A historic hedge in the picturesque gardens of Lanyon Homestead is set to undergo a mammoth restoration in a bid to bring it back to life.
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ACT Museums and Galleries director Shane Breynard said the hedge on the heritage-listed site in Tharwa had been kept as a large bank of very closely planted trees for many years, but now, almost 100 years on, some of the trees had begun to fail.
It is believed the cypress hedge was planted sometime before 1920 by the Cunningham family to create an "intimate" room and sheltered area in the garden protected from the prevailing western winds.
Mr Breynard said some of the damaged trees in the hedge were initially removed but then others began failing too.
He said on advice from heritage landscape experts, it was decided the best way forward would be to remove the stand of senescing and dangerous trees and restore the original planting.
"We decided to look at it as an opportunity and just last week we removed the entire bank of 30m high trees and we'll be replacing them after we've rested the soil for about a year and then we will actually maintain it according to its original intent," he said.
"By removing and replacing these plants, we're restoring heritage values to this landscape that were otherwise hidden and it will be a great opportunity for us to talk about the history of this landscape."
Mr Breynard said the hedge had been one of the most popular spots for wedding photographs and it would be wonderful once it was fully restored.
"We're not planting exactly the same stock, we're planting a very similar stock that visually will look the same but it will be slower growing and that will mean maintenance will be a bit easier but it will also take a little while to establish so we think within about five years, we'll have a good approximation of how the hedge used to look," he said.
A new greenhouse on Lanyon Homestead has also recently been completed, which will allow for propagation of historic varieties of plants from the three heritage sites cared for ACT Historic Places.
"Some of the varieties we have in our gardens are difficult to obtain these days so we're going to grow them on ourselves so when we need to replace plants in the future, we'll be replacing them true to variety," he said.
