The Yarra Valley in springtime comes alive and what better way to spend a weekend than exploring two incredibly different gardens.
The joint opening of Coldstream’s Ridgefield and Gruyere’s Bentwood will form part of Open Gardens Victoria’s 10th anniversary celebrations on 8 and 9 November.
Ridgefield was the brainchild of renowned Victorian landscape designer Robert Boyle, with assistance from an equally famous architect, John Pizzey, who took the land as it was in the late ‘90s and transformed it into a complementary house and garden.
Purchasing the property in 2023, owners Joanne Painter and Chris Dodds looked for years in the Yarra Valley before settling on Ridgefield as the place for them, seeing it as an opportunity to be custodians of “one of the finest private gardens in the Valley”.
Ms Painter said the garden is a true example of a mature Boyle landscape, with a combination of European plantings and natives, a formal garden and quadrants.
“It’s got the classic elements, the European elements of the formal fountain and the rose-clad colonnades, the rose arbours at each end, and the beautiful views,” she said.
“But then, around that is a really beautiful selection of gorgeous natives that are interspersed between these more formal European elements. So it’s quite a remarkable garden.”
The formal garden is also home to around 450 mature roses, which should be in bloom for the weekend.
Ms Painter said that because the garden is spread out over the acres, it feels like there are rooms, with a “little secluded birch walk that connects the different garden rooms”.
In the centre of the property is the pavilion, originally built as a performance venue, and closer to the main house is a Japanese garden.
The Eltham-style, mudbrick-inspired house, Ms Painter said, really makes the garden more spectacular.
“The beauty of Ridgefield is you don’t often get a spectacular garden and a gorgeous house,” she said.
“The house and the garden have both really settled into the site now. They’re both 25 years old, and both the house and the garden were designed to have a dialogue. All of the materials in the construction of the house and the garden are very complementary.
“You’ve got this beautiful maturity and this pattern that’s emerged between the house and the garden. It’s a very large house with a beautiful stone tower, but it sits beautifully in the garden, and you can see why a great garden design is lifted by a great house design and vice versa.”
Since coming on as stewards and custodians of Ridgefield, Ms Painter said they have, of course, retained the garden but opened views to the Valley and Dandenong Ranges, reestablished the orchard and kitchen garden, as well as added a perfumery.
“Every custodian of a garden has a responsibility to add and to enhance and to continue evolving the garden,” she said.
“For me, a garden shouldn’t just be pretty to look at. It needs to be functional. We are really big believers, particularly living in the Valley, as one of the agricultural food bowls of Australia, we want the garden to be both beautiful and productive.
“Our first priority was to reinstate the vegetables, so what we call the kitchen garden. We’ve expanded and really started to do a lot of work in the orchard and that’s around being as self-sufficient as we possibly can.”
Developing the Kolido Perfumery, which only launched a bit over a week ago, Ms Painter said, was an extension of wanting to use what Ridgefield produced. Explore the boutique fragrance studio when visiting.
Five minutes away, Bentwood, a two-acre property owned by Open Gardens Victoria head of selectors Louise Brown and her partner Ben, is the perfect example of tending to and caring for a natural environment.
Originally purchased in 2000, the property was a neglected paddock filled with weeds, rubbish and rusted cars.
Describing it now as “eclectic”, Ms Brown said the garden represents what they like.
“We’ve had very little landscaping done. Most of it has been done by us over 20 years. So it was very much a blank canvas. There were probably only four or five trees when we first got here. But we loved the position. We loved the old house that was falling down,” she said.
With the help of their family, they cleared 22 trailer loads of debris and began the slow, steady process of turning the site into a thriving garden via soil improvement, tree planting, the creative use of salvaged materials, and a deep commitment to sustainable gardening.
“We started gardening in the drought of 2005, so we did some foundational planting. We always plant the garden around having low water,” Ms Brown said.
“We do have a dam, we do water the garden a little, but we try to work on the soil, mulching and getting the soil to a good state so that it holds the water.
“It’s been a very challenging year, really, for gardeners in the Yarra Valley, because we really haven’t had much rain, and we’ve lost things but generally things have been OK.”
Coming into the open weekend, Ms Brown said the irises have been blooming, but she expects the roses to be out in full and it will have “the lovely string green feel” to it.
As a true labour of love, Ms Brown said it feels like a privilege to be able to have this garden, to tend to it and be somewhere birds like to spend time.
“It allows us to be creative, and it’s an escape, it always makes us feel good about life, and we’re always very grateful for where we are.
“We love all the birds that are now in the garden. It’s become a bit of a bird sanctuary, and that brings us a lot of joy as well.”
The maturing orchard now blends seamlessly into the garden, and a micro flower farm flourishes in the paddock, still in its early stages but already a source of cut flowers and joy.
Sweeping views across Christmas Hills and Yarra Glen form a stunning backdrop to the garden.
Visitors are encouraged to take their time, explore the hidden corners, and enjoy the beauty of this true labour of love, balancing practicality with charm.
Yarra Valley painter Beth Williams will exhibit her landscapes in the old mechanic’s shed, alongside works by Kalorama-based ceramicist Mel Eliades. Sculptor Pat Flanagan will also display his works throughout the garden.
Across the weekend at Ridgefield, enjoy a CFA sausage sizzle, homemade tea and cakes, and browse a curated range of perfumery products available for purchase.
Ridgefield is located at 58 Boundary Road, Coldstream. Bentwood is located at 37 – 39 Gruyere Road Gruyere. Both properties will be open from 10am to 4.30pm Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets at the gate or via Trybooking. For Bentwood: trybooking.com/events/landing/1387143 and for Ridgefield: trybooking.com/events/landing/1417447
