By Dongyun Kwon
Big Hill is about to show up its beautiful landscape to give locals solace for only two days from 14 to 15 October.
This is only the second time the garden has been opened publicly with the last opening being seven years ago.
Garden owner, landscape designer and builder Loretta Childs said she hoped visitors would be calm, relaxed and connected to nature in Big Hill.
“What struck me was people referred to the property as being incredibly calm, peaceful and bringing a lot of solace in the last time I opened it,” she said.
Big Hill is named after what was written in the old maps of the area.
The place is known to be the highest peak along the ridgeline where people look over the entire Yarra Valley.
The garden consists of several spaces; gardens, ponds, a dwelling, a swimming pool and a mid-construction area.
It has been a 20-year project to evolve with a main theme of being naturalistic and organic.
The garden has been designed harmoniously under the theme and built with recycled materials.
Visitors will see the harmony of old and new in the garden.
“People are going to see the complete garden of 20 years and then they are going to come into something just two weeks old,” Childs said.
The photos showing the process of evolution of the garden will be displayed on the event dates.
The garden also shows off its beauty with the amalgamation of different types of plants.
The plant palette is approximately 70 per cent native, 15 per cent indigenous and 15 per cent exotic.
“I am a native gardener but we do have exotics which have to be in the right place to keep the harmony of the garden,” Childs said.
The main dwelling is covered with Chinese wisteria floribunda and Japanese vitis coignetiae.
The combination of water and garden is another interesting point to pay attention to for visitors.
“Water is an important part of the landscaping in my garden because it brings so much habitat and relief in summer,” Childs said.
The rocks surrounding the main pond were designed to be off the ground for local wildlife to have a haven.
There is a hull of a damaged boat around one of the ponds which has a special story.
“It was made in post World War 2 to go up the river but it never made it then Montsalvat and my partner restored it over five years and some unfortunate thing happened, the barn and the boat burnt down two weeks before launch,” Childs said.
Montsalvat is an artists’ colony in Eltham, where art in all its forms is made and taught, and art’s transformative power is celebrated in exhibitions, festivals, concerts, workshops and artists’ residencies.
Island Garden is the centre of where the property has been developed and the Veggie Garden is placed in it.
There is a special landmark, Staircase to Heaven which was sculpted by Jacki Staud, between the main pond and Island Garden.
The swimming pool, another space with water, is surrounded by basalt rock which Childs decided on where to place.
Childs said she had gardening DNA in her blood.
“My grandmother, mother and sisters are all gardeners and we’ve all built beautiful gardens,” she said.
“A number of years ago, my two other sisters and myself had our own open garden tour because we all had acreage and a big garden.
“When we are in the garden, we are the happiest.”
Her blood gave her a passion for gardening which led her to get a certificate in landscape design and horticulture.
“Wherever I went, wherever I rented a house or wherever it was, I never ever stopped making a garden,” Childs said.
An open garden is an impetus to push herself to get on top of the garden again after a little neglect due to the family issues she had gotten through.
For more information, please visit opengardensvictoria.org.au/Big-Hill-2.
