Open garden: Retford Park, Horden family’s 1887 highland home

Century-old oaks and an “outdoor living room” make this garden in the NSW highlands, open this weekend, a special place.

Retford Park, in the NSW southern highlands.

Century-old oaks and an “outdoor living room” make this garden in the NSW highlands, open this weekend, a special place.

Head gardener Rick Shepherd (for owner J.O. Fairfax) explains its charms.

Describe the garden: Retford Park, in the NSW southern highlands, is a grand country residence set within 10ha of English-style gardens and parklands, surrounded by a heritage area of 32ha. The 1887 house is Victorian Italianate, built by Samuel Hordern and owned by three generations of his family until 1960. The original estate was like a village with a dairy, schoolhouse, workers’ cottages, coach house and lots of stables. A series of garden rooms around the house use hedges of cherry laurel, thuja, photinia and box. Other areas include the orchard, where we’re harvesting figs, quinces and pomegranates, and a vegetable garden with asparagus and rhubarb beds. The pool pavilion was designed in 1968 by Guildford Bell and provides a sunroom with views across the paddocks. Melbourne landscape architect David Wilkinson designed the Knot Garden and the Millennium Canal. At 200m long and 10m wide, its surface area of 2000sq m represents the millennium. At each end we made oversized benches to suit that scale, from a felled conifer.

What makes it special? The many large old oaks and conifers, some dating to the turn of the century. The Anthony Hordern retailing business had a spreading oak tree as its emblem with the words “While I live, I’ll grow”. There’s an impressive sculpture collection from classical to contemporary. Because it’s such a large garden they are well displayed without competing with each other. In the Green Room, a bronze sculpture by Inge King, Euphoric Angels, is the only element within a room formed by sharply clipped thuja hedges. It is just beautiful — powerful and restrained.

Biggest challenges: I love working here so much that sometimes it’s hard to go home. We are trying to manage the garden sustainably — cutting our use of chemicals by 99 per cent, and making our own mulches and compost.

Favourite part: A new project is the outdoor living room, a tongue-in-cheek creation of a “best room”, appropriately colour co-ordinated. It has walls of clipped sasanqua camellias that in bloom are like floral wallpaper; a rug of Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’ with a white thyme border; and a steel-framed sofa of mattress vine (Muehlenbeckia) with a cushion of liquorice plant (Helichrysum petiolare).

What’s in flower: The Red Border, also known as the Persian Carpet, is looking fantastic with dahlias, salvias, Lychnis and Echinacea all competing for attention.

Extras: The wonderful ladies of Mittagong CWA are doing teas with scones and cakes. Proceeds to the Bowral District Arts Society, whose members are helping us over the weekend.

Retford Park, NSW, 1325 Old South Road, Bowral

Open: This weekend, 10am-4pm. Entry $10, under 18s free

Also open this weekend:

Craig Dhu. 51 Livingstone Ave, Pymble, NSW. 2pm-8pm

Cummins garden. 60 Telegraph Road, Pymble, NSW

The Kerr Sustainability Centre. St Johns Road, Thurgoona, NSW

Wallbrink garden. 22 Lang Street, Beaumaris, Victoria

Plant Fair at Pocket Farm. 311 Priors Pocket Rd, Moggill, Queensland.