a curation of nature’s beauty.
our vision
Neither of us have had much gardening experience and we weren’t sure how much we’d connect with and want to become absorbed in the gardens at Terrara.
Very quickly this place crawled under our skin and we knew that it deserved our energy and attention. Early in our time here, we visited The Garden of St. Erth in Blackwood. The wild part of that garden is a source of inspiration for us with its use of native eucalypts as macro architectural strength with underplantings of native and exotic small trees, shrubs and groundcovers. It has formed its own ecosystem and has such a profound effect whenever we visit.
Venetia has employed her tool of choice, PowerPoint, as she’s worked to design various sections of the garden.
beatrice’s garden
This garden is surrounded by an Emu wire fence in a soft blue. It provides a safe and beautiful space for our dogs to roam with free access from the house via their very own door. It is Beatrice’s Garden, and she has taken on the role of owner and protector with great spirit.
The focus for Terrara’s gardens were centred on Beatrice’s Garden in our first two years. There were some good foundations in place from the original owners but it was overgrown and lacked cohesion and structure.
Our partnership is well displayed by our work in the garden with Venetia developing the overarching design and plant selections and Jeremy realising the vision through his incredible craftsmanship which can be evidenced by moments such as the curved wall of the Reflection Room or the stone steps from the Dining Room.
the potager
The potager was established in the Spring of 2023 and is made up of large L-shaped raised beds which are filled using a hügelkultur method to encourage healthy soil through the formation of a strong and resilient ecosystem.
The central focal point of the potager is an olive tree which sits atop a reclaimed cable drum painted a vibrant shade of red.
In the French tradition, the garden beds are full of vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. This diversity of plantings, along with the hügelkultur beds themselves, allows us to avoid the use of any inorganic methods in our growing activities.
Our first growing season saw an abundance of produce including tomatoes, zucchini, globe artichokes, rainbow chard, dahlias, lettuces, rhubarb, zinnias and eggplants. These along with our herb plantings which include tarragon, thyme, sage, parsley, basil and oregano have been a boon for the kitchen.
the orchard
In Winter 2023 we planted out the orchard with bare-rooted trees sourced from Rob and his team at Heritage Fruit Trees in Beaufort.
We wanted to create a space that would enable the trees to grow naturally and to spread their branches. We know this means we will ultimately share our fruit with the local bird-life but this is another example of the balance we are striving for of functional and aesthetic value. The orchard is situated on the north-eastern part of the garden so it receives sun all day during the growing season and the direct heat of the western afternoon sun in Summer. The trees will provide some much sought after shade when grown.
The local wild-life are a daily joy with so many different species of birds. We quickly realised that we needed to download an app in order to keep track of them all and have identified over 50 different species so far.
Unfortunately, the beautiful eastern grey kangaroos took a particular penchant for the new fruit trees and regularly tip pruned and in some instances snipped them clean off at the main leader. We had planned to install some fencing around the potager and orchard but their nightly marauding made us bring this project forward. We’ll see how they recover over the 2024 Spring but it looks as though we may have been too late for our gorgeous De Bourgeaut Quince and some of the apples.