In keeping with the English manor house style of this unique home, aspects of an arts and crafts Edwardian style garden have been created, leading to spectacular views across Adelaide to the ocean. Two great Elm trees on the western terraces frame one of Carrick Hill’s most breathtaking vistas.
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Carrick Hill’s spectacular formal gardens are popular all year round - whether you’re a keen gardener or looking for somewhere to meet friends
The formal garden, designed by Ursula Hayward, was created as a setting for elegant social occasions and tennis parties. Today these areas are ideal for weddings, open air concerts, theatrical performances and private functions. The garden is famous for its roses and pear arbour as well as outstanding design features including a rill. You’ll find plenty of places to explore or sit and relax.
Hedges, lawn terracing and stone paving create a series of small gardens, surrounded by long avenues bordered by different plantings. The surrounding grounds, modelled on the English country park, feature clumps of trees, orchards and cutting beds. Originally there were avenues of cedars and poplars. Beyond the house, grounds and paddocks, the hills and bushland of Brown Hill rise up and extend to the east.
A large team of gardeners were needed to look after the grounds. Cliff Jacobs began working as a gardener at Carrick Hill in 1936 and retired in 1986 – a remarkable 50 years of service. He pruned all the hedges with hand shears, and was so passionate about the gardens, he only took one week of holiday each year! This love and commitment continues today with a dedicated group of gardening staff and volunteers.
Ursula was a keen rose grower, selecting many old-fashioned roses and new award-winning varieties for her stunning garden displays. Each year, she purchased the winning variety in the rose section at the Royal Adelaide Show. Rose beds can be seen along the entrance drive, around the tennis court and in the Alister Clark collection.
Below the Elms, you’ll find a stunning feature unique in Australian garden design – the pleached pear arbour. From the Latin plectere meaning ‘to plait’, pleaching is an ancient technique that was known to the Romans and much admired in medieval Europe. Hornbeam and lime were usually favoured so perhaps the inspiration for using pear trees here came from Batemans in Sussex – the manor house home of writer Rudyard Kipling.
Fresh flowers from these extensive cutting beds could always be found throughout the house as Ursula was a passionate arranger and painter of flowers. Roses, orchids, tuber-roses and liliums were among her favourites. Large numbers were needed to provide flowers for the house and part of the original collection can be found along the driveway near the shade house.
The approach to the house is enhanced by the stone bridge and babbling rill. The rill - a manmade canal running through a garden - was a popular water feature of Edwardian garden design often used by Gertrude Jekyll, one of England’s most famous garden designers. Providing ambience including the sound of running water, rills also enabled water loving plants to thrive along the banks and in the ponds above and below.
The bush pole shade house with its brush roof provides a cool, moist environment for a wide range of bromeliads, ferns, tree ferns, orchids and other shade loving plants. The unusual shape of the shade house is believed to have been based on the ruins of a farm building that belonged to the original Mitcham dairy which was established in the 1880s.
The maintenance of this large exotic garden and outer grounds requires substantial amounts of water, however the use of dams, bores, tanks, rainwater harvesting, automated irrigation systems and heavy mulching all contribute to Carrick Hill’s long term strategy of becoming self-sustaining. Supported by Carrick Hill Development Foundation and a Federal Government Community Water Grant, a Water Management plan has been in place since 2007.
The Australian Museum of Gardening is currently being established at Carrick Hill. Exploring the influences that have shaped our interest as a nation in gardens and gardening, the collection already comprises over a thousand objects. Each year the museum holds special exhibitions presenting different stories that define our Australian gardening history.
