Gardening guru Sophie Thomson is selling her famous patch and here’s why
At Home’s garden expert and TV host Sophie Thomson invites us on a tour of her 1860s home before she sells up and moves on to greener pastures.
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There are few Australian gardens better known than Sophie Thomson’s. Twice a year, the much-loved garden expert and author opens her Adelaide Hills estate and thousands flock to it, and every week or so, she films a national television gardening show from her country acreage. It’s a whimsical property that At Home’s gardening expert and her family of seven has nurtured for the past decade, from a dry paddock into an abundant plot known as Sophie’s Patch.
“The house had just been restored (when we moved in) so it literally was an old stone cottage sitting in a bare cow paddock. We rented the house on a small patch of land for four years, and then had the opportunity to buy it on three acres in August, 2011,” says Sophie.
But as with many gardeners, at some point, all that can be done has been done, and after 11 years, Sophie and her grown-up tribe have decided to sell and move on. In part due to encroaching development near their Hills’ homestead.
“This is my third garden and it’s simply time for the fourth… the next project,” she says. “While this might be the one people have seen through social media and TV, it was my first garden The Chapel at Ashton that was stunning.”
Not that her current garden is any less impressive. A series of flourishing garden zones, including vegie patches, an orchard, hothouse, areas for chicken and geese, and sheds, garden art and quirky novelties including a train carriage and a woven treehouse make it a delight to wander through.
“It was always our 10-year plan to live close to the kids’ school when they were little, expecting that we would move on when the development got to us,” says Sophie.
“I love the view north to the Mt Barker Summit. It is very special to me and gives me a sense of place.”
STEP INSIDE
As such, many of us feel at home when we see Sophie’s familiar garden, yet rarely seen is the 1860s bluestone house, Hamlyn Cottage, that sits on top of the hill where her family like to stay out of the spotlight. It’s home to Sophie, her husband, and children, Rose 15, Rowan, 19, Beau, 17 and Violet, 15, (eldest son Toby 21 has left home) along with Pearl the Labrador, and a working dog called Sherlock, a Maremma who guards their flock of chooks and geese.
“It has been a wonderful home for our family to grow up in. The kitchen is the heart of our house and I love it,” say Sophie. “As our tribe has grown, and they now have partners joining them, our massive kitchen table sees many laughs and lively discussions.
“I love the view out of the French windows out into the garden. We have loved the borrowed landscape of the paddocks that surrounds us, and even though the neighbours can be noisy at times (the cows) we love them.”
However, the original cottage, made out of local stone and built in the 1860s by an English immigrant, had a troubled beginning.
“Our cottage was built by Thomas Hamlyn, who came out from Devon in the UK with his wife, Susannah, and nine children in 1847. Following a mix-up with the land title, the family ended up living in dugouts and caves in the nearby creek for three years (while the legal issues were sorted out and the house was built),” Sophie writes in her book Sophie’s Patch. “As they came from the UK, they had no idea of our climate. The house was positioned to face almost due west with no eaves to shelter it from the hot sun.”
Sophie can’t imagine how the large family fitted in the original house.
“The stone cottage is simply four rooms including two bedrooms, a small lounge with a massive fireplace, and a large kitchen,” she says.
HISTORY RESTORED
After the Hamlyns sold, the house fell into disrepair and it wasn’t until the 1990s that the then owners decided to restore the heritage-listed ruin. An extension with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry and a garage, that Sophie now uses as her office, was added.
“The former owner employed a stone mason and builder to undertake this mammoth project and over a 10-year period the cottage was restored, with wet areas and two extra bedrooms added,” says Sophie. “The restoration work won a heritage award.”
Throughout, local pine adorns the floors, walls and ceilings creating a warm feel, while thick bluestone walls, the original fireplace and hearty kitchen – Sophie’s favourite part of the home – offers a step back in time.
Every nook and cranny in the home is filled with curios, memories and family trinkets, while the lounge doubles as Pearl’s bedroom.
Inside and out, seasonal harvests from the garden can be found in the kitchen, from pumpkins and squash to fruit and tomatoes. The supply is constant, a credit to Sophie’s passion for productive gardens.
“I love having a display of produce on the end of our 3m long table. This table was made out of a pair of jarrah gates I bought from a salvage yard for $100 in the late 1990s. A retired farmer who loved woodwork created it for me and we love it,” she says.
THE NEXT CHALLENGE
Leaving such a productive garden is not without sadness and Sophie will miss the fertile soil and established trees.
“I will miss leaving the shade trees that I have planted. They’re only now creating the shade that I wanted them too,” she says.
“And maybe the world’s best treehouse, originally created as a woven structure for my 2015 Royal Adelaide Show Garden.”
However, she’s not leaving everything behind. “The garden art, all my pots and a lot of gardening lessons learned. I can’t take Luscious (the dragon sculpture) though and I will miss her – she is our house dragon and sits at the heart of the property, guards the front door... and makes me smile.”
While willing to start again from scratch, there are a few things on her home wishlist.
“I like old, so perhaps an old stone cottage, ideally with trees, some old outbuildings and sheds, unrenovated. More land, rather than less, and somewhere where development can’t or won’t surround me.”
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