Deane Butcher’s sprawling Forest Range garden is all about peace.
The semi-retired landscape designer has lived at the 12ha property with his partner Kym Williams for 30 years and over that time they have transformed it from an orchard-come-horse property into a place of serenity.
Today, Wyndbourne Park – named for the wind that blows through the property and the suburb in which Deane grew up, Westbourne Park – is a series of gardens, each with its own unique characteristics and designed to suit its own micro-climate.
A conifer garden, grown from cuttings patiently cultivated by Kym, occupies a high section of the property, while in the valley a lush “secret garden” along a creek and presided over by a herd of alpacas, is a cool, green sanctuary year round.
Around the house Deane has planted perennial borders, while an expansive tiered vegetable garden provides a lot of the couple’s fresh produce and the property’s resident ornamental chickens cluck nearby.
There’s a bed and breakfast nestled amid the garden near the main house, while a small greenhouse provides a warmer climate to grow vegetable seedlings and a expanse of deciduous trees provide summer shade for a flock of sheep engaged as the couple’s lawnmowers.
Throughout the property are remnants of its former life as an apple and pear orchard – fruit trees are dispersed among the gardens, an orchard occupies a hillside and a decommissioned windmill that used to pump water into a pressure tank has become an ornamental feature of the garden surrounding the home.
Wyndbourne Park, named for the wind that blows through the property
A Mediterranean courtyard, a Japanese style gate and a Tuscany-inspired avenue of Cypress trees stretching up the hill from the valley garden have been inspired by the couple’s travels.
“As I did each bit I had a vision and then as you progress and when you have a new vision, you’ve got to try and make a connection so it doesn’t look to spotty, it looks more flowy,” Deane says.
“The whole garden wasn’t planned in one hit … it’s evolved.” Key to Deane’s gardening philosophy is flow and serendipity.
“If things come up in a place where I can leave them, I’ll leave them,” he says.
“To me it’s a journey of learning from nature and going with the flow and I guess that is what influences my style.”
He looks for plants that look lovely all year round, focusing on colour and the texture of the foliage.
“I want longer lasting beauty in the garden and contrast between textures and coloured foliage,” he says.
The property, which has sweeping views over the surrounding hills, has hosted weddings and engagement parties and was opened to the public through the Open Gardens scheme several years ago.
This year, the couple plans to welcome the public back for the first time in about five years.
The property will open on April 20 and 21 as part of the autumn program.
“We both love meeting people with similar interests and sharing ideas with them that have, in turn, been shared with us,” Deane says.
