Jess Taylor created a glorious garden on the banks of a river

Establishing and maintaining a garden is a constant challenge of variable climate conditions, soil and water availability: so many factors that can’t be controlled. I think Dorothea Mackellar had it right when she wrote of her love for our sunburnt country of “droughts and flooding rains”. It couldn’t be more relevant, especially during the last five or six years.

In 2015, Jess Taylor and her husband James purchased Mona Vane, on the banks of the Macquarie River just outside Warren in the Central West of New South Wales.

In the eight years they have lived there, they have seen the Macquarie River in its biggest floods ever recorded, as well as experiencing the district’s three driest years on record.

Last year, the river was lapping the top of its banks near Mona Vane for weeks, causing saturated soil and waterlogged plants. Though the Taylors’ house was spared, the Warren district was in flood for months.

Despite the constant challenges, Jess has created a purposeful space, full of beauty; somewhere for her three daughters — Elsie, four, and twins Audrey and Eliza, two — to explore.

“I think it’s incredibly important for kids to spend time outside, letting them initiate play and incorporating nature and play,” says Jess. “I love watching them play with sticks, climb trees and balance along the rocky garden edges.”

The gardens were well established around the 1890s homestead when the Taylors purchased the property. “We are lucky to have some beautiful trees, including huge Moreton Bay figs and jacarandas. These trees make the temperature much cooler around the house in summer, so the garden can be enjoyed all year round,” says Jess. “The purple carpet we get every November from the jacaranda is breathtaking.”

Jess loves roses, and has planted more than 150 of them, following a colour palette of pinks, oranges, creams and whites. A 30 metre ‘Brilliant Pink Iceberg’ rose hedge is the centrepiece that guides you to the house as you arrive. “Individually, they may not be the most beautiful rose, but planted en masse they are magnificent, extremely hardy and they just keep soldiering on through the hot summer.”

Eight years from when they first purchased Mona Vane, there have been many changes to the garden, building on its existing structure. Each winter, Jess has added garden beds, one year planting 95 bare root roses while pregnant with the twins. Avenues of Manchurian pear trees and perennials have also been added.

Claire Austin chats to Graziher’s Life on the Land podcast about spring time in the garden. Article continues below.

Jess credits her gift for and love of gardening to her late mother. “Mum had a huge love for gardening. I remember her spending long days outside trying to establish a garden with bore water. When she was sick, we would spend time talking about our mutual love of gardens and nurseries we had visited.”

The garden Jess is creating pays homage to her mum: a bougainvillea that climbs up the tank stand is an evocative reminder. “I want to create a place of beauty through flowers and reflection to remember Mum.”

The children can also feel connected to their late grandmother as they regularly use the swing set, slippery dip and seesaw that were hers in the 1950s. But it’s still a space that they have made their own.

With new projects always in mind, the Mona Vane garden is constantly evolving. This winter, Jess has plans to change the flow of the space and create a more formal rose garden, inspired by the likes of Jane Duddy (at Millers Creek Plains on the Liverpool Plains) and Rosedale Farm near Orange, New South Wales. “I’m going to relocate the roses and have areas of the rose garden separated by Japanese Buxus hedges into categories, such as having the David Austin roses planted together,” she explains. “I’m going to make the new area a lot more manageable.”

And though our “wilful, lavish land” throws many obstacles her way, it just makes the wins so much sweeter and no two days are the same. As Dorothea Mackellar would say, “All you who have not loved her, you will not understand.”

Follow Jess on Instagram. Claire Austin runs the Gin Gin Garden Club. 

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To hear more extraordinary stories about women living in rural and regional Australia, listen to our podcast Life on the Land on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast platforms.