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52 Your Garden Winter 2010 Your Garden W

Wigandia AND THE ART OF GARDENING

Trevor Nottle is anardent admirer of therevolutionary gardeningachievement of WilliamMartin at Mt Noorat

in Victoria. Here, heexplains why Wigandia isso important to the storyof Australian gardens.

S ee William Martin; seehis garden Wigandia;see Mt Noorat. They areall part of the same thing,part of the environment inwhich they exist, a product of it, and at the same time eachinterdependent on the other fortheir character and life.

Such mutuality is hard for manyto understand and yet seeingWigandia the mountain and theman the relationship becomesimmediately apparent. The senseof place is tangible on the dryscoria slopes of the mini-mountain.

It is heightened by the garden, bythe choice of plants, stones, gravelsand sculptures, and by the visionthat William has developed from his

vantage point as an artist. Williamchooses the garden as his canvas andplants as his preferred medium, andhis creative skill clearly shows hehas a thorough understanding and

appreciation of what he can do withhis raw materials. He is a conceptualartist who deals with the stark setting,the harsh climate, the plants thatsurvive there, the mean soil, and theold garden culture of the WesternDistrict to create a garden that canonly exist in the place it is.

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM MARTIN

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A sense of the uniqueLooking at Wigandia, perched on the side of a pre-historic volcanic cinder cone in western Victoria it iseasy to see how William has drawn on the faded yellowsof the landscape within his garden to link it with thesurrounding countryside. Elsewhere in the garden the redscoria gravel on the site is linked up with the red-brown

leaves of Aeonium Schwarzkopf and Aeonium Velours,bronze leaved flaxes and hop bush to establish anothercolour theme. Both run through the garden enlivened bysilver leaved plants, which with many contrasting growthhabits and forms make up the secrets, if there are any,of Williams garden. What makes Wigandia so distinctive

are the types of plants used to make the garden; they areall first and foremost tough old-fashioned survivors.

It can be frustrating to garden in much of Australia,what with climate change, severe water restrictions,extreme drought and barren soils, and more so whendifficult conditions are compounded by bushfires,isolation, restricted plant choices and economicdownturns. So what is it about Wigandia that enables it tosurvive and thrive? How can it be on a site that few woulddeny has many daunting challenges?

First, and most importantly, is that William knowswhere he is, and he knows where he is not. He knows heis not, for instance, gardening in Toorak or somewhere in

Surrey or Long Island. All gardeners can learn from this.Success in gardening comes when there is no pretenceabout being somewhere that seems more favourable. Asgardeners we have to accept where we are and work withit rather than trying to make it something it can never be.

Secondly, he has developed an understanding of what agarden is. It is more than a stage set for a fine house andsignificant investment; it is even more than a statementabout achievement and status. Primarily it is part of ourlife and daily living. Wigandia clearly shows how much thegarden is a part of the life of William and his family. Thebelts of bamboo and she-oaks around the road boundaryestablish it as a place of retreat and repose, of withdrawal

from the world outside to a quieter place within. Thechoice of trees is important; they are tough and needno fussing, and by the rustle and whisper of their leathey create a mood that is reflective and restful. Oncethis feeling has been established William can open upthe spaces beyond to please himself and his family. Twide, high sky can be admired from vantage points,

can the broad landscape of the plains below the mouBut the views are controlled and framed to not compoverawe the viewer and swamp the sensations on entthe garden. Controlling and framing, revealing and hiopenings and closings are orchestrated by the gardenso that what is seen from within adds to the overall fe

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What ties all

the aspects of

Wigandia is the

unity between the

setting and thegarden. What

is left out is as

relevant as

what is included.

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A placid selectionWilliam is also a consummate plantsman whose plantchoices surprise and delight many more than theydismay or disappoint. Far removed from the restrictivechoices of commercial horticulture, his selection goesfurther than the simplicities of bigger, better and more

vividly coloured varieties of the same old, same old. He

knows that foliage and form have year-round impactwhere flowers come and go with every heatwave.Thus his garden is inhabited not by the newestgaudy roses and flamboyant perennials but by subtlercombinations well past their use-by date: furcraeas,agaves, aloes, cotyledons, sedums, melianthus, giant

reed or bamboo, and the less common colletia, ruscus,puya, dyckia, dasylirion and even wigandia itself. Theseplants form a permanent and quietly colourful backbone;flowers, when they appear, are a bonus but not the mainreason for a plant being included. The varied leaf forms,reflective qualities and even shadow making capacities aresignificant and sufficient in themselves.

Many of these plants have long associations with oldgardens in the area. Indeed, William has rescued severalof them from the semi-derelict gardens of Colonial-eraproperties. They have become part of the local landscapeand give a feeling of continuity and permanence that everchanging fashionable plants can never do.

Place and plantingWhat ties all these aspects of Wigandia together insuccessful composition is the unity that exists betweenthe setting and the garden. What is left out is asrelevant as what is included. White gravel wouldnot do, reddish-brown is necessary to be at one withthe wider landscape.

There is no gazebo, no matter how comfortable. Itwould be out of place here. There is no rill. It wouldbe wrong halfway up a steep mountainside. Urns andstatuary would be extraneous and a distraction fromframed and focused views. Arches and birdbaths woulddisrupt the flow of linked spaces. The feeling would be

disturbed by Balinese shelters, just as it would by Tupergolas. Even if or especially when a garden feais called for, William explores his sensibility and creawhat is needed to fit; nothing is ever fitted in just forthe sake of it.

The principles of fitness for purpose, permanencediscerning plantsmanship, self-understanding and

knowledge of place are easily observed at WigandiaPutting them into practice in our own gardens isthe challenge. These are the first steps: allow timeto absorb how William has related to his place andthen perhaps you too can develop some understandinof how you can relate to yours.

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