Van der Haar Garden: Ansett Australia’s, Come and See my Garden
The 25 year old garden belonging to Ben and Judith Van der Haar could be described as the United Nations of gardens with ornaments from Portugal, Spain, England and Holland, Greek pillars and Chinese bridges. All the time and energy put into the 1.75 acre (0.7Ha) garden has produced a colourful and interesting display.
Design
The well established plants like the Himalayan Spruce were brought into the garden which has been filled with about 4-5m (13-16′) depth of soil. A number of water features and ponds have been installed with water lilies, statues, pergolas and fountains abounding. Ben’s interest in landscaping came when he was selling pools and encouraging people to make the pool a feature of the backyard landscape so that it was an asset through summer and winter. The garden design is not based a particular colour theme, instead any interesting feature or plant that appeals is included in the design. There are mass plantings of azaleas, rhododendrons, blue bells and other bulbs.
Elephant viewing platform
A novelty for the kids is a bird’s eye view of the Serengeti where a wooden platform looks out over mud plains with tiny elephant footprints. When you look through the telescope there is a silhouette of an elephant.
Further information
If you’d like to visit the Van der Haar Garden, 226 Warrandyte Road, Warrandyte, VIC, 3113, phone: (03) 9844 2400, open on 28 and 29 November 1998. Entry fee is $5. It was open for the AntiCancer Council of Victoria on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th October.
