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Jeremy Valentine and Grant Francis got the gardening bug whilst living in a large house in Malvern, which inspired the self-described city slickers and co-owners of Shag vintage stores to consider a much bigger lifestyle change.
‘We also wanted sheep and chickens and all the other things that come with the romance and pull of country life,’ says Jeremy.
They soon got their wish, trading in Melbourne life for an historic 16-acre estate, known as The Stones, in Clydesdale, Victoria (located between Daylesford and Castlemaine) in 2013.
The Stones comprises five buildings, the first being the circa 1855 wattle and daub miner’s hut, now used as a garden shed.
The main house was built in 1857, and was in the best condition of the bunch when the couple purchased the property, having been sympathetically restored by the previous owners. ‘The other buildings on the property were in various states of decay,’ says Jeremy.
Constructed using locally quarried stone, the main house looks straight out of the English countryside, complete with a cottage-style kitchen at its heart.
Restoring the stone barn has been a huge labour of love for Jeremy and Grant, who have, amongst many other upgrades, installed a new roof and insulation, and added a chimney and fireplace in their cosy main living room, which is filled with arts, books, and vintage porcelain.
Jeremy explains, ‘The house is quite eclectic but with more true Victorian finds, whereas the stone barn is a place for all of our mid-century, modernist and postmodern treasures and collections, and then the books.’
There’s also a circa 1910 creamery on site (once used to store the cream for the local butter factory, now a potting shed) and corrugated iron milking sheds added in 1920.
Jeremy and Grant have sealed the latter, offering extra accommodation for guests or a quiet place to retreat from the main house. ‘This is the space which is intentionally lost in time,’ says Grant.
Tending to the garden has been both the biggest job and joy for the couple. ‘There were only two parts to the garden when we arrived. We’ve pushed the garden out to roughly three acres,’ says Jeremy.
Selecting plants appropriate for the site — which experiences both hot dry summers and freezing winters — has been a matter of trial and error, resulting in a large cactus garden, orchard, and vegetable patches.
‘The top stalwarts here are olives, lavender and rosemary, Euphorbias, Robinias, Teucriums, Correas, Azara microphylla, agaves, cold climate cacti, walnuts, and peppercorn trees,’ says Jeremy.
The remaining land hosts rocky outcrops, creeks, and and sheep paddocks for a flock of dorper sheep.
You can see the The Stones garden yourself at an Open Gardens Victoria event on Saturday 26 and Sunday April 27.
12 years on from purchasing the property, The Stones remains a constant work in progress, which is documented on the estate’s dedicated Instagram account @thestonescentralvictoria.
Jeremy says works aren’t planned in advance, but are rather guided by ‘what the place tells us.’
‘We will probably always have something on the go here,’ he says. ‘As Grant says “it’ll be nice when it’s finished!”
