Business closed

Well, after five years of growing Gerbera's we have sold the business. Not as a going concern, but we've sold off various parts of the business including the plants. In part it was because the property is up for sale. We knew when we went into business with our daughter and son in law, that as it was on their property we might have to face the fact that they might want to move on.

And so it is - that their property has been up for sale for some months now. The real estate market is rather interesting at the moment - there are far more properties on the market right now as the high interest rates and the challenges within the finance industry hurt many potential home buiyers.

In any case, we've come to enjoy the late mornings sleep ins - in the past we were always up early. At least three or four days a week we'd be up around 5 am to pick flowers and do other work on the farm. Now we don't need to!

But it does mean that we will be looking for alternative income sources - after a break.

My love affair with the beautiful colourful flowers is not over. But I will not have to worry about farming them any more. I still peer into the flowers in the florists to gauge the quality of the flowers - we still see diseased flowers about. Some of them would never have been sent out from Gough Hill Farm - but others seem to find a place for them in their product for market.

I do miss not having my flowers in the house - although having been in China for nearly five months, and going back again, I'll have to find another way to enjoy fresh flowers in my loungeroom.

Who knows what the future holds???

Photography

We were thrilled when local photographer Craig Taylor asked if he could take some photos of our flowers, especially when we learned that his wife, Louise, creates wonderful products from Craig's photos.

Craig and Louise market their products via the Internet and also at Manly (Queensland) Markets, where we often sell flowers and Gerbera plants.

Today I saw some of the products - and scored for myself a business card holder with the Popov gerbera on it. Louise has created a number of products including mouse mats, business card holders, watches, travelling clocks, earrings, and more.

Go to Louise's website to see for yourself. You can order online or call to see them at the Manly Markets on a Sunday morning.

My new garden

I often think that we spend a lot of time creating our gardens, but we don’t spend much time IN them. And that requires a bit of planning to ensure that the garden is easy to be in. Not many gardens have a seat in the garden like the “old” days. An attractive timber seat that is always there, waiting for someone to come and sit on should be in every garden, and it will be in my new garden.

Sitting in the garden, under a tree reading a book would be a wonderful past time, but without the seat sitting waiting, one tends not to do it. If the seat was there, I’d stop and sit and ponder the splendour of my garden, or plan my next gardening task, or just read a book for a while and enjoy the fresh air and the vista.

My home garden is filled with heliconias mainly – I’ve lost count of the varieties I have and they often have a bloom within their heavy greenery. Seemingly out of place in the garden are my two pots of Gerberas. It is the flower that I have on my business card, the flower that I love, the one that I rescued from the flower farm when it and the others were being discarded because they were no longer producing heavily.

I love that flower and I nurture it. I’m glad it is in a pot – giving it a chance to survive when we move.

My new garden will have some additional features – the seat, and some solar powered lights. (I’ll not put them in the front yard any more as the ones I had were stolen), and I like the idea of pebbles that glow at night and light up the path.

A timber seat so that I can sit and ponder the world, solar powered lights dottign the garden, lights through the trees so that I create a fairyland at night, and the glow pebbles to light my new pathway.

Quality is up

The quality of the blooms has improved, but we now have spider mite. We expected that as the chemical we used to kill the moths, also killed off our good bugs, so we will have to get more of them in.

Ariana is still running her flower stall on Thursdays, though last week only sold 13 bunches. Still that's not bad to earn $26 - she is only 6!

We do not have this orange coloured variety in the hot house any more, but I have two pots of them at home. They have done very well recently and have been constantly in flower. Unfortanately I haven't been home all the time, but they keep the garden bright.

My current house sit finishes this Friday so I will be back home. Diary of a House Sitter.