School's out at Musk Farm Stuart Rattle-designed Musk Farm garden. Picture: Forsyth Holly Kerr Source: Supplied Stuart Rattle-designed Musk Farm. STUART Rattle insists he had no gardening experience when he undertook the landscaping at Musk Farm, the property just west of Victoria's Macedon Ranges that he bought in 1998. Since then the Melbourne-based interior designer has laid out a series of wonderful garden spaces around a once-derelict school house that dates from the 1870s. Beautifully framed lattice screens, now covered in white-flowering roses, including 'Wedding Day', 'Edna Walling' and the vigorous 'Kifsgate', stand in a series near the house, creating several garden areas. "It's not so much that I wanted that type of design," explains Rattle, "but because I could only take on small projects at a time." There was no master plan, he says. Once through the front gates and past the gravel-covered "motor court" in front of the house, a long rill, edged in boxleaf honeysuckle (Lonicera nitida) leads to a pavilion guarded by a pair of pencil pines (Cupressus sempervirens). It is topped with a 19th-century French zinc finial from a friend's garden at Mount Macedon. A charming statue, A boy with a thorn on a plinth covered in Boston ivy, stands at one end of the rill. A rondel, now planted with shade-loving species, as trees have matured, leads toward other formal areas of the garden. There are varieties of Solomon's seal (Polygonatum spp.), daphnes and a fernery (a nod to Victorian times), housing hostas, and native ferns. There, a pavilion has been inspired by those at Hidcote, the much-loved garden in England's Cotwolds district. A gravel and brick path leads to the trellis garden, divided by another lattice, hosting the roses 'Albertine', 'New Dawn' and the frothy, cream 'Alberic Barbier'. There, a perennial border is at its best in summer, housing species gladioli, aquilegias, Russian sage, Agastache 'Sweet Lily', Iris sibirica 'White Swirl' and the glorious Madonna lily (Lilium regale). Edges are of Stachys byzantina 'Big Ears', the well known short perennial. The summer lawn, planned to be at its best when Rattle is in residence, is hedged in white-flowering hydrangea: mainly Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle', H. quercifolia, H. paniculata 'Kyushu', and a white H. macrophylla. Edges are of Bergenia 'Bressingham White'. A terrace, swathed in the dusky pink rose, 'Meg', mixing happily with Clematis amandii and C. paniculata, feeds on to the chestnut lawn, an area that had been suggested by respected nurseryman Stephen Ryan when the property was still a school, so that the students could learn about growing and harvesting. Pots of Chinese holly (Ilex cornuta) grace the terrace. "If you forget to water it for a few weeks it doesn't mind," admits Rattle. At one end of the chestnut lawn, much-loved viburnums are honoured with a dedicated border: there is a pink flowering Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum, along with V. opulus. A collection of species geraniums mixes with Heuchera 'Coral Bells' and sweetly scented dianthus along one side of the lawn. On the other side of the house, leading from the courtyard (with its collection of precious galanthus) a path leads to the rhododendron walk. With the garden at 700m above sea level and with rich volcanic soil, the rhododendrons are at their best in early November. Although Rattle describes them as "just blowsy old hybrids" the collection includes those large-leafed treasures such as the fragrant Rhododendron sinogrande and R. nuttallii that so excited 19th-century plant hunters. The rhododendron walk feeds the visitor into a meadow and woodland garden that has been influenced by the gardens of Maine and New Hampshire. There are maples, including Acer x freemanii 'Autumn Blaze', the dogwood Cornus 'Norman Haddon', magnolias, including the pale lemon 'Elizabeth', and thousands of daffodils among the grasses. The area is cut in late January, again in autumn and then left for the next season. In a nod to the historic provenance of the property, a hedge of privet (Ligustrum vulgare) separates the meadow from the more formal part of the garden. It surrounds the old school oval which is now a manicured lawn area. "I wanted to provide some record," says Rattle. In all the old gardens of this area, privet was used. Popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it makes a tough hedge that demands no watering. A charming gate in the hedge reveals a lower border of the Scots rose (Rosa pimpinellifolia). With an average annual rainfall of 1000mm, but no watering system, the garden is not a slave to water. And Rattle maintains that he does things when he has time: not always when he is meant to. But it's fair to say that Musk Farm is a magnificent obsession. Prunings Musk Farm will be open on November 23 and 24 to raise funds for the Wombat Hill Botanic Garden, Daylesford. Entry is $20. Landscape designer Paul Bangay's nearby garden, Stonefields, is open the same weekend, for Stephanie Alexander's schools kitchen garden program. Holly Kerr Forsyth attained a PhD on 19th- and 20th-century pastoral gardens