Family tree: New generation of gardeners tend to blooming heritage of historic Oak House

In my near fifty years working as a horticultural/garden presenter on television, thirty plus of those on BH&G, I’ve had the privilege to visit and film close to 2000 gardens both here and overseas. Many have included interviewing the owners of these masterpieces.

On Friday night’s show, we have a different perspective when I look into how a sense of respect and accepting responsibility for your family’s centuries-old heritage property and garden plays out in rural Victoria.

The story is called ‘Oak House’ and its set in the picturesque rural countryside of Clarkefield in the Macedon Ranges. It’s all a surreal experience for agronomist turned landscape designer, Sam Crawford and farmer husband Angus, when they decide to move back onto the property where she grew up and live in the charming bluestone farmhouse her parents built in 1978.

The back story, always as fascinating as the front, is not covered in detail but it helps to know that this is no ordinary farm paddock with a 2.5hectare garden centred in the middle of a 2000ha working farm. It was once owned and established as Bolinda Vale by her great, great, great grandfather, one of Victoria’s most significant pastoralists, Sir William Clarke in 1857.

His pastoral run ran from beyond Clarkefield all the way to the outer suburbs of Melbourne some 50km in length. Sam is the daughter of Sir Rupert Clarke and Lady Susannah Clarke. Now that is classic, colonial Australian heritage and how does that play on Sam’s mind.

The garden retains much of its original beauty and landscape attractions including many mature trees and hedges including a very special English Oak tree, a quintessential part of the garden, thought to have been planted by Burke and Wills’ doctor back in the 1860’s on their fateful journey to the Gulf of Carpentaria. But it is Sam’s passion for garden design that has seen the garden grow today, with her design skills and plant knowledge, into both a beautiful and practical family garden to enjoy.

While the two heritage Oak Trees take centre stage in the garden today originally, they were simply “paddock trees’ with some vague heritage value.

Now arborists check regularly to maintain their continuing health and to permanently protect their extensive root systems from future compaction.

Sam initially created a sweeping low rock wall, erected from basalt rocks from nearby paddocks to create the illusion of coach turning circle but to keep today’s farm equipment and cars at bay. An immediate sign I notice of Sam’s respect for family history.

The garden is divided into areas for their two children and friends to play, a productive orchard and vegetable garden including the restoration of an old timber hut converted into a chicken coop, permanent landscaped areas and large garden beds filled with perennials and shrubs that Sam is constantly trialling for their suitability for inclusion in her local landscape design clients’ gardens.

Here the plant palettes vary from year to year experimenting with floral colour combinations, leaf textural forms and survivability when the cold southerly winds sweep up the valley, and not forgetting the -7°C severe frosts.

The clever repeating and mass planting of what perennials endure is clearly visible in these generous sized garden beds when I’m taken on a stroll around the garden.

But Sam is not reluctant to remove and replace trees even some from previous decades if they don’t fit the new narrative.

An old Ash tree was removed along with the original parterre garden to create the orchard and productive veggie garden.

An earlier planting of ornamental almond lining the broad pathway, a clever design extension of the internal central hallway axis of the home out into the garden to enhance the vista and view to the billabong beyond, was removed due to its inability to withstand the weather extremes and was successfully replaced with white flowering Crepe Myrtles.

One isolated paddock, once disconnected from the residence, has been linked back to the home with a new pathway, named the Wine Walk, taking the visitor on a journey, passed hedges of native Westringia and Correa, plantings of colourful shrubs, ornamental grasses and perennials reconnecting to a new large rose garden closer to the home. An ideal with a glass of wine in hand after a busy day’s work.

The surrounding countryside has been extensively planted with shelter and feature native eucalypt and exotic trees strategically planted for wind protection and visual beauty.

But on our visit, they all complement the iconic rolls of hay dotted across the farm paddocks beyond.

The once forgotten, overgrown, non-functioning billabong is a special treat. I love water in the landscape and this feature is full of life and movement, enhancing another once neglected area of the property.

Over 25,000 metres of silt was removed to a depth of 8m in its centre and then lined with local clay. A huge task as the ephemeral nature of the water between droughts and flooding rains. But success was ultimately achieved and a magical scene now exists. Large rock stepping stones crosses the creek feeding the billabong landscaped with ornamentals and native grasses to create a more natural looking scene than before.

Great slabs of local black butt and iron bark were used to build a huge deck overlooking the pond, offering a great summer take-off point for a relaxing swim.

While watching this engrossing story you’ll discover that Sam dearly respects her family heritage, an Australian characteristic still very much alive at Oak House, and her passion for people and plants with a sensitivity, as Sam believes, “to embrace the seasons to invigorate the senses”.

You too will be left with more relaxed state of mind and hopefully inspired.

To view this story catch Better Homes and Gardens this Friday on Channel 7 and 7two from 7pm or you can always catch up on 7plus.