Cottage charm
With its views to the Swan River and the original Fremantle Harbour Signal Station, Rifle Cottage, which was once owned by the army, features a gracious and restored heritage garden created on a site with alkaline limestone soil.
The 1600sqm site posed many challenges as it slopes on two sides and has rocky limestone outcrops running along the back fence line.
The original jacaranda and fruiting fig trees have been retained and complemented with an orchard of citrus but the main aim of the plantings was to provide colour and create a traditional look to match the circa-1914 home.
Staples of the garden include plants that thrive in the limestone soil including salvia, lavender and lavatera, with indestructible plants such as old man saltbush used as a screen. Perennial salvia shrubs include the deep purple-flowered Black Knight, the lime- green foliage and mid-blue flower spikes of Limelight, and the massed crimson and white blooms of Hot Lips.
Original garden features included a jacaranda, Apple Blossom hibiscus, large eucalypt, Rottnest Island pine, fig tree and a few struggling rose bushes, some of which survived the transfer into the rose garden.
The rose garden is accessed at one end by a timber arbour dripping with the pink-flowered Cecile Brunner and apricot-pink Lorraine Lee roses. It has heritage roses including Scabrosa, Anna Olivier, Pierre de Ronsard, Mrs Oakley Fisher and the green rose Rosa viridiflora, as well as classic roses such as Camp David, Double Delight, Peace (one of the original roses) and Hybrid Cloud, all underplanted with Walkers Blue cat mint (nepeta).
Where possible the Radcliffes have attempted to return the garden to a style that would have been commonly planted in Fremantle between 1880 and 1940. The home has a thriving vegetable patch near the kitchen and a cast-iron fountain beside the front door.
The couple spend a combined time of about 12 hours a week working in the garden, with David — with some assistance — doing most of the heavy building. His work includes four limestone rubble walls, more than 150 railway sleepers used for paths and garden beds, 30sqm of limestone, 100sqm of recycled brick pavers, 130sqm of lawn, 10cum of pea gravel poured to create paths and 130cum of tree mulch spread across the landscape.
“Dozens of new plantings have been added, mostly mass planted, as a method of supporting survival in a climate of low water and degraded soil,” Mrs Radcliffe said.
“We still need to bring more wildlife and water into the garden and we continue to explore ways to divide the landscape.”
The garden, at 62 Tuckfield Street, Fremantle, will be open to the public for Open Gardens Australia on April 11 and 12, from 10am to 4.30pm. It is one of the last gardens to ever open as part of OGA, which will end in May. Entry costs $8. There will be teas and plant sales, art and glass displays, and wandering musicians.
