Sculpture Garden
Seven years ago Ann and Tony Emmett moved from Queensland to the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. They are keen gardeners, and had always wanted to live in a cool area and grow cold climate plants. When they bought the 1.4ha (3.5 acre) property it consisted of a house, woodland area, horse paddocks, and best of all, many large established trees. Tony is a sculptor, and several beautiful examples of his work are displayed throughout the garden.
Garden features
A timber deck has been built overhanging the edge of a large pond. A blue Monet-inspired bridge spans the water, which has been tinted blue with vegetable dye. Louisiana and Japanese iris are planted in this area, as well as Japanese maples (Acer palmatum), tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) and giant ornamental rhubarb (Gunnera manicata). Gunnera is a huge swamp plant with massive leaves over 2m (6′) across, and greenish red flowers in summer. It is a cool climate plant that needs a moist, sheltered position. Garden elements include a summerhouse, a wide path covered by a series of broad, rounded arches (in the style of Monet’s garden at Giverny), formal and informal beds with a tapestry of hedges, fruit and vegetable gardens and stone steps surrounded by varieties of thyme. Tony and Ann have also created a parterre garden using dwarf nandina (Nandina domestica ‘Nana’). This plant is dense, practically unkillable and it grows everywhere in Australia. It is also a good foliage contrast plant, because the leaves turn a rich red colour in autumn and winter.
On the western side of the house there is a woodland garden with hellebores, bulbs and cyclamen growing under Japanese larch (Larix kaempferi), swamp cypress (Taxodium distichum) and Washington hawthorn (Crataegus phaenopyrum). Ann and Tony have planted many more trees in the garden, including their particular favourite, the European beech (Fagus sylvatica). Beside Tony’s gallery and studio there is a special sculpture park, where his sculptures are shown to their best advantage against a backdrop of trees such as Lebanon cedar (Cedrus libani), dove tree (Davidia involucrata) and claret ash(Fraxinus ‘Raywood’).
Further information
“Woodgreen”
128 Osborne Road
Burradoo
Nr Bowral, NSW
The garden will be open under the Australian Open Garden Scheme on the weekend of November 18-19, 2000, from 10am-4.30pm. Contact 1900 155 064 for further details.