Little Hartley NSW
Floral masterpiece
EACH SEASON BURSTS FORTH IN A SPECTACULAR PALETTE AT HIGHFIELDS IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS, NSW.
WORDS JESSICA BELLEF PHOTOGRAPHY BRIGID ARNOTT
A once-bare cow paddock has been brought to life with thousands of perennials, grasses and annuals planted across garden rooms at Highfields.
Highfield’s owners Andrew Dunshea (left) and David Kennedy with dogs Teddy and Billie, two of their five beloved Jack Russells.
Clumps of golden buxus, euphorbia and iris line one of the paths winding through Highfield.
In the water garden, pockets of galanthus, narcissus and fritillaria nestle among the maples and conifers
The Gate House oozes cottage charm, with Lavandula stoechas ‘Avonview’ in the foreground.
ELEVEN YEARS AGO, THIS GENTLY sloping parcel of land at Little Hartley, two hours’ drive west of Sydney and 20 minutes from Katoomba on Wiradjuri Country, was bare, barren and completely unforgiving. “We went to plant the boundary trees and discovered that the soil was like concrete,” says David Kennedy, the Blue Mountains-based horticulturalist who, along with his partner Andrew Dunshea, a retired fashion designer, has transformed the three-hectare site now known as Highfield Gardens. “We had to use crowbars; it was that bad. We ended up ripping it up with big machinery so we could lay down pathways and add the irrigation and drainage infrastructure.”