Creating Crofton Garden
How do you create a garden? In our case, it is organically, with little to no planning other than scrawls on the back of used envelopes to try to convey an idea. Development is slightly random, with more importance being placed on the plants rather than the overall structure or concept. The most important thing is that we have enjoyed ourselves doing it. Sure, there have been tears, the occasional hissy fit and even some foot stomping but that’s pretty amusing in its own right too.
The blood, sweat and laughter of our family is so entwined within it that I could never really do it justice, either them or the garden. So instead of running rampant and waxing lyrical (if you like that sort of thing, check out our stories), I will attempt to keep to the bare facts. I’m a bit of a ranter so I make no promises. If you get bored there are pictures. They always help…
We came to Crofton in September 2001.
The cottage and the property filled all of us with romantic notions of country living. Dad grew up on farms and Mum finally had plenty of space to create a wonderful garden and grow all the plants she had been dreaming of. It was a new start for us, and we had no idea what we were in for.
Jenny: “The story of Crofton Garden is one of resilience in the face of adversity. After competing in Ironman Triathlons for a number of years I was involved in a serious bike accident causing me to sustain numerous fractures in my spine, sternum and hands – enough said. I don’t want to dwell on the past so to cut a long story short, my obsession with triathlons became an obsession with collecting plants, rare if possible, and gardening my new passion.
My first garden was in New Town, a heritage house known as the ‘Toll House’, an enormous rambling place, where water flowed freely, and I could grow whatever I wanted. When we moved (to Crofton) the garden around the cottage was minimal, consisting of some box hedges and hawthorn. A small formal garden had been constructed down the back on the right-hand side too. I didn’t realise it at the time but the reason there was minimal garden was the lack of water. I paid dearly for this mistake. “
Unfortunately, Sandford (where Crofton is located), despite being a lovely place to live, is also one of the driest places in Tasmania. Add to that a limited tank water supply, and you begin to understand the continuous challenges faced building this garden.
But let us back track a bit and give you an idea of what we came to. Until the 1990’s, Crofton was more a productive garden than an ornamental garden. For over 50 years it grew apples, pears (some still line the driveway today) and apricots. Images reveal very little ornamental garden space with the domestic fence line running close to the house.
The surrounding fields became horse paddocks and a run for a small flock of sheep. Thankfully, when we arrived the garden boundary had been expanded, and a hawthorn hedge planted around the perimeter. It was still an open flat area, consisting primarily of lawn, with the garden hugging the house. The only real structure was a formal area at the bottom right side of the garden, top and tailed by treated pine archways, which still exists as entrances to our Fountain Garden.
The open pasture was a blank canvas waiting to be filled. We are not patient people by nature, Mum and I had heard all about waiting for the garden to reveal itself, taking your time. We do not do that. We are impulsive and we are doers. This may or may not be the best way but it’s our way. And we do tend to get a bit over excited about things. There is little to no planning involved other than perhaps a few scrawled lines on the back of an envelope. The development of our garden is best described as ‘organic’.
Jenny: “The first year, my daughter, Holly and I laid out the garden with huge swathes of plants – trees, perennials, more box – it was delightful. This was in October. The reality hit in the Summer. There was no water for all these plants. Most died a quick death, for which, I guess, we should be thankful. I wasn’t though. I was so distraught that I took to my bed. My husband, who is pragmatic, told me you either deal with this situation or we move. Holly and I dealt with the situation.”
If you have ever read Pride and Prejudice, then you will understand when I say Mum has a distinct similarity to Mrs Bennett sometimes. This was one of those times. But it was just SO dry. And the soil in some of the areas we were planting was hydrophobic, water just evaporated sitting on the surface. We even tried natives, which at the time were not one of our favourites, but they just shrivelled up. It was very demoralising.
We must add here that 2001 was the middle of the Millennium Drought in Australia, with Victoria and Tasmania copping it much earlier than the rest of Eastern Australia. Sandford is very dry even without the help of a drought, which made our conditions dry all year round with little to no rain spells. We, of course, were oblivious to this. It was probably for the best as we were contemplating what to do with the Japanese Maples.
Jenny: “We knew we couldn’t grow the maples, and like plants, in the ground so we put them in huge pots. Thankfully, they thrived. This gave us some heart. The next thing on the agenda was the stone wall (that tale will be told elsewhere for it was quite a saga). This protected the garden and, once built, I knew we were on the right track.”
The stone wall nearly killed us, we very nearly killed each other too but we did it. And suddenly the garden began to develop personality, we put our heart and our backs into that wall and it repaid us by giving our plants protection. I swore I would not do it again…even though Mum made me build two more after that.
With this wonderful new development, we gained confidence in retrying to build the garden and we had a secret weapon.
Jenny: “We have a very reliable water man, who sensing our dilemma gave us a welcomed hand and advice, including lifting heavy stones for our stone wall. We pushed on making shelter belts on anything we could get our hands on. We had some setbacks but we were not deterred, occasionally we turned nasty but not deterred. And our water man always delivered water when we really needed it.“
Amazing to us now when we look back, our embryonic garden was accepted into the Australian Open Garden Scheme in 2003/2004. This is probably due to Jenny’s love (and rampant purchasing) of rare and unusual plants, but you can see below the garden was far from established.
So many plants have come and gone. Initially we planted a lot more perennials. Quite often Mum will say ‘Oh, we had that…’, but apparently ‘we don’t have it anymore’ is the unspoken part of that sentence. However, in our defence, time, effort and commitments can be overwhelming, and having a large garden is hard work. Years go by where little work gets done in the garden, you struggle to just maintain. But over time things have gotten easier, trees grow up, soil improves and micro climates are achieved.
Jenny : “The Crofton you see today is the result of not giving up believing in your own ability and having faith that some things grow and some do not. This is a short history of a 20 year journey to Peonies, Camellias, Arisaemas and Brugmansias all the colours of the rainbow. The garden is ever changing but I think we will continue to press on and enjoy the journey. It could be a bumpy ride but that’s gardening for you.”
Over the past 20 years, we have built, developed and evolved our garden into a personal space we are proud of. It is eclectic, rambling and whimsical. It is not a space designed with the public in mind, the paths are much too narrow most of the time (Mum is pretty lethal with the spade when she is edging the beds, we are trying to break her of the habit), surfaces and paths are uneven and trip hazards (even for us and we built the bloody things) and all the failures are exposed along with our successes, but perfection is not the goal here. Through trial and error, we have strived to create spaces that please us, using plants we like, with a blatant disregard to the so-called ‘gardening rules’. We like to think of it as a place where visitors can wander without destination, enjoy the garden, plants and spaces we have created and leave feeling inspired and full of possibilities with their own garden.
After all, if we can do it, anyone can…