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GARDEN
When we first shifted to Fairy Wren Cottage I used to unashamedly do a Dame Washalot (a character from Enid Blyton's book The Magic Faraway Tree), throwing my tired vase of flowers out the front window - water and all - onto the garden bed to mulch down.
One day mid-throw, a lady walking past yelled out "it is so good to see everything growing and flowering". I sheepishly waved and wondered what she meant. Months later while answering an advertisement for chickens, the lady, upon realising where I lived, explained that we had briefly met before - she was the lady walking past.
Apparently, the previous owner didn't like anything flowering - it created too much "mess" - so we inherited a sparsely planted garden with little pebble gardens that had a concrete border, were lined with weed matting, and grew the odd plant. When planting a tree, bush or shrub, the previous owner dug a hole, lined it with concrete, then planted the tree, bush or shrub, then surrounded the poor dear with weed matting and a layer of pebbles. We have removed all the weed matting and all of the concrete. The pebbles were used to fill in the cattle grate out the front to save us from falling in it.
The magnolia that the neighbours never saw flower in fifteen years was replanted next to the front gate so everyone can now see this beautiful tree flower to its heart's content.
We inherited some interesting garden art - a tractor drill with a bowling ball glued on top, an old horse plough painted the same colour as the window trims on the cottage and some concrete statues, and other bits and pieces. There was a flag pole (with a French flag on it) in the middle of what is now the Kitchen Garden. Apparently the owner wasn't French, but had found the flag and alternated it with a Jim Beam flag. We took the flag pole down, worried it might topple over on someone.
Years before us, a cash crop of peas was planted using a tractor in what is now the Quince Orchard, Kitchen Garden and Back Orchard. Unfortunately, the plow looks to have done more harm then good to the lay of the land, and we've gone to great lengths to add swales and raised garden beds to slow down the water run off.
While the previous owner's antics make a good story to tell (especially the shag pile carpet in the toilet and kitchen), please know that we hold much respect and gratitude for him. The garden and cottage were kept to such an immaculate standard. Sure, it wasn't to our taste (very 70's) but the cottage and garden was much loved and cared for; his pride and joy.
The property was previously called Valley View but we removed the sign and replace it with Fairy Wren Cottage. Valley View was the name of a housing estate built near our previous property.
A new name for the property to match our new beginnings felt right.
The name Fairy Wren Cottage holds so much meaning to us, but I'll leave that story for another day.
So, we have been at Fairy Wren Cottage for fifteen years and the previous owner thirty years. Before that there was a car mechanic who lived here for a couple of years, and before that another car mechanic, Jerry Johns, his wife and their daughter Ann, along with Ann's grandmother who lived in a granny flat which is now my Garden Cottage Studio. Ann was the last child to live at Fairy Wren Cottage until our daughter. Our neighbour went to school with Ann and spoke fondly of the little girl with long blond hair in plaits.
After about the first five years all the leads we had for the history of Fairy Wren Cottage dried up, (unfortunately the local historical society didn't have any records either) until one Sunday afternoon I noticed a 65ish year old man hanging over the front fence taking photos of the cottage. Our car was parked out of sight and the man thought no one was home until I went marching out asking for an explanation. The gentleman had lived at Fairy Wren Cottage when he was a child and was taking the photographs for his nearly 100 year old mother who was now living in a nursing home in Hobart. My, how things had changed! He recalls the cottage being surrounded by bushland. To go to school he had to cut across the neighbouring paddocks (also bushland) via a small pathway cut through the thick scrub. There was a small water tank on a stand outside the kitchen window (the only source of water) and the sewerage wasn't connected to the mains outlet like it thankfully is today. The gentleman's father drove the bulldozer for the council and because of a work promotion the family shifted closer into Hobart.
Having a Historian in the family (our daughter Liliana) has moved our research forward in the last few years and thankfully she has come across the old maps and records for Fairy Wren Cottage and the surrounding properties. Liliana has also found lists for fruit trees, soft fruits and market vegetables that were grown and either sold locally or in Hobart or abroad. Grateful to have listened to my gardening intuition, we had already planted so much of what was on these lists and now use the lists as inspiration to continue the history of growing what was grown here by generations past.
~ The history of the garden at Fairy Wren Cottage ~
The history of the garden at Fairy Wren Cottage
"Just living is not enough." said the butterfly.
"One must have sunshine, freedom and a little flower."
