Musk Open Gardens

Musk Manor is a young garden with some older trees and was recently developed as a haven for birds, bees and butterflies. There are many flowering shrubs in the large garden areas that are defined by paths and lawns. The formal gardens include a boxed hedged parterre with forest pansies and a formal camellia hedge next to two lawns featuring ornamental cherry trees. Below the formal gardens, pin oaks are under-planted with tulips. These flank the main driveway to the house. To the east there are displays of rhododendrons, camellias, azaleas, peonies and ornamental lilies leading to a large garden of multi-coloured hellebores under a pin oak. To the west side there is a hydrangea garden under a large eucalypt, alongside many shade-loving plants. A large number of highly scented plants thrive throughout the garden such as daphne, sweet box, choisya, osmanthus, roses and many scented flowering bulbs. The northerly garden is given over to gold coloured (predominantly native) plants and a secret garden in the North West corner is a well-treed spot that is a haven on a hot day. The colours of the garden achieved through leaf change and blending similar colours in different areas of the garden is often said to be reminiscent of an artist's view of a garden.

Musk Farm is an iconic garden that was developed by the late Stuart Rattle and has been loved by successive gardeners. Its many garden 'rooms' are a delight for visitors as each offers a different style and perspective on gardening from the picking areas surrounding the lovely renovated school house to the forest garden at the other end of the property. Visitors walk through rhododendron gardens, a long pond area with beautiful statuary, a fernery and gardens that are filled with roses. The chestnut lawn planted by the original school headmaster is one of the highlights.

There are fifteen garden rooms that were inspired by the grand estates of France and England. Each of the garden rooms has its own unique planting style and it has been said that each room evokes a different emotion. A favourite for many visitors is the woodland under-planted with thousands of daffodils and bluebells as would have been seen in England. Stuart Rattle was an anglophile and this is reflected in the interior as well as the exterior gardens. The architecture of the old school house has been copied in the garden architecture so that the garden and the school house complement each other perfectly. It has been said that the overarching fascination of the garden lies in its artistic expression. Every aspect reveals something stunningly beautiful as a focus – a plant, a gate, a path, an arch, an urn.