Field of VISION

FOR GARDENER AND HOMEOWNER SIMON RICKARD, THIS LIMITLESS PLOT IN COUNTRY VICTORIA IS FIT FOR A TRUE ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

- HARRIET SIM

The front garden of Simon’s home boasts plantings of Stipa gigantea, Melianthus major, Phormium colensoi and Miscanthus transmorrisonensis, as well as a Cupressus sempervirens ‘Glauca’ pencil pine tree.

When gardener Simon Rickard first stumbled across a bare, rectangular pasture in Trentham, central Victoria, he knew he had uncovered the ideal place to lay down his roots. “Everything was green and cool – up in the clouds, it seemed,” says Simon.

However, after telling the estate agent that he was after a place with room to grow, his very literal request was met with some confusion.“The agent asked me what I was looking for,” he recalls. “Bricks and mortar? Somewhere for the kids to run around? As a gardener, I had some very different priorities and replied, ‘Actually, I’m looking for a north-facing site with basaltic loam soil’. That totally stumped him.”

A decade later, the plot sings with lush thickets, exotic natives and floods of rich foliage. “I’m definitely a ‘more is more’ kind of gardener,” says Simon, who moved his 1930s weatherboard California bungalow from Melbourne’s north-west suburbs to the town, which lies 700 metres above sea level. “Living in such an unusual climate for Australia, I had to do a lot of experimenting to see what would work. In many ways, I suppose my garden is a sandbox for my experiments in plants and plant design combinations.”