A dream country garden:
Acclaimed garden designer Paul Bangay reveals the secrets to designing the perfect escape, as he takes us on a tour through a garden in Avenel, country Victoria.
Paul Bangay’s perfect escape
PAUL BANGAY is Australia’s leading garden designer for a reason – his designs are timeless classics. Paul grew up next door to the remains of an Edwardian rural property, with cottages for the gardeners, kennels and an orchard. In the last stages of decline, it was his playground. “Wisteria had overtaken ageing pencil pines and the garden was neglected, but still bursting with roses and irises,” he says.
That idyllic childhood lives on today in his spectacular designs. Here, Paul tells how he transformed a country home into a practical showcase.
After driving for a considerable distance along a meandering gravel drive, over numerous cattle grates and finally over a creek, you eventually arrive at the Edwardian weatherboard homestead called Allanvale.
Like all old country houses, this is in the most protected part of the property, close to a creek which provides a water supply; views are a minor consideration, shelter and water are far more important. In the absence
of an amazing view, the garden becomes the priority.
Our first job was to re-route the drive. It should tease you with glimpses of the house without fully revealing it until the very end; it should take you past the best of the property’s natural landscape features and, if possible, it should involve water views. The drive sets the mood for the entire experience of a country house and garden.
The existing drive was simply the most direct and accessible route. We made the drive longer to provide a more interesting experience.
At the front of the house, I placed a large gravel forecourt and planted two large phoenix palms for shade.
The owners of this property are unique; the wife is a passionate gardener and the husband is full of enthusiasm; the energy and passion of the two has shaped the garden enormously.
The first terrace is the rose garden, with rectangular beds hedged with box and filled with old-fashioned bush roses and low-flowering perennials. The roses flower for five to six months and are regularly picked for the house.
The middle terrace is a flower garden created not only to look good, but to provide the house with cut flowers, including iris, salvia and penstemon.
Large lawns are a luxury in the country.
The top terrace is the vegetable garden, laid out in a formal series of raised beds, which provide all the vegetables the house requires.
A bay hedge separates these terraces from the paddocks beyond, while an English box hedge lines the beds that make up the terrace gardens.
The existing garden was on a natural incline, which sloped gently to the creek. This didn’t suit the newly expanded house or the entertaining needs of the owners, who wanted a large lawn for parties. Large lawns are a luxury in the country, where water is often in short supply; the garden is not top priority for water use – stock and the house come first. That said, surrounding the house with a green lawn provides much-needed relief, visually and physically, in the hot Australian summer.
Outside the kitchen at the rear of the house is a herb garden, close to the house for last-minute cooking tasks.
We placed the swimming pool on a lower level than the main garden, surrounding it with a privet hedge to provide protection from the wind. This house and garden is one of my favourites. I had such fun creating this magical place.