Feature plants
TREES
Golden elm ( Ulmus glabra ‘Lutescens’) Golden rain tree ( Koelreuteria paniculata) Silver birch ( Betula pendula) Cercis canadensis ‘Forest Pansy’ SHRUBS Pride of Madeira ( Echium candicans) Common lilac ( Syringa vulgaris) Butterfly bush ( Buddleia davidii) Rosemary ( Rosmarinus officinalis) Mediterranean spurge ( Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii) Snowball tree ( Viburnum opulus)
GROUNDCOVERS & PERENNIALS Lamb’s ear ( Stachys byzantina)
Love-in-a-mist ( Nigella damascena)
Forget-me-not ( Myosotis arvensis)
Kiss-me-quick ( Centranthus ruber)
Sharing this section of the garden at the far end of the Orchard Paddock are Mediterranean spurge ( Euphorbia characias subsp wulfenii), butterfly bush ( Buddleia davidii) and heavily scented lilac
( Syringa vulgaris). OPPOSITE, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT Pride of Madeira ( Echium candicans), lilac and Hardenbergia
‘White Out’, a white form of the popular purple-flowering happy wanderer. Sculptures, such as this Corten steel one near the barn, provide focal points throughout the garden. A bird’s-eye view of the garden, showing the Verandah Lawn beside the homestead at the top, and the Orchard Paddock with the Rose Garden in the middle. Digiplexis ‘Berry Canary’: “These large, showy plants are a striking addition to any garden and are attractive to butterflies and bees,” says garden owner Suzanne Batch.
A pear sculpture from Get Rusted Steel Designs sits in the centre of the herb and vegetable garden, which includes lavender, rosemary, strawberries and raspberries, as well as long-flowering Agastache ‘Pink Scepter’. OPPOSITE From top A copse of silver birch in the Orchard Paddock is underplanted with perennials such as love-in-a-mist, forget-me-not and kiss-me-quick; Tower of Strength statue by local artist Janet Cameron. Armed with her trug, owner Suzanne does the rounds of the garden, picking flowers and decorative foliage. Snowball tree ( Viburnum opulus).
Beside a privet ( Ligustrum spp.) hedge, a vintage garden bench, gifted to Suzanne by the property’s previous owners, provides a spot for quiet contemplation.
Lush and green, with bursts of flowering colour, this cottage-style garden – aptly named Hedgerow – could be nestled in England’s Cotswolds district rather than Kingston, a little town about 20 kilometres from Daylesford in regional Victoria. The secret to this abundant garden lies in its fertile clay-loam soils and generous rainfall. “There is a local saying,” says owner Suzanne Batch. “‘If you plant a feather here, you can grow a chicken!’ It is the perfect environment and climate for a garden to thrive.” Which her garden certainly has since she moved here in 2015.
Suzanne says she had long harboured a strong desire for the rural life. “I grew up on a farm and I wanted to return to the country to relive my happy childhood memories. As a child, I spent hours exploring the rambling garden, with pets as friends when my big sisters were at boarding school,” she says. “When Hedgerow came on the market, it was the dream come true.” It also meant she could be near her elderly parents, who live in nearby Ballarat.
When she first drove along the Avenue of Honour, which passes by the front gate, she knew she had come home. Nearly 300 Dutch elm trees line one of the most impressive avenues of its type in Victoria. “These magnificent trees, planted in 1918 and dedicated to those who served in World War I, are a sight to behold at any time of the year,” she says.
Some of the work on the garden had already been done by the previous owner, with the layout determined by privet and hawthorn hedges – hence the property’s name – which create discrete garden rooms on different levels around a weatherboard cottage. Within these rooms, Suzanne has added her special touch with judicious underplanting.
“You feel like you are walking from one room to another,” she says. The first, the garden directly in front of the house, centres on a massive century-old Chinese tulip tree with spectacular large leaves in the middle of lawn. Beside that, also at the front of the property, is the Secret Garden, hedged on four sides, entered through an archway and with a lavender twist weeping redbud tree in the centre. From there, you step through a
hedge and down steps to the Verandah Garden, which runs up the side of the house towards a handsome old two-storey red brick barn, originally the property’s dairy, in front of which Suzanne has planted perennials around a circular gravel path. Parallel to the Verandah Lawn, through a timber archway, sits the Orchard Paddock, arguably the part of the garden that has been most transformed under Suzanne’s watch. There she has created a dedicated rose garden, silver birch grove and a vegetable patch, together with an Orchard Walk running at an angle along its edge. “The rose garden features mostly David Austin roses, chosen because they repeat flower over a long period, and Alister Clark roses from the 1950s, all of which flower and thrive,” says Suzanne.
In the same paddock she has also planted a spectacular array of trees that form an arboretum, with varieties including the luscious red Lipstick maple ( Acer rubrum ‘October Glory’), black locust ( Robinia pseudoacacia), Chinese elm ( Ulmus parvifolia), linden, Chinese pistachio, gleditsia and poplars. “In autumn, the variety of colours, visible from the road, is striking,” says Suzanne.
Within the patchwork of hedging throughout the garden, Suzanne has added garden beds, focusing on perennials and herbaceous borders in the English cottage style, creating yearround colour and interest. She has planted flowers for picking, including roses, Peruvian lilies ( Alstroemeria), hydrangeas,sedums, foxgloves and salvias. In wonderfully haphazard fashion, traditional cottage favourites such as love-in-the-mist, forget-menots and kiss-me-quick self-seed and pop up unexpectedly throughout the garden. Meanwhile, delightful swathes of catmint, lavender, rosemary and lamb’s ear appear en masse.
While she has plenty to choose from, the Verandah Lawn remains Suzanne’s favourite spot in the whole garden. “Many Sunday lunches are spent with Mum and Dad under the shade of the golden elm beside the verandah,” she says. “Family gatherings and drinks parties are also held under the extensive canopy of this glorious tree, which creates a microclimate, even on boiling hot days, shading the whole area beside the house.”
This garden can be shared in other ways, too. Suzanne has opened the gates of Hedgerow to the public three times since moving there and will again this year, on November 6 and 7, for Creswick Garden Lovers Weekend.
A corrugated-iron flower shed at the rear of the property will greet those visitors. It’s lovely to look at, but it’s also a great space for drying herbs and flowers, including rose petals and lavender, which are dried for a range of bath soaks made in the old barn. Suzanne sells these online and at selected stockists throughout Australia. Behind that shed, in a new potting shed/greenhouse, cuttings are grown for visitors.
“These are ways of sharing the essence of the garden with others,” says Suzanne. “It truly is a very special garden with such a beautiful feel. It’s hard to explain its magic.” Her enthusiasm for her “dream come true” says it all. # Hedgerow, Kingston, Victoria; hedgerowkingston.com.