“Inside the theatrical garden with a mellow heart”

Soon after the couple acquired the property they installed what Valentine describes as “big, fancy urns” in one spot in the garden. He says that it was immediately “glaringly obvious they were a mistake”.

“They were so grandiose, they looked absurd.” There’s a certain mood here and the urns were fighting against it.

“We have learned the language of the land and climate and heritage,” Valentine says. “It dictates what we do.”

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Their property, called “The Stones”, is in a drought-prone area that gets about 620mm of rain a year and that experiences both brutal frosts and searing heat. While the garden has volcanic soil, Valentine says it is so shallow that it’s like gardening on a sieve. “The water just leaks through.”

They have chosen predominantly tough plants, such as olive trees, rosemary, lavender, succulents and Mediterranean-climate perennials, which can cope with the challenging conditions. One of their favourite trees is the jacaranda but because it won’t survive the hard frosts, they have opted for the large-leafed Paulownia instead.

Francis, who used to work as a hairdresser and became “an expert in the hardest, sharpest ’80s bob”, is responsible for pruning. With the shade trees (including the Paulownias and olives and also walnuts) he reveals a lot of bare trunk – the more gnarled the better – and accentuates a wide canopy. But for some shrubs (Teucrium fruticans and Correa alba, for example) he goes in crisp and tight and then shakes up the mood by interspersing this harder-edged fare with looser and freer fare offerings (such as ornamental grasses and Melianthus major).

While the interplay between different leaf shapes and forms is central here, there is also the flash of flowers, including (depending on the season) sculptural artichokes, cardoon, Echinops ‘Ritro Blue’ and Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’.

Threaded throughout are walls built from the local stone. Some of the walls were here when they arrived but Valentine has built lots more, as well as a dramatic stone pedestal that he and Francis have topped with a giant container of architectural cacti and surrounded by a whimsical swathe of sedums.

Everything they have introduced – the pergola covered in kiwi fruit, the arbour smothered in grape vines, the vegetable beds, the cactus garden, the gravel pathways – they have created themselves.

“We don’t want it to look too professional,” Valentine says.

Keeping things in balance is one of Valentine and Francis’ strong points. Take the slender burgundy cordylines they acquired from a new housing estate and theatrically arranged around a 1920s milking shed. Or the swaying waves of Miscanthus sinensis they have deployed to blend their garden into the surrounding paddocks.

These two know how to create a mood that sweeps you up but doesn’t feel forced. Everything is perfectly judged, including the dose of craziness.

The Stones, 1530 Hepburn-Newstead Road, Clydesdale is open to the public on Saturday 26 April and Sunday 27 April, 10am to 4.30pm, $10. Go to opengardensvictoria.org.au for more information.

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