Retired opera singer Maureen Williams and her husband Frank own one of the finest Japanese-style gardens in Australia. It was designed and built for the previous owners by Ken Lamb of Imperial Gardens, Sydney. His brief was to create a garden that would be walked through rather than just looked at, so that the plants could be enjoyed as they change with the seasons.
Garden features
The tea house is positioned to take advantage of magnificent view over the garden to the Fitzroy Falls escarpment. This building now houses Maureen and Frank’s spa.
A 20m long stream and waterfall zigzags from the back corner of the property, behind the tea house and over the pathway, with a 2.5m double waterfall to the pond.
The pond is home to colourful Japanese Koi carp.
Four different pathways and three stairways in natural rock make the garden accessible on foot. A winding gravel service path allows access for equipment such as gardeners’ wheelbarrows.
Planting and maintenance
The garden is filled with traditional Japanese plants, including black pine (Pinus thunbergii), Japanese maples, bamboo, cherries, azaleas, crepe myrtles, osmanthus, buxus and mondo grass. Japanese-style gardens are very high maintenance. Maureen and Frank have engaged two gardeners to do weekly maintenance, but twice a year Imperial Gardens does specialised pruning. They prune the azaleas, buxus and junipers into cloud-like shapes and carefully prune and open up the maples so that the views aren’t blocked.
Further information
The garden was designed by:
Ken Lamb
Imperial Gardens
Sydney
Phone: (02) 9450 2455
