Of course it’s easy to do a career change from a teacher to a florist when you have a 60 hectare property. But doing a floristry qualification is a good start if you live in the city. This story is from the ABC.
More than a decade of teaching has taught Natalie Brock a thing or two, but the biggest life lesson has been to “do something you love”.
Working as a teacher meant most days were spent looking after students and staff, until one day she realised she hadn’t been looking after herself.
“After the pandemic, I got to a point where I was unhappy doing what I was doing,” she says.
“I thought to myself, ‘If I’m going to stop teaching and I’ve got another 10 years of work ahead of me, I want to be doing something that I really love’.”
Celebrating her 51st birthday, she took her own advice, put down the pen and picked up the pruning shears.
Ms Brock’s first memories of flowers began when she was five years old, traipsing through her grandma’s garden.
“I remember wandering around with her while she explained which spring bulbs were coming out of the ground,” she says. “My nana had the most beautiful garden, as many in that generation did.”
Fifty years on, she tends to her own farm nestled among 60 hectares of flourishing vineyards in the South Australian Riverland town of Monash.
With the help of her “green-thumbed” viticulturist husband, Aden, Ms Brock has managed to turn a quarter of an acre of unkempt land into a flourishing haven filled with bright blooms.
Ms Brock grows dozens of floral species including dahlias, snapdragons, ranunculus, zinnias, and leucadendrons.
Her focus is set on working with the natural environment and using sustainable farming practices to help her flowers flourish.
“‘I’m definitely a fan of fresh flowers, purely from a health and ecological point of view,” she says.
“By investing in the soil, and using fewer pesticides and sprays, we have created a really healthy ecosystem.”
“When flowers come in from overseas, they’re treated with chemicals and flowers are commonly dipped in [herbicide] as they come through quarantine,” she says. “People like the concept of homegrown flowers that are super fresh.”
“They know that when they come and get the flowers, they’ve only just been picked and they’re going to last longer than if you were to buy them at a supermarket,” she says.
Leftover blooms that still have life in them are delivered to hospitals around the SA Riverland and are given to patients who have no family or may need a little pick-me-up.
Wilted and out-of-season stock is given to her husband as vineyard compost, with the aim of developing a zero-waste operation.