Wychwood

David Doukidis and Matt Bendall took over this hectare of garden beside a creek at Mole Creek in 2016, inheriting a property first shaped by Peter Cooper and Karen Hall, whose years building it were documented in the 2014 Murdoch Books title Wychwood. The beds run to species and heritage roses, including Rosa glauca, espaliered heritage apples, hellebores, fritillaries and sweeps of cool-climate perennials, with a working vegetable garden and geese in the orchard. In the creek paddock, a grass labyrinth of medieval design — among Australia's first and best known — sits below a rise where it can be taken in whole. The attached nursery propagates from the garden itself, so the rare perennials, grasses and shrubs on sale have already proven themselves in this climate rather than arriving from a wholesale catalogue. Open Friday to Monday, 10am to 4pm, from late October through April, with $8 adult entry and group visits by appointment outside the season. A destination worth timing a Mole Creek trip around.