Open garden: Narbethong Farm an autumn delight

A pleasant drive up the Yarra Valley from Melbourne, this garden is currently awash in beautiful autumn colours.

Autumn colours at Narbethong Farm.

Open garden: Narbethong Farm, 551 Maroondah Highway, Narbethong, Victoria. Owners: Jan and Cameron Barnes. This weekend, 10am-4pm. Entry $10; under-18s free

Describe the garden: We’re near Marysville in an area noted for its beautiful autumn colour. The 85km drive from Melbourne takes you through the Yarra Valley, and then Black Spur, a very special 15km drive of majestic gums and lush ferns. The garden is large, ranging over perhaps 19 acres (7.7ha) around a cattle property. Gardens surround the work sheds and trees are planted along lane ways. It’s a garden of large deciduous trees and conifers, with a lake, statues and water features throughout. The parterre garden, which is about 50m long, is a more formal element. The maple walk is a long, wide avenue that used to be a cattle yard and dairy. The olive grove features a large ornament or urn in each alcove; lit up at night, it’s quite beautiful.

What makes it special: Some of the best work has come from unexpected contributions. The cattle workers placed the big urns when they got annoyed at my stuff being in the way. They look superb. A past manager with a keen eye built the pond around the fountain and made the railway sleeper sign in the driveway, which I love. A talented local lady created the parterre garden, olive garden, maple walk and Aussie garden. All of it is beautifully cared for by Vince, who takes enormous pride in continuing the work and in presenting the garden at its best. He and I love to experiment.

Biggest challenges: We have deer, wombats, rabbits, geese and birds that all want a part of the garden, and cattle that think they can camp next to my trees. It has been a challenge to convince the boys that I want to make a garden where they want to put bulls. I think it has worked out fine for all of us. The 2009 bushfires crossed the road at the front gate but luckily the post and rail fence and garden were saved.

Favourite part: I love my conifers and maples. Conifers are the ultimate lazy person’s plant — they just grow and keep a lovely shape all by themselves. When you buy a conifer you have to buy a maple, and I’ve kept buying them. The colours are beyond beautiful. And I love the old trees in the driveway. I think about whoever planted them, how wise they were to allow a lot of space.

What’s looking good: Japanese maples in every colour, and oak, ash, ginkgo, beech and dogwood trees. There’s a forest of more than 100 birch trees I gave Cameron for his 50th birthday. We liked it so much we did it again.