When Judy and Peter Howarth bought a cattle farm just outside Nundle, a small village near Tamworth in north-west NSW, they had a few ideas for the garden. While the couple were well aware of the scorching summer heat and way-below-zero winters to which their property, Wombramurra, is prone, they figured that with a bit of attention and loving care they could put in some of their favourite plants and nurture them to survival.

Not so. “Nearly everything you see in the garden today was here before we were,” laughs Judy. “The garden really had a mind of its own. It was as if all the old mates wanted to be together. They didn’t want any newcomers!”

Today, colourful heirloom perennials thrive among the self-seeding annuals, and long-established climbing roses tumble over trellises. There is, however, one glorious new addition to the one-hectare garden – a dazzling spread of poppies that Judy planted in the heart of the flowerbeds. They now edge what used to be the main pathway to the house.

Until Peter and Judy arrived 15 years ago, the 1890s homestead had been in the same family for almost a century. “The previous owners were keen gardeners and they built Wombramurra up to be the district’s showpiece garden in decades past. In recent times, though, it had fallen into disrepair,” says Judy.

When she and Peter bought the property, they immediately spotted plenty of potential in the garden’s gently sloping aspect, protected position and grand old elms, but there was precious little evidence of any former splendour. “We’d heard so much about how beautiful the garden had been, we felt almost an obligation to restore it,” says Judy.

Wielding a chainsaw for the first time, she helped strip back years of overgrowth in the original flower garden – and she was astonished at what she discovered under a big old berry bush and a tangle of grapevines.

“First, the old stone walls appeared, and then the stone-edged remnants of some very old garden beds,” she says.

As sun and light entered for the first time in years, a magical transformation began to take place. Up came a range of gorgeous perennials, bulbs and annuals. Magnificent roses sprang back to life: ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’, ‘Crépuscule’ climbing roses, Alister Clark’s ‘Lorraine Lee’ and the Macartney evergreen climbing rose that smothers the front of Wombramurra’s old weatherboard schoolhouse.

Judy and Peter simply created extra beds to make the area even more bountiful. The only major structural change to the garden was the addition of a stone retaining wall, to create two levels of garden on the sloping site and to improve drainage.

The garden was lengthened at each end, with antique French street lights and a cherub-adorned fountain added for decoration. Garden seats have been dotted about and left to weather. Meanwhile, a very 21st-century wet-edge lap pool sits at the bottom of the garden, beyond the rose arbour and honeylocust trees.

“The whole exercise really has been a journey of discovery,” says Judy. “There are still paths to be uncovered. The best bit, though, has been nurturing all the old roses that have survived. There’s something special about old-fashioned roses, with their perfume and their beautiful, full blooms. I love the funny old trellises they grow on, too.”

Judy enjoys working in the garden – when she has the time – and she strolls around it daily, checking on plants, spot-watering, and picking flowers for her home, friends and business, the Nundle Woollen Mill.

“This is a freewheeling garden; it does its own thing much of the time, and that’s the way we like it,” says Judy. Its rambling informality gives the impression that Wombramurra’s  garden is effortlessly beautiful. In fact, says Judy, it is a high-maintenance garden that requires far more tender loving care than she and Peter can give it.

Enter the garden fairy. When Fran Cummins moved to Nundle four years ago, Judy breathed a sigh of relief. Here was the head gardener she had been waiting for. Having grown up in a similar climate in Victoria, Fran instantly felt at home here. As well, she had access to plentiful bore water and help from an assistant who would mow and share the hand-weeding.

Even though the water may flow relatively freely, Fran remains steadfastly water-conscious. “I like to give the garden a deep watering just once a week in spring and autumn and twice weekly in summer, with spot watering year-round for stressed plants or newly planted seedlings,” she says.

Plant choice also comes into play, with Fran nominating irises, catmint, buxus and roses as suitable for this climate. A long-time devotee of organic gardening, she also espouses the benefits of good, rich compost and chemical-free gardening. “The soil here is very healthy, so therefore most of the plants are very healthy, and there’s little to add to the garden other than mulch, Dynamic Lifter, organic rose fertiliser, and liquid seaweed soil conditioner. We have no need for sprays.”

With a foundation of low-maintenance shrubs and perennials, she can afford to lavish extra care on the self-seeding annuals. “Annuals are higher maintenance in every way, but a worthwhile indulgence every now and then, especially when it means a crop of poppies like the ones here,” she says.

With the prospect of more drought, Judy and Peter sometimes wonder if it’s sensible to maintain a garden like Wombramurra. “But then I think that this garden, with its amazing local history, is too precious to lose and so we nurture it along and handle it as sustainably as we can,” says Judy.

Wombramurra was recently visited by National Trust members and the Tamworth Youth Philharmonia performed in the garden. It’s also been the venue for numerous weddings, fundraisers and parties, with guests spilling off the wisteria-draped verandah and onto the lawn.

“It’s wonderful that other people can enjoy our garden, too,” adds Judy. “I think it would be wrong to have something as beautiful as this and not share it.”

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