Robyn Smyth .: Cluny Road, Armidale

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This garden is just maturing at its current age of 19 years old. It features formal and informal areas and is divided from its larger context by various hedge plantings which also form some of its 'rooms'. The architecture of the formal areas was designed by my late husband and with God's inspiration I have had the role of interior designer, adding the décor to Jeff's structural ideas with planting and features. I love autumn colour and large trees so there are a large variety of ornamental trees, chosen for their varying hues from claret and red through to golden yellow and fiery orange. Jeff was interested in conifers so as you wander you will find examples such as the Canadian redwood, the prostrate and regular forms of the Norwegian spruce, a deciduous swamp Cyprus (Taxodium), examples of cupressacae, dwarf torulosa, mountainspruce, juniper and deodora.

Hundreds of daffodil and other spring bulbs give the garden colour in the early spring before the roses begin to bloom. Irises are another feature, used as ground cover beneath the lines of claret ashes and in mass plantings elsewhere. Informal areas are an amalgam of native and ornamental plantings. Conifers are a theme which unifies aspects of the garden design along with the hedges, espaliered camellias and strategically placed crepe myrtles. Lines of English plane and claret ash define the formal vistas from the front gate with conifer, native, and ornamental hedges defining areas closer to the house.

Built on heavy black soil, garden beds are raised and have required significant management in both drought and more recent rainy times. One sadness was the loss of a 17 year sold conifer (Cupressus macrocarpa conybearii) which became waterlogged in a very heavy downpour in 2009. Its replacement is growing steadily to rebalance the geometry of the back garden. I hope you will enjoy wandering through the garden and surrounds, finding it a peaceful retreat.