Garden restoration
When Douglas Moffatt and his nephew, David Moffatt, purchased Invergowrie from another family member in 1986, the garden was an almost bare block. Douglas, together with Ian Telford began an extensive restoration of the garden.
The form of the restoration was a choice between that of 'a point in time' approach or some other approach. The main entrance had changed three times as modes of transport altered over the years. Because each generation has made its own contribution without completely erasing traces of what its predecessors had done, the garden today is a composite of the contributions from four generations. The style of replacement fences, gates and structures also borrow from each generation. Photos taken about 1908, simple line drawings done in the late 1970's. and recollections by older members of the family, all helped to put together a fairly accurate idea of the garden's layout.
As work progressed two surprise discoveries further helped authenticate the restoration. Among the first tasks undertaken was the relocation of a number of recently planted, but inappropriately placed trees. Once the overall plan was decided, outer garden fences were rebuilt, and herbaceous borders set out along the fence·lines of the original house: as they were before the construction of out-buildings later incorporated into the garden. The funeral cypresses and photinias were reincorporated into the garden and under-planted with perennials including aquilegia, helleborus, Japanese anemones and hostas. Unfortunately, no photographs, memories or other details existed to guide the appearance of the surrounding beds.
Then, a chance digging revealed the first surprise discovery leading to the recreation of the original formal entrance garden. In the original front garden Mitchell planted two Funeral cypresses (Chamaecyparis funebris) and photinias in the classic Victorian fashion of two symmetrical pairs Further excavation revealed a circular entrance path and flanking beds and paths, the work of great-grandfather Mitchell, reflecting the Victorian aspect of the garden hidden by grass for more than 80 years. East of the house, the kitchen garden was re-laid with 10 long, narrow, east-west running beds, as was the fashion at the time.
The form of the restoration was a choice between that of 'a point in time' approach or some other approach. The main entrance had changed three times as modes of transport altered over the years. Because each generation has made its own contribution without completely erasing traces of what its predecessors had done, the garden today is a composite of the contributions from four generations. The style of replacement fences, gates and structures also borrow from each generation. Photos taken about 1908, simple line drawings done in the late 1970's. and recollections by older members of the family, all helped to put together a fairly accurate idea of the garden's layout.
As work progressed two surprise discoveries further helped authenticate the restoration. Among the first tasks undertaken was the relocation of a number of recently planted, but inappropriately placed trees. Once the overall plan was decided, outer garden fences were rebuilt, and herbaceous borders set out along the fence·lines of the original house: as they were before the construction of out-buildings later incorporated into the garden. The funeral cypresses and photinias were reincorporated into the garden and under-planted with perennials including aquilegia, helleborus, Japanese anemones and hostas. Unfortunately, no photographs, memories or other details existed to guide the appearance of the surrounding beds.
Then, a chance digging revealed the first surprise discovery leading to the recreation of the original formal entrance garden. In the original front garden Mitchell planted two Funeral cypresses (Chamaecyparis funebris) and photinias in the classic Victorian fashion of two symmetrical pairs Further excavation revealed a circular entrance path and flanking beds and paths, the work of great-grandfather Mitchell, reflecting the Victorian aspect of the garden hidden by grass for more than 80 years. East of the house, the kitchen garden was re-laid with 10 long, narrow, east-west running beds, as was the fashion at the time.
A photograph shows him sitting among the ornate, geometric garden beds he designed at Yarrowyck, another family property which then adjoined Invergowrie to the west.
While no photographs have been found to reveal the entire original rose garden layout at Invergowrie, the existence of an English box (Buxus sempervirens) at one end and an overgrown japonica (Chaenomeles sp.) at the other, suggested these were probably in round beds, and clipped to domes.
.And then, the second surprise discovery made the recreation of the rose garden as authentic as possible. Found in a journal belonging to Mr Martin Moffatt was a list of 34 roses planted in 1919, including the location of some individual. The northern verandah of the oldest section of the homestead with the climbing noisette 'Mme Alfred Carriere', October 2001. Surviving from the 1919 planting, the tea rose 'Mme Lombard' is now supported by a folly built in September 2001.
Excerpt from Invergowrie ; a garden restoration Author: Hughes, Tim Source: Australian Garden History, Vol. 13, No. 4, Jan-Feb 2002: 4-6
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