Gardening: Green in the extreme

There aren't too many places you can go where you can indulge all your passions at once, but I've found one.

It's a bit of a hike, admittedly, but completely worth it to find somewhere that showcases architectural history, landscape design, organic vegetable gardening, a fork-to-fork cafe with great food and excellent wine, a garden centre, rare and heirloom plants, a gardeners' club and a mail-order seed business.

The place is Heronswood, just over an hour from Melbourne at Dromana, on the Mornington Peninsula. I went there once before, about eight years ago, but that was before I was interested in real gardening and I was far more focused on eating the food than where it came from.

Back then I'd probably have wondered why anyone would grow vegetables in flower beds, and how a garden that's open to the public could get away with being a bit, well, tatty. But now I've got it.

The garden at Heronswood is a living catalogue of the evergreen fruits and vegetables described in its catalogues and books. It says it has the biggest collection of fruit and vegetables for gardeners and the distinction of being the first in Australia to be certified organic.

A feature is the integration of vegetables and flowers with fruits and herbs. This inter-planting simulates natural plant diversity and prevents the build-up of pest problems so there is no need to spray.

The garden area is the equivalent of about 25 average sized suburban sections, and is so intensively landscaped and gardened that it's no problem to spend several hours there. There are paths and walkways, water features, ponds, flower beds, lawns, trees, outdoor living and eating areas, the cafe, the historic homestead, the nursery, orchard and vegetable gardens.

"Imagine how much work it is," sighed my partner the landscaper, who lamented the other day that he could work full time in our own 1ha garden and still not keep on top of it. He was later gobsmacked, as was I, to find out that there are only three gardeners at Heronswood. Questions will be asked.

Heronswood is no place for rushing. We wandered about for a couple of hours, discovering that the beds not inhabited by fruit and vegetables are showcases for all sorts of plants, chosen to match the microclimates of each area.

As we made our way back to the cafe for what promised to be a spectacular lunch, the partner became enamoured of Heronswood's famous vegetable parterre, inspired by the medieval potager gardens. This ornamental and productive garden features many heirloom vegetable varieties, interspersed with flowers, and you can survey the layout from the comfort of a seat at the top, shaded by a foliage-covered pergola.

The spectacular lunch tumbled down the timetable as the partner snapped photographs, made sketches and took notes for several of his clients whom he felt must have a circular parterre.

My love affair was with an area where four raised vegetable beds, each 20sq m, were planted in a way that would feed a small family.

We each tested the produce of our favourite gardens in the thatched cafe. This English cottage-style restaurant takes recycling and sustainability to a new level and 90 per cent of the structural materials for the building were sourced from within 30km of the site. The thatch was made from reeds gathered in a nearby swamp, most of the timber was recycled, and the mellow yellow walls are of rammed earth sourced locally.

The restaurant uses an enviable range of freshly grown and picked organic fruit and vegetables. Whatever can't be found within the garden is obtained nearby. Although the menu is not vegetarian, vegetables take priority, and each dish is named for the main vegetable component rather than the meat or fish it contains. It's a smart, subtle and very tasty way gently to shift our attitude.

Heronswood limits its environmental footstep by using green energy, recycling, composting and reducing consumption of resources, and everyone who works there is strongly encouraged to be green in their practices and even to drive green-energy cars.

Yet style, beauty and design have not been sacrificed, proving that when it comes to sustainable gardening, you can, in fact, have everything.

For more information, visit www.diggers.com.au

Leigh Bramwell's garden tour of the Mornington Peninsula was organised by Tourism Victoria.