We fell in love with the house, its magnificent views and wonderful setting. We hope you will enjoy it too.
The Heritage Garden
We have retained as much of the original garden as possible.
This includes the laurel hedge bordering the driveway, the old liquid ambers and border of juniper pines along the western boundary.
The rhododendrons along the northern boundary were planted in the 1950s. The rest of the garden reflects plans drawn up for us originally by the late Richard Ratcliff, who designed the garden in the ‘circle’ on the south side of the house and more recently Vladimir Sitta.
Vlad designed the new front terrace as well as the recently completed frog pond in the south western corner of the property. The rest of the gardens were put together by us. Over time some of these gardens will be revamped with the help of Vladimir Sitta.
We fell in love with the house, its magnificent views and wonderful
setting. We hope
you will enjoy it too. Take some time sit on the
front verandah or terrace and enjoy the view, explore the gardens or listen
to the frogs.
Sustainabilty
Silvermere adopts ecological principles wherever possible and it is our objective to have as little impact as possible on our environment and maintain resources for future generations. Therefore we are probably 'carbon neutral'.
The existing fabric of the house was restored with minimal use of new fittings and materials. This is a more efficient and conservative use of resources than construction of a new building.
When B.J. Waterhouse designed Silvermere he relied on ecological principles of the day to trap solar radiation in winter and exclude it in summer. This was achieved using the north facing aspect, thick stuccoed walls, shutters and verandahs. This reduces our heating and cooling needs.
We have installed natural gas, a lower carbon emitting source, for central heating, hot water and cooking. Our wood fire is mainly sourced from garden trimmings.
Small tree and garden trimmings are mulched and used on the gardens to retain moisture. By maintaining our large gardens and trees we are also compensating for the generation of greenhouse gases from any polluting activities.
All organic wastes from the kitchen are recycled, composted and used on our gardens. Our newspapers are also composted or used to suppress garden weeds and retain moisture. We grow seasonal vegetables using organic methods.
All bottles are recycled through the Blue Mountains City Council recycling program.
We harvest our roof water and recycle the spa bath water in tanks with a capacity of 90,000 litres. This water is used to irrigate the gardens and lawns. In the non-heritage parts of the garden we grow native plants with a low water requirement.
Most of the stormwater which cannot be collected in the tanks is directed to the frog pond. We are re-establishing our frog pond to encourage native flora and fauna.
A future project is to install solar panels and a wind generator to compensate for our use of electricity.
