Establishing a new business always comes with an element of risk, but when it is something you love the risk seems well worth the taking.
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Just ask Karen McInnes.
Her long-held passion for gardening and her love of growing beautiful flowers provided the inspiration for Patho Park Petals, a boutique flower business she has set up from the sprawling country garden she established from scratch.
Karen picks her flowers first thing in the morning and a couple of hours later her bouquets can be found on the roadside stand at the front of her drive.
“Everything I use in my arrangements I grow myself,” Karen said.
“I grow plants suited to our climate outside in the open where I let Mother Nature do her thing. Peonies are beautiful but we can’t grow them here, so you will never find them in my bunches.
“I grow what is suitable and sustainable in my garden.”
Karen and her husband, Vin, moved to what she describes as a 50-acre paddock 14 years ago.
They built their dream home and Karen started gardening.
“There were two old box trees here and that was it,” she said.
Today there are colourful flower beds, a thriving vegie garden, chooks and a lush green lawn complete with established trees.
And then there is the flower farm — a small area Karen has dedicated to Patho Park Petals.
Completing the Floret Online Workshop during COVID-19 lockdown last year was pivotal and gave Karen the confidence to try her hand at something she had always wanted to do — intense flower farming.
While Karen's garden is large by anyone's standard, the area where she actually farms her flowers is quite small.
It consists of a few raised and in-ground beds, where she is currently growing zinnias and cosmos and about 100 different varieties of dahlias.
“I have just finished with snapdragons, Iceland poppies, ranunculus and daffodils, which I started growing in late autumn,” Karen said.
Initially she was unsure of how well her business would be supported and she did wonder whether anyone would even bother to stop at the roadside stall at all.
Most days she sells out completely.
“There is always a risk having a stall on a highway. We didn't know whether people would be honest and pay for the flowers, but I have to say customers have been very honest and we haven't had too many problems at all,” Karen said.
People are now asking her to style for events including baby showers and weddings.
“Because I grow everything outside, I can’t always guarantee what I will actually have. But I do know there is always something to pick, whether it is from the flower farm or my garden,” she said.
Karen said it was important to stay abreast of flower trends and she regularly trawled through Instagram for inspiration.
“I do a fair bit of research and I have already ordered my seeds for next year’s planting,” she said.
Karen is never short of mulch given the home is surrounded by paddocks of lucerne, which Vin bales into both small and big squares.
They also sell small bales for gardeners.
The couple is currently waiting for the soil to warm up so Vin can sow a crop of sunflowers, some of which will be kept for commercial seed and a small section Karen will use for her business.
“I am hoping to host some open gardens in late March/April where people can come along, wander around the garden and pick some sunflowers,” Karen said.
She is also considering opening the garden up for weddings and photography shoots.
“I just love gardening. It really relaxes me and to be able to do this now is a real dream come true,” she said.
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