Sam. “Next, we committed to cleaning out the billabong and relining it with local clay. Easier said than done!” she says. “Like most creeks and lagoons in the Australian countryside, it’s an ephemeral water body – trying to drain it was impossible for the same reason as trying to keep it full. We managed to deepen it to eight metres in the centre by carting away around 25,000 metres of silt.”

Around the same time, in 2013, Sam landscaped a wide walkway to the edge of the billabong as a visual extension of the central axis of the house, the hallway. Each side of the walkway was planted with double-flowering almond trees, Prunus triloba. The geometry of the vista from the house along the tree-lined walk is perfect.

Looking at this change today, it’s easy to see how Sam has an almost intuitive grasp of space in a garden. The translation from computer image to the reality of metres of ground space is often not as easy as it appears.

But the almond trees flanking the walk did not live up to Sam’s expectations. “We were forever spraying them, as they succumbed to rust and defoliated. So we bit the bullet last year and replaced them with white-flowering crepe myrtles, Lagerstroemia indica ‘Natchez’, and they are doing well,” she says. Sam is not afraid to edit out plants that are not performing.

Another area of the garden, fondly known as the “wine walk”, is where Sam has planted a bold and experimental mix of perennials and Australian natives. Here she has combined Agastache species with White Correa, Westringia, Cistus species, Santolina, Salvia and Miscanthus – she clipped some shrubs into neat balls, while other plants, such as the grasses, she left freeform to wave in the breeze.

“This section is most exposed to the elements and I’ve learned a lot about plant tolerance in the short time it has been established,” says Sam. “Cold southerly winds hurtle up the valley and we get epic frosts – down to -5°C – and that does affect the plants. I want to plant more trees in this area to mitigate the harshness.

“This era of the Oak House garden is still in its infancy. A lot of plants and trees here are yet to reach their full potential. As I grow and learn as a designer, so will the garden. I am fortunate to have the surrounding rural vista and some wonderful mature trees as a backdrop.”

For more, go to samcrawfordlandscapedesign.com.au

Sam beside a sweep of miscanthus in her garden. FACING PAGE On the so-called “wine walk”, clipped Westringia fruticosa contrasts with Quercus palustris ‘Green Pillar’ oaks, left, and Acer negundo ‘Sensation’ maples.

CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE An “ode to the Mediterranean” is what Sam calls this dry corner, which the sprinklers can’t reach, planted in succulents and hardy silver-leafed specimens; a century-old English oak, Quercus robur, stands sentinel in a corner, flanked by a wall of stones gathered from nearby paddocks; flat-faced stones, also assembled from around the property, support a layered tapestry of drought-tolerant perennials, while the rich green leaves of Magnolia grandiflora ‘Kay Parris’ contrast with a golden elm behind; Echinacea flowers; the billabong at the bottom of the property is an ephemeral waterway. FACING PAGE Miscanthus sinensis ‘Kleine Fontaine’ waves above globe thistle, Echinops ritro ‘Veitch’s Blue’.

Looking south-west, Verbascum, with its spectacular spires, is a self-seeded sensation and perfectly complements the Perovskia. The statue came from Sam’s grandmother’s garden.

THIS PAGE, CLOCKWISE, FROM ABOVE LEFT A contrast of form and colour, with the large silvery leaves of sculptural Agave americana, or century plant, set against the delicate foliage and pink flowers of Agastache, to dramatic effect; the homestead on the property, Oak House, with its grove of deciduous birch trees just beyond the living areas. They provide cooling shade in summer and let in the warming winter sun; an iceberg rose tumbles over a pergola; whiteflowering crepe myrtles, Lagerstroemia indica ‘Natchez’, line the main garden axis, which leads down to the billabong. A rusted-metal pear sculpture, from Wired For Living, Bendigo, creates a striking centrepiece and pausing point along the way; two details of flowers, including the lavender blooms of Perovskia and the snowflake white petals of crepe myrtle. Sam has kept a watchful eye on the planting palette, favouring blooms in whites, plums and lavenders. FACING PAGE The Crawford family, including, from left, Lachie, 11, Sam, Angus and Emily, 13, with her cat, Athena, all enjoying the results of Sam’s handiwork; a timber deck provides an idyllic water-side setting for sunset drinks, with a mature desert ash shading the billabong. it’s a favourite retreat at the end of a busy day.