GAZING out across the beds of brightly-coloured seasonal blooms at her Moorngag property, Melissa Mounsey never envisaged becoming a flower farmer.
“I do however think I was always meant to be a florist," she said.
"I remember picking posies from my family garden as a little girl."
Finishing school, Melissa learnt the ropes at a little florist in Benalla before heading to the big smoke, working in a few boutique florists around Melbourne before taking her artistry next level.
“I then managed the flower department at the Grand Hyatt and Park Hyatt Hotel,” said Melissa.
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It was a completely different world for a country-raised girl - the ability to order whatever she needed and the scale of everything was an incredible experience for the florist - however when the opportunity came to return home to the region, Melissa and her husband embraced it.
Returning to Benalla, Melissa opened Blooms on Bridge, and for the next 17 years she committed her heart and soul to the venture, working six days a week in the profession that she loved.
After almost two decades building up the business, Melissa’s passion began to wane and she came to the difficult decision it was time to move on.
“My love of floristry was still there, I had just had enough of running a small business.”
And so she spent the next five years “pfaffing about doing odd jobs”, Melissa acknowledges with a laugh.
"We also moved out of Benalla township and back to the countryside, just seven minutes down the road from where I grew up,” she said.
Moorngag is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it rural community bounded by Tatong, Swanpool and Samaria and overseen by Benalla Rural City, and it is to this region that Melissa harboured a wish to return to.
“My parents still live in my childhood home, and still run a small number of livestock,” she said.
“When my sister, brother and I were growing up they were dairy farmers before transitioning to beef and sheep.
“There aren’t very many dairy farmers left now, but back in the day there were a lot, not just in the region but more specifically along this very road.”
When Melissa and her husband looked at their current property, the 44 acre block was more a lifestyle property.
“The previous owners also had horses and there was a sand arena and stables and other infrastructure, and this kind of sold the property for me,” Melissa said.
“I have three horses - which were previously always on agistment – and I just wanted them closer to home.”
The initial move had the horses’ welfare front-and-centre, but as Melissa settled into her country lifestyle the inklings of an idea began to germinate.
“I’ve always worked full-time, so at first I found it weird being at home,” she said.
“It was seriously, what am I supposed to do now?
“And at the same time, I was fielding a lot of calls from my old customers.
“Oh Melissa, did you know that Aunt Mary has died, and we’d love you to do the flowers.
“Oh Melissa, my daughter’s getting married and she really wants you to create her bouquet.
“So I thought why don’t I put in a couple of picking gardens, and if somebody rings I can still do something.”
And My Little Potting Shed was born.
The resulting gardens have not just reinvigorated Melissa’s love for the profession, they have created a deeper and stronger appreciation of the blooms with which she works.
“I never imagined buying the property and growing flowers, but I’ve found that I love the process so much I keep on requesting more garden beds,” Melissa said.
“My husband said to me, Melissa this is not a small garden anymore.”
And it’s not.
With windbreaks of picking foliage hedging the garden and 50 David Austin Roses - a favourite with brides - commanding attention, there is very little remaining space.
Eight trial patches in the first year quickly expanded in the second year, so that the bare paddock beside the house is now a riot of colours and textures, and a haven for bird and insect life alike.
“It started off as mainly just personal use and a few select customers, and this season represents the real beginning,” she said.
Melissa has even relinquished one of the stables, with the space transformed into her studio.
Last winter she spent working the soil in preparation, incorporating a lot of compost and horse manure and heavily mulching.
“So the ponies have contributed,” she said with a laugh.
“Finally.
“We’ve got heaps of dung beetles here, which really break down the poo making it good to go.”
And over the Christmas period, Melissa welcomed thousands of lady beetles to her floral wonderland.
“I’ve learnt a lot about insects recently – the good and the bad,” she said.
“Because like lots of micro flower farms, I’m doing everything here with no sprays.
“I made a very conscious decision to do it all organically.
“I’ve been a florist for so many years, and I’ve dealt with hundreds and hundreds of flowers doused in god-only-knows-what chemicals.
“When you’re busy you’re snatching a quick bite, and so I have no idea what I’ve actually ingested over the decades.”
And the flowers don’t look like they need any pesticide or herbicide intervention.
“I think if you’ve got good, healthy soil then that’s more than half the battle won,” she said.
The other half would be the love that Melissa invests in her new endeavour.
“Dahlias were the first flowers that I planted and I absolutely fell in love with them,” she said.
“From such an ugly little tuber such a glorious plant grows and then produces prolifically.”
She now has about 20 varietals – all blooming with vitality and visited by an abundance of butterflies – and is in the process of trialing different ways of corralling them.
“The lady I buy tubers from doesn’t net any of her flowers, she just pinches them and they bush out beautifully.
“So I pinched all of these ones,” Melissa said looking across at a particularly virile garden bed.
“It was not what I was envisaging.
“Mine have gone a bit feral,” she said with a laugh.
“This has not successfully worked.”
It’s been an upward curve for Melissa learning how to grow, however she obviously has a green thumb, and has never found the garden to be a chore, losing hours at a time in her floral reverie.
“I’ve planted lots of different things and done numerous trial beds to determine what to continue with and whether I like them and if they go well in a vase,” she said.
“It’s important that the flowers I choose have a good vase life.
“And I guess that is the beauty of becoming a flower farmer and having that knowledge already about which stage to pick the flowers and what the flowers should do and what to treat them with for longevity.
“I knew how to do all the end bits, and I’ve just learnt about the beginning.”
Learning about the beginning has not been without its trials and tribulations, with Melissa recounting her “terrible encounter with the snapdragons”.
“They were absolutely magnificent,” she laments.
“And then literally overnight I had a moth infestation that laid eggs in the blossoms that turned into caterpillars and went absolutely rampant.
“I did try some organic preparations with minimal improvement, and so I just pulled them up.
“They all had to go.”
However, in the scheme of things this is a mere hiccup, with everything from the dahlias to the sunflowers, zineas, white scabiosa, chrysanthemums and sweet Williams flourishing in the sunny Moorngag climes.
“It does get very hot here, but all the flowers are on drippers and we use a lot of mulch, and have overhead sprinklers for particularly hot days, with irrigation drawn from our four hectare dam,” she said.
As for problems with local wildlife, the moths have been her only concern.
“We haven’t had an issue with deer or rabbits or even kangaroos – touch wood,” Melissa said, which she attributes in part to her two constant doggy companions, Lenny and Charles, guardians of the flower beds.
“The gang gangs visit, and we have corellas in large flocks and they never touch the garden.”
It all makes for quite the idyllic lifestyle, which is further amplified by the joy Melissa derives from every step in the process, from rotating the garden beds to planting the seeds and tubers to the final stage at the market door.
Hand-picked and delivered on the same day, Melissa stocks Fruits ‘N Fare in Benalla with plain and mixed bunches, as well as providing excess flowers and foliage when available to Edith and May in Mansfield and her old business and workplace in Benalla.
There is a steady stream of made-to-order bouquets, and Melissa remains in high demand for weddings and events, and then there are the markets.
“I do the Mansfield Farmers Market and the Mansfield Bush Market and absolutely love it,” she said.
“I’m building up quite a following of return customers which is so nice.
“I love to connect back to people with flowers,” Melissa said.
“To be part of people’s lives through the happy occasions and the sad is an absolute honour.
“That’s why I love doing this - every step of the journey from growing the flowers to creating the bouquets to delivering the flowers to my clients.
“I believe it’s a huge privilege to be a florist,” she said.
"And a farmer."
Follow Melissa's journey on Instagram and Facebook, and on her new to be launched website, under My Little Potting Shed.
