We like to take a quiet walk through THE PEONY PADDOCK at the end of the working day. Our livestock guardian maremma dogs know it’s 4PM and will show up right on time and it’s a joyous time for them and the rest of our dog family. Watching them all getting along giant, and tiny; chiacking around and running between and leaping over the rows is very precious. We’ll never be without a dog family.

Originally purchased as an unloved bush block in 2007, and planted with 15,000 lavandula x intermedia “super’ lavender several years later, this paddock is now the heart of our peony cut flower production. The lavender really didn’t thrive in this paddock and after years of giving them “everything” we decided to call it quits on lavender in this paddock. And we discovered the gorgeous peony.

Lovely Sabrina Wallasch flew in from LA to help with the hard labour in converting the paddock, and to this day I can’t work in THE PEONY PADDOCK without thinking about her. My young son Harrison wrangled the Husqvarna cultivator - the hardest job and the one machine we all hate. It’s since been relegated to “parked” it was so difficult and heavy. Thank you Harrison and Sabrina, so very much!

Our whole farm was hit hard during the 2019 bushfires. No - we were not hit by flames. My heart goes out to those who lost most or all during the bush fires and the sacrifice of firefighters from near and far. I will be forever grateful for my own family’s safety. But the ash fallout was another matter, and this settled over the farm and took its toll on the lavender in The Long Paddock.

Another hard decision was made and the meticulous lavender rows made way for Blooming Country.

It was a conscious decision to grow flowers in the open paddock. Primarily because of the huge cost of building acres of greenhouse and that we are on undulating land. But also because we are committed to knowing the process and I specially wanted to be learning and hands-on at every stage. We have a medium-sized seed starting greenhouse and to grow through winter snow, we have several caterpillar tunnels ENABLING year-round production. But of the two hectares under development, we’re 90% open paddock flower growing.