Nestled among the gum trees of Sampson Flat is a European-inspired garden that has been carved out of the surrounding sheep and cattle paddocks over several decades.
Lawns shaded by towering ash trees and a formal rose garden give way to winding paths through pink silene, lime-green euphorbia, irises, red valerian, Marguerite daisies, tulips, liliums and Japanese anemone, while wisteria drapes over a wide arbour leading to beds of white flowers tucked at one end of the garden.
Thoughtfully designed to display colour through every season, the garden is the legacy of Alan Irving and the late Ruth Irving, who, for more than 40 years, transformed the blank canvas of Al Ru Farm into a living work of art.
Ruth and Alan bought the 50ha property in 1979 as a weekender and place to keep their herd of stud cattle.
At the time, it contained a modest four-room stone cottage.
But after Ruth and Alan moved to the property full-time with Alan’s four children and Ruth’s mother, Elly, it was gradually expanded into a sprawling French-inspired homestead, built around the original stone rooms.
“I had a plan drawn up where I wanted to demolish this house and then build a château with spires each end … it was all pretty grand,” Alan says.
“Ruth was aghast – she was horrified when she saw it. “She said she’d do something with (the cottage).”
As the homestead expanded, so did the surrounding gardens – the boundaries gradually edging out further away from the house to make way for lawns, more than 3000 trees and a kaleidoscope of flowering plants.
“It’s been a process of changing and changing and changing all the way along over the decades and Ruth winning the argument all the way along the line and me succumbing,” Alan recalls. “And I’m glad she won.”
With a keen eye for antiques and a love for Mediterranean gardens, Ruth was innovative and unique in her designs.
She planted bright pink silene alongside lime-green euphorbia – a combination that many people said would never work – while the ‘Acropolis’ – a Grecian-style arbour along one side of the lily pond – is made from concrete drainpipes that were purchased for $20 each.
While Ruth was the mastermind behind the design, Alan was a faithful contributor of manual labor and a sine qua non to bringing Ruth’s vision to life.
“I actually did a lot of physical work in those early years,” Alan says.
“Dad’s pretty handy with a wheelbarrow,” his daughter, Robyn Irving, adds.
A former antique dealer – another of her passions that is evident around Al Ru Farm in the many statement pieces she has lovingly collected – Ruth travelled around Europe with Alan and drew inspiration from many of the Mediterranean and European gardens they visited.
In her later years she belonged to the Mediterranean Garden Society and the Open Gardens Scheme.
But her passion for gardening began as a child.
She migrated to Australia from Germany with her family as an eight-year-old and cultivated her interest in plants in her mother’s garden.
“Her mother used to take her for a walk in her garden every morning … so she always had that,” Alan says.
“They lived at Modbury, they had a garden there and it was just totally overgrown with new plants.”
Ruth met Alan in 1969 when she arrived at his veterinary clinic as a 14-year-old looking for a part-time job to help her maintain her horse.
Their paths converged again several years later when Ruth moved back to Adelaide after living in Germany.
Since they bought Al Ru Farm in the late 1970s it has become one of SA’s prominent garden wedding venues.
An old barn has been expanded and transformed into a function centre decorated with antique mirrors from across Europe, and a stately Garden Pavilion – used as a BnB – now stands at one end of a lawn walk, complete with three pairs of French doors found in a shed not far from Paris.
Over the years Al Ru Farm’s reputation was established as one of SA’s most popular garden wedding venues and it – and its designer – have featured on national programs, including Burke’s Backyard, Getaway and Better Homes and Gardens.
But Ruth never shied away from the humble beginnings of Al Ru Farm – even before its European transformation – and entertained a wide range of friends and associates, from doctors to politicians, around her antique table in the four-room cottage kitchen.
“She was always her own person,” Alan says. “She didn’t worry about what other people thought.
“… (There was a) remarkable social strata of people who used to gather round Ruth in all the things that she did and she never felt this wasn’t good enough, we can’t ask them here.”
Ruth passed away on August 11 this year. But her legacy through the garden will continue to live on.
“The garden really is her legacy and will be, and as a family we’ll make sure it stays that way,” Robyn says.
