Innholdsfortegnelse for No. 3 - 2025 i Country Style Specials

I get a lot of joy from my parents’ garden. I live in an apartment and my gardening extends to caring for a collection of potted plants – indoor and outdoor – with varying degrees of success. Mum and Dad’s garden features a simple, flat front yard with lawn and hardy plants and a large pandanus tree that can withstand high winds given its exposed, coastal position. At the back of the house is large block that slopes away quite dramatically. Stone masons built walls to create terraces and garden beds. They have built tall fences to protect it from the wind and the bush turkeys next door. Dad himself built a putting green just outside the back door using artificial grass, which has given him and us as a…

Brenda and Brett Ainsworth have seen both the good and the bad sides of living in the bush. In 2013, they lost their home in the NSW Blue Mountains town of Winmalee to bushfire, which led them to explore a sea change in Sydney’s idyllic Cronulla. But they couldn’t stay away forever. “In 2020, our daughter Hannah was married in Blackheath, and the love and the pull of the mountains got us excited to look for a new property,” says Brenda. “We found Bryn Mawr in Mount Wilson and fell in love with it.” The 14.5-hectare property, on the traditional lands of the Gundungurra and Darug people, is set in World Heritagelisted rainforest, with over four hectares devoted to the homestead and its sprawling gardens. “The garden was beautiful but…

For Kim Currie, executive chef at Zin House in Mudgee, NSW, there is always a little thrill that comes from being in the garden. When she’s not in the kitchen, preparing her refined menu of seasonal, share plate-style dishes for diners, Kim will be out amongst it on Tinja Farm, part of the Lowe Family Wine Co vineyard that she owns with her husband David Lowe, picking and sampling from the orchards, the market garden and even the vines themselves. “Around March, the muscat vineyard near the entrance to Zin House produces magnificent Gordo Blanco and Muscat Hamburg grapes,” says Kim. “David always tells me off for eating them too early, but I adore them and it’s such a treat to put whole bunches straight on our diners’ tables.” Tinja…

Colourful tree canopies and shady copses greeted Sue and Ian Rogan when they purchased six hectares in historic Millthorpe 15 years ago. Located in the Central West of NSW, between Orange and Blayney, the acreage was developed as a tree farm and nursery in the 1990s by the Jeffree family, who are descendants of Paul Sorensen, the renowned landscape gardener and nurseryman. Paul was based in the Blue Mountains, and his legacy lives on in the European-inspired private and public gardens he designed from the 1920s onwards, including the heritage-listed Everglades in Leura. Many trees featured on Ian and Sue’s land can be traced back to the original Sorensen family nursery in Leura, where a cool-climate arboretum inspired botanical designers and home gardeners alike. Sue, 69, and Ian, 70, now…

Generous in scale and spirit, this sprawling estate sits atop a natural escarpment some distance from Sydney, on its green northwest surrounds. The design and construction company Cadence & Co developed the two hectares for a large family who loves to entertain. The impressive outcome is a haven where kith and kin gather while soaking up valley views and seasonal rhythms. The homestead perches at the acreage’s highest point, with a sweeping panorama that captures a national park to the south. To the western-oriented back of the dwelling, by the tennis court, you’ll find a pool and resort-style pavilion flanked by two towering Canary Island date palms. Sun-drenched lawns and paved entertaining areas sit to the north, while the south side falls away to terraced paddocks, an Olympic-sized equestrian arena…

GATHERING GROUND Landscape artist Nat Anderson picked an inspiring spot to live with her husband, Shane, and their three daughters: a hectare in the rolling Barrabool Hills, behind Victoria’s Surf Coast. Architect Robert Troup designed the home to fit its site: “It was important that the house just sat on the hillside and looked like it had always been there.” A Colorbond roof and walls in Night Sky fit the brief, as did this fire-pit area with Ceres sandstone flooring. Gabion walls serve as seats. Follow @natandersonartist HEALTHY OUTLOOK “Every section of the home has a beautiful view. That connection to the great outdoors is very special to us,” says Lee-Anne Stevens, who with her husband Lee, runs Healthy Abode, a non-toxic design and consulting firm. Their principles informed the…

When owners Bryan and Allison sit inside their home watching the wispy grasses outside shimmering and shimmying in the wind, the evocative vista whisks them away to the wild grasslands of the Victorian plains. Yet, enjoying the best of both worlds, the couple lives in Melbourne’s inner north-west, with all the urban conveniences that implies. When they bought their double-fronted Edwardian bungalow in 2018, they encountered a “rudimentary” backyard, according to Bryan – a tidy expanse of lawn fringed by shallow garden beds and a shed smothered in passionfruit vines. “We saw so much potential, as the house hadn’t been touched in decades and it had a west-facing backyard, which held the promise of long, sun-filled summer nights hanging out with friends and family,” he says. “We saw what could…

Beyond the honey-hued stone walls of 18th-century Hunstrete House, tucked away in a 12-hectare deer park around two hours’ drive west of London, lies an arguably even more impressive garden. Belonging to The Pig Near Bath, one of a litter of boutique hotel dotted throughout England’s rolling hills, the almost-one-hectare walled garden features a fruit orchard, greenhouses, raised beds and polytunnels that supply year-round produce to the on-site restaurant. Completing the storybook scene, the dining area is housed inside a Victorian-style conservatory overlooking the grounds, which have proven to be as productive as they are pretty. Whether it’s carrots for spiced carrot soup, garlic for the roasted garlic mayonnaise or marigold flowers to garnish their much-loved chocolate slice, the kitchen garden produce touches every one of the dishes served, says…

Wearing overalls, boots and a garden tool belt equipped with secateurs and flagging tape, Rachael Hardy weaves through rows of flower beds, ducking into the greenery to masterfully snip and strip whatever bloom she has her eye on. The garden bursts with colour, shape and texture. Open flowers and buds about to unfurl create an untamed, exuberant symphony, with Rachael conducting every note. “Everything has its perfect time to grow,” she says. Rachael’s flower farm, The Love Garden, is nestled in the Numinbah Valley, Queensland, and covers less than a hectare. The bio-intensive micro-farm is invisible from the neighbouring Lamington and Springbrook National Parks – but there’s nothing insignificant about this unpretentious flower farm. As the founder of The Love Garden, Rachael wears many hats – flower farmer, florist and…