“En plein air” is the practice of painting outdoors. In fact, the French term literally means “outside.”
When landscape architect Tim Mitchell and exhibition project manager Lucy Willet first moved into their Lancefield property in 2021, Lucy was working on an exhibition featuring well-known impressionists Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley – who were also famous plein air painters.
The gestural quality, movement, light and beautiful soft color palettes of the works inspired Tim and Lucy to transform their five hectares of barren paddock in the Macedon Ranges into a work of art of their own.
“The garden was exactly what we wanted,” says Lucy. “Lots of gentle movement in the plants, with a gentle painterly quality… We also wanted the garden to be a reflection of both of us, and this was a lovely combination of art (me) and landscapes (Tim).”
It was autumn when the couple began gardening – the golden leaves littering the ground provided the perfect material for “painting”. “We started the design by raking them into shapes until we found a layout we were happy with,” explains Tim.
After spending hours arranging the leaf litter into different patterns, Tim and Lucy landed on a series of winding garden beds, forming a “lawn river that flowed to the base of the mountain.”
The next winter, they rechecked and reworked the shapes, this time with a lawnmower, until they were “just right and ready to plant.”
The final design calls for the garden to be laid out in four groups of plants. The first is the herb garden at the back door with “edible herbs such as thyme, dill and sage.”
Next is the flower garden, which extends from the back of the house and is divided into two halves. “The plants here create a whimsical display of ever-changing color and movement and are a mix of climate-friendly exotics and flowering native Australian plants,” says Tim.
Then there are the acacias, which are planted as a backdrop to the garden (although they are not yet visible behind all the tall perennials in the flower garden).
“As they grow, these plants will create a connection between the colorful foreground of the flower garden by the house and the more muted tones of the Australian bush in the distance,” says Tim of her resulting canvas.
Tim and Lucy are also in the process of planting a large vegetable garden, despite a local “rabbit infestation”.
“We have found that no new plants are safe, including those labeled as unpalatable to rabbits,” says Tim.
Frost and storms present further challenges. Similar to the “rabbit-resistant” plants, the plants labeled as “frost-tolerant” are not strong enough to withstand – let alone endure – the sub-freezing temperatures in the valley.
“We learned that planting in the fall is pointless,” says Tim. “Plants need as long as possible to establish themselves before they are exposed to winter frost, so we can only plant in spring.”
Storms also toppled 20 trees and many plants fell victim to waterlogging.
But it will take more than that to dampen Tim and Lucy's resolve. “We don’t care about plants dying,” says Tim. “We are constantly growing new plants in our nursery, so there is always something on hand to fill a gap.”
From the start it was clear to the couple that they wanted to grow all the plants themselves. Not only for cost reasons, but also to ensure that only genetically viable species are used and not sterile breeders or highly bred hybrid varieties.
“We wanted the garden to take on a life of its own and evolve from year to year without us having to contribute too much to it,” says Tim.
This vision has become a reality without ever seeing the same image in two days.
“After the rain it looks green, without rain it is withered and sometimes it shines with frost,” says Tim. “New birds appear, there is always something blooming and, more importantly, something always about to bloom.”
Now, as the sunrise reaches the hills and “a transcendent gradient of soft pinks and yellows illuminates the horizon,” the diverse mix of perennials and native plants in similar hues returns the call. At midday, Tim, Lucy and their little boy Monty eat lunch on the lawn, and the dogs run around in the flowerbeds.
It's like a scene from a painting, although, says Tim, “we built the garden to live in, not just to look at.”