Mark Gentle and Wendy Dowd are safe from rabbits in the raised-walled vegetable garden at Halcyon.
By Kath Gannaway
CUP Day gave locals and visitors to the Yarra Valley a chance to ditch the umbrellas and enjoy two spectacular gardens.
While a number of people braved the rain on the weekend to visit Halcyon at Healesville and The Wallace Garden at Coldstream, the sunshine on Tuesday was a welcome sight.
Halcyon, opposite Maroondah Dam, has been home to six generations of the Dowd family since Carl and Wendy Dowd’s grandparents bought the property in the 1940s.
The bones of the garden were set in the early 1920s with major tree planting in the 40s including hydrangeas, azaleas and rhododendrons.
Property manager Mark Gentle cares for the four acres of garden and has undertaken major garden construction and replanting programs over the past 20 years.
It is the third time in about 15 years that Halcyon has opened its impressive gates as part of Australia’s Open Garden Scheme in what Mark describes as “ …a sort of sadistic pleasure”.
“It forces you to do things, finish projects and just bring everything up to scratch,” he said.
Wendy Dowd said the whole family enjoys opportunity to share their magnificent garden with others. “It just makes you feel good that people enjoy it, and that we can contribute to the local CFA and the Open Garden Scheme as a result,” she said.
Christine and Colin Wallace’s garden is the centrepiece of a farm, which Christine says was just a cow paddock when they bought it in 1984.
Work started on creating the garden five years later and it has blossomed, despite some very dry years.
Christine is the designer and gardener in what is an ever-evolving masterpiece.
A dry creek bed, drifts of bearded iris, standard regosa roses, perennials, weeping wisterias and a frog bog with spectacular views of the mountains draw visitors to the garden each year. The Wallace Garden is open annually, combined with a garage sale and Devonshire teas, to raise funds for cancer research and the Victorian Animal Aid Trust.
