In the late 1990s, David and Dianne Holbourn visited an opened garden in Stirling.
A couple of weeks later, they stood on the back balcony of the house overlooking the manicured garden and made a snap decision to purchase the property.
They had moved to Stirling after living in Hong Kong for about 26 years and had initially returned to the property, known as Cherrywood, looking for inspiration for a garage they planned to build.
“We drove around here and we were surprised to see a for sale sign and it was open day,” David recalls.
“We came in and looked around and came out here and looked at the garden from the deck … so we went inside … and said ‘yes, we’ll take it’.”
The couple wasn’t looking to move, but the view of the garden from the balcony drew them to the property – a view that David still loves.
“It’s lovely to look at – it’s beautiful to sit up here,” he says.
The garden is a mix of manicured lawns and hedges, towering pines, winding paths and shady nooks surrounding a pond and fountain encircled by agapanthus, which add a splash of vibrant colour during summer.
The garden remains very similar to how it was when they first laid eyes on it during the open garden and then again at the open inspection weeks later.
David says the key changes are the removal of a handful of trees, the decommissioning of a spa and the development of the agapanthus garden around the pond, where there used to be lawn.
“The basic structure of all the landscaping is the same,” David says.
“We’ve got various nooks … the spa nook … there’s the gazebo nook and if you don’t want to go there, … (there’s) the memorial nook – there’s a little plaque in the ground for my mum and dad down there.”
David has also begun developing a “fern gully” at the bottom of the property, where it borders Woorabinda Bushland Reserve.
The garden wraps around all sides of the old house, which itself has a storied history.
David believes it was built in the 1880s on land that was at one stage owned – and later subdivided – by businessman and politician Arthur Hardy, the original owner of Mt Lofty House.
In the years since, it was used as a school, possibly for delinquent boys, changed hands several times and was possibly abandoned for a period of time.
“Apparently the kids down the road used to come and play here – they all thought it was haunted,” David says.
“We haven’t seen anything or heard anything.”
By the time the Holbourns bought the house, it was essentially restored and the couple only upgraded the kitchen and bathrooms and created a “replica English pub” downstairs.
About 27 years later, the couple has
no intention of downsizing.
Today the garden is maintained by landscaping business The Hedge Man, which David says allows him to enjoy it more fully.
“Before (we got them involved), as much as I loved the garden, I’d wander round and think ‘oh that’s a bit stressful, I’ve got to do that … when am I going to get time to do that?’,” he says.
“Now, however, I wander out there and think ‘oh, I love this, it’s like walking out in the Botanic Gardens’.”
The garden will be open to the public in January for the first time in about 27 years and David hopes it will give others the chance to get ‘back to nature‘.
“The world’s in a bit of a mess, isn’t it? And always has been,” he says.
“(The garden is) green, it’s clean, the environment’s lovely and people (can) come up and look around and appreciate the environment that we live in here in SA – we’re very lucky.
“And maybe it might, like us, inspire someone to come along and go ‘that’s a good idea’, we’ll go back and do that in our garden’.
“We used to go to a lot of open gardens and that’s exactly what we went for.”
