The Lavandula Farm

After the post I did yesterday about gardens in England I thought of such a beautiful one here in Australia in Victoria around and hour and half or so outside of the city of Melbourne. We normally go there at least twice a year but I have to say the last time was just over a year ago... feel we most definitely have to go back in the next month. It is a Lavender farm by the name of Lavandula and it describes itself as a Swiss Italian Farm... more from their website HERE... There are the most beautiful gardens and a wonderful old barn from which they sell products they make from their crop ...

There is also a fabulous trattoria serving delicious lunches and teas and it is wonderful to sit outside enjoying your food alfresco... Also you can take a picnic and find a shady spot of your own if you preferred. We have done both and each is equally lovely.

A lovely old building in the grounds .....

and an old 'moi' in the grounds also! I put this one in as I just LOVE the tall pencil shaped trees in the background.

A small excerpt from their Website .......

Lavandula is a very European experience.
It looks beautiful, it’s Italian, it lifts the heart.
Out in the countryside ten minutes north of Daylesford, drive over the creek, walk up a poplar-lined driveway. You'll find around the cobbled courtyard a cluster of farmhouse buildings: the house, the Barn, and the Stillroom. Italian-speaking Swiss immigrants built in golden stone and ran a dairy farm from the 1860s.
Twenty years ago Carol White bought the property and was inspired to re-create the traditional mixed farm lifestyle of those earlier settlers. The stone farmhouse has been restored and lived in. Now you can admire its superb simple rural Italian architecture.
Beyond the rustica is La Trattoria, the café where you lunch al fresco in the ash grove or snug inside a timber building or in the cool stone loggia.
Look up. There’s the garden, lavender fields, farmyard, the olive & chestnut groves, the vineyard - and in the distance the ancient volcano that delivered the good soil. The garden was designed to enhance Lavandula’s Italian style and seasonally grows food for the café.
You can walk, sit, picnic, play boules, or the children can seek out farm animals. At the moment we have goslings. Let's hope the farm dog, Flora Macdonald, protects them from the Basalt eagle.
Explore, relax. Feel the grass between your toes.
Listen to the birdsong.

It really is a most peaceful and wonderful place to go for a day. Oh, and they also have gorgeous accommodation available should you not be able to tear yourself away... Yes, it's high time we went back for a re-visit I think.