SERIES 36 | Episode 28
Tammy visits Jennifer and Pete in their remote Blue Mountains garden which has been transformed from bare paddocks into a floral canvas brimming with poppies.
Hartvale Gardens spans 2 hectares (1 ha are established gardens). Seven years ago, Jennifer discovered this property on a serendipitous trip to buy a fridge. The vacant property had a lone oak tree and gum trees and is nestled at the base of Mount York with striking views of the sandstone escarpment, surrounding valleys, and panoramic views over the valley to Mount Clarence to the north.
Peter Kube built a large industrial shed and converted it into a ‘shouse’ with upcycled and restored old windows and doors. The character has been added with aged hardwood timbers and quirky rustic metal elements. Every window of the house has expansive views of the landscape, the valley, the escarpment, and the gardens. Inside the walls are filled with Jennifer Edward’s artworks of flowers, birds, and landscapes.
The Gardens
Inspired by a lifelong love of the Blue Mountains, Jennifer and her partner Peter set to work. Peter started building the buildings, structures and fencing; while Jennifer imagined a floral canvas, creating a painterly landscape bursting with colour, texture, movement and old-world flowers like poppies, roses, Bearded Iris, giant Alliums, double snapdragons, sweet pea towers, valerian (covered in butterflies), geums and foxgloves . Jennifer loves a profusion of colour and treats the garden as a giant canvas, filling it with a mix of flowers with contrasting shapes and tones, painting with plants.
Garden Areas
Hartvale Gardens is a series of wild and relaxed spaces, mazelike, each with a unique character and purpose. Serpentine garden beds, curve, mimicking the topography of the valley beyond. It’s whimsical, pretty, wild, and free from the usual garden rules (of order and symmetry). “What I love about my garden is its feeling of nostalgia, visitors say it reminds them of their grandparents, it touches the heart. I don’t know the names of plants, I know what they do, how they behave, and how they fill the spot”.
Kitchen Potager: A mix of vegetables and flowers, providing both visual and culinary delights. Old railway sleepers line the garden edge to raise the height of the veggie beds, rusty corrugated iron and old drums and wrought iron are used to give an old-world feel.Walled Garden: A seasonal display of cottage plants such as Veronica, poppies, stock, and foxgloves, creating an Australian take on the classic English cottage garden. “Sweet peas scale timber tripods, and metal rose arbours lift rose blossoms high into the sky. My painterly approach pairs poppies with irises, aquilegia, penstemons, and old-fashioned roses bringing my imagination to life.”Apple Gazebo and Tunnel: This whimsical feature is surrounded by apple trees, creating a rustic, fruitful retreat. Apple trees are grown in large, corrugated circles, with carpeting nasturtium and strawberries beneath spilling over the edges. “Every tree has a shovel full of gypsum at the bottom of the planting hole.Hothouse: Essential in frost-prone Little Hartley, this area is used to cultivate frost-tender or early-start plants, growing broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower in winter, tomatoes in spring and summer, and raising seedlings for the potager garden. Seasonal blooms surrounding the hothouse add a vibrant splash of colour to the top of the driveway.
Signature Poppies
Poppies are the spring focal point at Hartvale Gardens now. Jennifer says “I love how they reflect the light and seem to float on air. To me they are like welcoming friends back into the garden”. She laboriously sowing and tending after her babies through the winter and wanting to create a field of poppies this season. The poppies are at their peak this week, with varieties including Oriental, Flanders, Californian, perennial, and peony poppy varieties.
Poppies are spring flowering annuals that thrive in sunny spots with well-drained soil. Jennifer adores them! She sows seed in autumn, scattering the fine seeds, like sand, over the soil surface without covering them, as they need light to germinate. She keeps the soil moist until the seedlings emerge and then waters sparingly throughout the winter. Poppies grow strong throughout her winter and don’t mind the frosts of this side of the Blue Mountains. In springtime Jennifer dead heads old blooms, regularly to prolong the display. Then at the end of the season, the seed pods are collected, stored in packets, and named for future plantings next autumn.
“The red poppies have come out first, and weirdly they have come out in the pink and white poppy gardens which are coming out next, but I don’t have the heart to edit or remove them. The garden does what it likes, I don’t care. There’s nothing wrong with hot pink and red together”.
Featured Plants SPINACHSpinacia oleracea cv.LETTUCELactuca sativa cv.ZUCCHINICucurbita pepo cv.CUCUMBER ‘LEBANESE’Cucumis sativus cv.VERONICAVeronica spicata cv.SNAPDRAGONAntirrhinum cv.COLUMBINEAquilegia vulgaris cv. *ROSERosa cv.SWEET PEALathyrus odoratus cv.FLANDERS POPPYPapaver rhoeas cv. *POMPOM POPPYPapaver cv.POPPY ‘ANGEL’S CHOIR’Papaver rhoeas cv. *PERENNIAL POPPYPapaver orientale cv.PEARPyrus cv.* Check before planting: this may be an environmental weed in your area
Filmed on Wiradjuri Country | Little Hartly, NSW
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