3 Edna Walling Lane, Mooroolbark, 3138

Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th October 2024
10.00am - 4.00pm
Strictly only opening on Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th of October. Please respect the garden owners' privacy and visit only during opening hours.

Garden Notes

​Completed in 1928, The Barn was one of the first homes to be built in Bickleigh Vale. It was designed for Blanche Sharpe, a close friend and colleague of Edna Walling, to have a stable for her horse, a garage for her car, a workshop, storage room and a man’s room upstairs. Miss Sharpe named her home ‘Good-a-Meavy’ but all came to know it by its nickname ‘The Barn’.

Located in the heart of Bickleigh Vale, Edna Walling moved from Sonning to The Barn from 1951 until 1967. "The Barn started life as a stable and garage to which have been added a bedroom and bathroom.  I always wanted to live here, so when 'Sonning' was sold, over we moved, lock, stock and barrel.  And how I loved being surrounded by the bush, and grass that only needed mowing twice a year...." In her time, she renovated The Barn and painted it the palest shade of pink. When she left it was divided into smaller blocks and it exists today on just over an acre.

In the 1980s The Barn was greatly but sympathetically extended and a tennis court added to the garden in the north. The house with low ceilings, stone chimneys and pitched roofline continues to sit gently in its landscape and has been home to many families giving children a wonderful creative and free-range upbringing. 

Paul and Jen have lived with their four children at The Barn since 2010. It is a wonderful rambling home and garden of light and shade and green. With the loss of the ‘fine old gum’ to the north of the house there has been more light to grace the lawn and lighten the house.  To the west, an enormous evergreen Holm oak (Quercus ilex) provides both shade and a little magic. Like all the Bickleigh Vale gardens The Barn is not overly manicured, it is a little wild and overgrown but as Miss Walling mused “where the garden ends fairyland begins”.

There are many Edna Walling favourites including stone paths and patios, small ponds softened by erigeron, violets, sparaxis bulbs, hellebores, japanese anemones and spirea. There are several ‘garden rooms’ filled with old and new roses, camellias, viburnum, Japanese maples and amelanchier. Sadly, the glorious row of Aspens leading toward Devon Cottage have fallen and suffered since the June 2021 storms. Many of Edna’s original plantings are aging and its a time for rejuvenation and replanting in this special garden. 
  ​Click on images to enlarge