Gardens open most of the year

Windyridge, Merry Garth and Bebeah gardens are open most of the year. All gardens are open in Spring from early September to mid November, and in Autumn from early April to end May, details are here...


Click on the property names for full details.


Bebeah

The Avenue, Mount Wilson  

Phone: 02 4756 2014


Merry Garth

Davies Lane Mt Wilson

Open Wednesdays, check Merry Garth page for details


Windyridge

Queens Ave, Mount Wilson  

Phone: 02 4756 2019


 

Open Days for Merry Garth Garden and Nursery. 

Every Wednesday throughout the year (Except Christmas day and New Years Day)

In addition, Autumn dates include  - All weekends in April and
                                                       - the first two Sundays in May
Opening times 8:00 am - 3.00 pm

Other times by appointment - For organised groups / buses.


Merry Garth is a beautifully laid out 2.5 hectare garden, surrounded by temperate rainforest with an ever changing view south across the mountains and deep valleys of the National Park.

Keith and Libby Raines started to create the garden soon after buying the property from Libby's parents Denys and Elizabeth Hake in 1978.  Over the following 40 years, carefully choosing a wide variety of excellent cold climate plants. The garden and nursery are currently being run by Keith and Libby's son Peter and daughter Beth with the help of horticulturist Micah Fink. 

A large collection of Himalayan magnolias, maples, camellias and other rare trees are under planted with a significant collection of rhododendon hybrids and species, many of which are fragrant and soft in colour.

Large interesting sunny garden beds slope away from the house, planted with small alpines, tiny bulbs, weeping maples, standard wisteria, and tree paeonies. One looks out over this beautiful area to the soft view beyond.

Wide paths lead one from one area to another. Shady woodland gardens are under planted with many different hydrangeas, maples, azaleas, hellebore and hostas.

Bulbs too feature at Merry Garth. Many galanthus in winter and early spring followed by crocus, daffodills, erythroniums, fritillarias, and trilliums in spring, arisaema and lillies in summer and nerines, cyclamen and crocus clothe the ground in autumn.

A small nursery provides the keen gardener with a huge collection of cold climate plants to purchase or just admire. These plants are all propagated from plants from the garden and many are hard to obtain elsewhere.

Merry Garth is a tranquil place. A place to increase ones knowledge and to enjoy - an interesting and beautiful garden for all seasons.

Contact Information

Email:     This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Micah:   0432 841 737

Peter:     0403 140 963

Beth:      0428 316 231

 

The property was originally part of the Wynstay Estate, with a small workman's cottage being built in 1930. During the war the cottage became vacant and Libby's parents, Denys and Elizabeth Hake, were able to rent it from the Wynne family. They bought the cottage and five acres of land in 1960, added a room onto the cottage, planted a few trees and fenced a little more of the clearing. In 1979 Keith, Libby and their three young children came to live at Merry Garth and they started to create the garden. Keith designed and built the house incorporating the cottage and has done all the wood work in the house and garden.

 

 

Bebeah is one of the original large garden estates of Mt Wilson, having been built by Edward Cox in 1880. The name 'Bebeah' is believed to be an Aboriginal word meaning 'a place where stone axes are found'.

Today, this garden has been completely rejuvenated, restored and reshaped under the caring hand of Barry Byrne, the current owner for the last nineteen years, into an important and rare Australian example of a formal country garden estate of imposing scale and a grand sense of design.

The garden sprawls over 12 acres (5 hectares) where the precise geometry of tightly clipped hedges of azaleas, camellias, box and laurel merges seamlessly with sweeping grassy expanses, broad arcs of white gravel drives and pathways, gently weathered classical statuary and enticing glimpses of immaculately framed vistas.

Magnificent specimen trees, some 120 years old, abound: oaks, magnolias, elm, conifers, cherries, dogwoods (there are two such trees near the main lawn that are reputed to be the first such specimens planted in Australia).

At the geographic and spiritual centre of the garden is a large lake, bound on three sides by tiered plantings of wide varieties, colours and textures. As is often the case in this garden, tantalizing flashes to the lake are proffered to the visitor before it suddenly and unexpectedly unfolds.

The main house, like the garden, has been given a new lease of life; its late Victorian Gothic weatherboards now resplendent with an oyster green colour that blends perfectly with the surrounding landscapes.

Two small cottages - one of which is available for rent - are nestled on the eastern boundary, under the shelter of ancient gnarled oaks and edged by a clipped laurel hedge of enormous length.