See how Kilgour has blossomed
Ken Richards found Kilgour House in Longford by chance after a visit to Tasmania. Idly checking for properties on his return to the mainland, the house leapt out at him from his computer screen. He was on a flight the next day.
That was eight years ago. It took six years for him and partner Garry Harris to move their lives to Tasmania, start to restore the early 19th century house and replant the much-overgrown garden.
They even brought in a bulldozer to reshape the garden then worked to remove the weeds – mainly vinca and arum that had taken over beneath the shady trees.
Garry discovered a passion for perennials and shrubs, even buying seeds from France and hunting down plants in specialist nurseries so the planting would echo the era of the house. Parts of Kilgour House date back to the 1820s with additions in the 1830s and 1890s.
Despite the chaos of remodelling and planting garden beds and house restorations, Ken and Garry opened the garden for Longford Blooms, Longford’s annual spring garden opening, in 2019.
SHARING THE JOY
“We decided that people could see how the garden evolves and there were some parts of the garden at the back that did already look good,” Ken explains. “And we knew people would be keen to find out what we were doing to the house.
“The garden is 230sq m, but divided into garden rooms so you don’t see it all at once,” he adds. “And the house’s history extends into the garden with the remains of a high brick wall that once enclosed the garden and some old trees.”
Their philosophy of sharing the garden continued through the pandemic in 2020 and 2021, with people visiting each November to see how the garden was growing. They are also sharing their journey on Instagram (follow @kilgour_tasmania).
This year plants are mingling with some blooming for the first time. Much-awaited flowers have appeared, and the largeflowered clematis have begun to scale the over-shadowing trees (carefully guided on wire mesh wrapped around the trunks).
Visitors who saw its beginnings in 2019 will be amazed at what dedicated gardening can achieve in just three years.
Garry claims to have no gardening background, but he knows how to create a picture with plants. He’s also sought inspiration from local and historic gardens and by poring over garden design books.
“I want the garden to be interesting like the house,” Garry explains, who is looking to create the appearance of the planting being both rare and exotic, as well as working with natural constraints such as shade from mature trees and lack of soil depth.
Now that things have matured, he is boldly removing plants that don’t match his vision with a ruthlessness that’s truly the sign of a good garden. Some iris in particular should be quaking in their boots if their buds open to reveal petals of the wrong colour.
He’s happier with pastel-toned rhododendrons, tall heads of mauve flowers of meadow rue (thalictum delavayi), the border of lady’s mantle (alchemilla mollis), which froths around the edges of the borders, catching water droplets in its frilled leaves and heritage roses.
Ken’s passion is for the house and is restoring and furnishing it in keeping with its late Georgian heritage.
He’s also the nominated weeder, deftly removing weeds and sorting them between the compost bin and thistles and their canaries, whose song can be heard throughout the garden.
Although the garden will be full of flowers in mid-November, it has been planted to keep on flowering through summer and well into autumn with hydrangeas, sasanqua camellias and autumn flowerers such as heleniums and asters.